264 ON AN ISLE OF WIGHT GENTIAN. 



congeners, is not of any very great value ; but it is of great 

 importance when it is permanent and associated with marked 

 differences from nearly-alhed species, as, for instance, in another 

 plant of the south side of the Isle of Wight, Arum italicum. The 

 early appearance of the leaves of this, at the end of September, 

 whilst the spadix with its red fruit is still an ornament of the 

 woods, goes far to corroborate the testimony as to its status amongst 

 species afforded by the other characters in which it differs from 

 A. maculatiuiK 



The early- flowering habit of this Gentian is accompanied by the 

 following characters, which render it difficult 'to assign it to either 

 of its likest relations : — Both the corolla and calyx are almost 

 always 4-cleft ; in the very few instances of a 5-cleft corolla the 

 catyx is usually, but not invariably, 5-cleft also. The calyx- 

 segments are very unequal, variable, and generally much larger 

 than in G. AmareUa, and more divergent than in either G. AmareUa 

 or G. campestris ; m this respect resembling G. germanica, but it 

 lacks the large corolla and larger stouter habit characteristic of 

 that plant. Two of the segments are often so much larger than 

 the others as to simulate the corresponding character in G. cam- 

 pestris, but even in then- broadest state they do not sirring from 

 below the two narrower segments, nor do they clasp and conceal 

 the latter, as in G. campestris. The whole plant is more slender, 

 more branched, and shorter than either G. A)narella or G. cam- 

 pestris : few specimens are more than three inches in height, and 

 all are branched mostly at or near the base. The seeds are roundish 

 oval, dark brown, translucent, slightly polished and rugose, with 

 one or two circular pits, probably caused by contact with the 

 adjoining seeds. 



Gentiana campestris is one of our very rarest Isle of Wight 

 plants, and has not been seen at all for some years, the last record 

 of its occurrence being that by Mr. E. Tucker in this Jom-nal for 

 1870 (viii. p. 160) ; so that the probability of this plant being 

 a hybrid between that species and (/. AmareUa is very slight. 

 Mr. Tucker seems also to have met with a ]3lant which he refers to 

 G. AmareUa, var. ft., and which he states occurred jDlentifullj^ on 

 Afton Down ; but he does not give the time of its flowering, and 

 his visits were paid, except in the year 1864, in the autumn. In 

 the same volume of the Journal, Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs records 

 (p. 223) finding a few specimens of an early-flowering state of 

 G. campestris in the neighbourhood of Plymouth : it may, however, 

 be noted that there seems to be no record of any large quantity of 

 this latter species found flowering in the spring. 



Dr. Trimen informs me that he collected a Gentian in flower 

 on June 2nd, 1866, on White Horse Hill, Berks, which presents a 

 very close resemblance to my Isle of Wight plant, but differs from 

 it in some ^particulars. He at the time named his specimens 

 G. campestris, and the x^lant appears under this name in Mr. Britten's 

 Additions to the Berkshire flora in this Journal for 1873 ['p. 139). 

 I may add that Crepin, in his * Flore de Belgique ' (ed. 2, p. 140), 

 speaks of G. (jermanica as varying with a 4-cleft corolla and calyx, 



