170 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



in which its discovery on Exmoor is reported and its name published 

 on the authority of Wett stein. A month later a further note was 

 contributed (Z. c. p. 74) by Mr. C. E. Salmon, who stated that he 

 had found the same plant near Porlock in 1898, and that it had been 

 referred by Townsend to E. nemorosa. These notes were followed 

 in the succeeding May (/. c. p. 165) by a lengthy paper by Mr. Hiern, 

 wherein an interesting account of E. minima is given, with a full 

 synonymy and a detailed description of the plant as seen on Exmoor. 

 A figure, with dissections, is also furnished. E. minima has subse- 

 quently appeared in thi British list in Mr. F. N. Williams's Pro- 

 dromits, where E. horeaUs Towns, is united with it, and in Mr. Buck- 

 nail's British EuphrasicB. In the last-named work fresh forms from 

 the Lake District, North Wales, and Monmouth are described as 

 varieties nana Rouy and arhuscula Bucknall. 



It may readily be concluded from the pre-Linnean citations in 

 Mr. Hiern's paper, which show that E. minima was one of the 

 earliest forms of the genus to be distinguished, that it is a plant of a 

 relatively distinct facies and one characteristic of the Alps. Its usual 

 form is well depicted by Boccone — "E. lutea, minima, alpina, sub- 

 rotundo folio nigricante " ; and as such it is often common in Switzer- 

 land at an altitude of 5-7000 ft. I first met with it in 1896 on the 

 Erohnalp, in Canton Schwyz, where it grew in myriads, completely 

 covering large stretches of mountain slope. Since that date I have 

 collected it in various localities both in the calcareous and the granitic 

 Alps, the last occasion being in the Blumenthal above Miirren in 

 1911. The Pennine Alps produce forms somewhat different from 

 that prevalent in Central Switzerland, the very compact form described 

 by Townsend as E. capitulata, and the form pallida of Gremli, with 

 larger, whitish flowers, both occurring in the Saas Valley. 



The Swiss forms of this species, however, all show the same 

 essential characters, which they possess in common with the varying 

 forms of the adjacent regions, extending to the P3T:'enees and to the 

 Balkans, which have been united under E. minima by Wettstein and 

 other authors. E. minima seems to be one of the " aestival" species 

 of Wettstein, which are scarcely represented in Britain, except by 

 E. foulaensis and E. scotica. Its stem is erect and normall}'' simple, 

 and never more than sparingly branched, its leaves, which are rarely 

 numerous, are t3q:)ically subrotund and very obtuse, or at least always 

 distinctly broad, its spike is relatively dense, its small, yellow corolla 

 has subequal lips, the loAver but little deflexed, and its capsule is 

 emarginate and fairly broad. This may be seen from a perusal of the 

 varied exsiccata in Herb. Mus. Brit, and Herb. Kew, but it is worthy 

 of note that the sheet of plants in the National Herbarium at South 

 Kensington from Jacquin's Herbarium, referred to by Mr. Hiern, 

 consists of seven specimens, none of which is E. minima : one is 

 Bartsia OdontiteSy one Euphrasia salishurgensis var. ciipreay and 

 the remainder apparently E. Bostlcoviana ! 



The Exmoor plant, as compared with the Continental species, is 

 slenderer and, when well grown, very much branched, with flexuous, 

 ascending rather than erect stems, numerous small, narrow leaves, 

 which are never strongl}'' pubescent, laxer spikes, and the lower lip 



