BARBABEA BltTXARlS IX ENGLAND 211 



BARBAREA RIYULARIS IN ENGLAND. 

 By the Ret. E. S. Marshall, M.A., F.L.S. 



About the middle of June Mr. W. D. Miller brought me fresh 

 specimens of a Cruoifer which he had found gi'owing plentifully in a 

 ditch on the west side of a bj^-road dividing the parishes of Cossino-- 

 ton and Chilton Polden (dis. 8), v.c. 6 N. Somerset. The very small 

 pale yellow flowers and crowded pods (erect when full-grown) at once 

 suggested B. stricta ; and a comparison with my only two herbarium- 

 sheets so named showed a complete agreement. One, from Thirsk, 

 Yorks (Herb. Syme), was gathered by Mr. J. G. Baker in June, 1854 ; 

 the other, from a ditch side, Upton-on-Severn, Worcs., was collected 

 by Mr. S. H. Bickham on May 29th, 1905, in good flower and young 

 fruit. On June 26th Mr. Miller (who had also observed one plant on 

 a peat-moor " drove," near Edington) took me to the Cossington 

 locality, where it is unquestionably native. On July 8th I found 

 sevei-al hundred plants, apparently the type, in good finiit, on a broad, 

 peaty " drove," about | mile S.E. of Edington Junction. 



The Thirsk plant was confirmed by Svante Murbeck and A. B. 

 Jackson as B. stricta Andrz., and the Upton one by A. B. J., who 

 wrote : — " Yes ; a most distinct species ; and obviously nothing to do 

 with B. vulgaris, under which Bentham placed it as a variety! " I 

 fully agree as to its specific rank ; but, happening to refer to Rouy & 

 Eoucaud (Fl. de France, i. 198-9), I was much surprised to find that 

 our British plants have apparently been misnamed ; some translations 

 from their account of the two species concerned may be helpful. 



B. EiYULARis Martrin-Donas in Fl. Tarn, p. 44. B. stricta 

 Boreau, Fl. du Centre, ed. iii. p. 89, non Andrz. nee. Fries. 

 Exsiccata : — Billot, No. 3011. 



"Plant annual; stems solitary. Radical and lower leaves with 

 small lateral pairs of leaves, clearly shorter —even, as a rule, the 

 uppermost — than the breadth of the terminal lobe, sometimes with 

 -lateral lobes none, or very much reduced. Flowers small, in dense 

 racemes, subcorymbose at the flowering-stage. Pods slender, crowded, 

 almost imbricate, erect, apiculate by the lengthened style. Seeds 

 oval-oblong, darker [than in B. vulgaris and B. arcuata\ blackish. 

 Plant has a nauseous taste." 



^. LONGisiLiQUOSA Carion, Cat. PI. Saone et Loire, p. 16. " Pods 

 about twice as long as in the type." 



*' The form \sic ; this denotes a distinct segregate, apparently 

 halfway between a species and a subspecies, in the authors' opinion] 

 B. stricta Andrz. in Besser, Enum. PL Yolh. p. 72 ; B. ^^arvifiora 

 Fries, Nov. Fl. Suec. ed. 2, p. 207, which we have not seen from 

 Fi-ance, though it has .been rejwrted from several stations, through 

 confusion with the form B. rivularis, and especially with the var. 

 longisiliquosa, can be separated by the following characters : — Plant 

 biennial ; stem solitary. Radical and lower leaves with small pairs of 

 lateral lobes, evidently shorter — even, as a rule, the uppermost — than 

 the breadth of tlie terminal lobe, sometimes with lateral lobes none, 

 or much reduced. Flowers small, in long, dense racemes. Pods 



