114 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



fruit. It is a plant of the outskirts of woods, copses, and shady 

 places, distinguished from all its British congeners by its solid 

 petioles, and has large almost hemispherical heads, which become 

 more and more flattened above as they ripen, while the phyl- 

 laries are unusually spreading. It is locally known as the Great 

 Burdock. 



The remaining British forms have not unfrequently been classed 

 under the general heading of A. minus, whether as subspecies or 

 varieties, but this procedure is only possible to those who have not 

 studied growing plants. A. minus is a very distinct species, prac- 

 tically confined to woodlands or even woods proper, and is on the 

 whole the tallest of the British forms, though less stout than 

 A. Lappa, and with somewhat smaller leaves, which are more 

 nearly serrate than crenate. The small heads also are oval, and 

 are racemose instead of subcorymbose in properly grown speci- 

 mens, while they are as nearly as possible closed by the appressed 

 phyllaries in fruit. 



A third species is A. vulgare (= A. intermedium of Lange), 

 which is undoubtedly the most common British species. During 

 the whole of my above-mentioned trip I found little else, from 

 Cornwall to mid- Scotland, whether I was investigating wood 

 margins, shady lanes, dusty hedges or roadsides, sea-cliffs or sandy 

 dunes. It is a much shorter plant than either of the foregoing, 

 and has not the small closed heads of A. minus when in fruit, 

 though the petioles are hollow, as in that species. In fruit it is, 

 as Lange's name implies, intermediate between A. Lappa and 

 A. minus, but can never be mistaken for either. The large sub- 

 corymbose heads separate this plant readily from the latter, and 

 the hollow petioles from the former. The heads, moreover, are 

 open in fruit, as in .4. Lappa, but never to so great an extent, 

 since the phyllaries spread much less. 



"A. nemorosum" of British authors is merely a subvariety of 

 A. vulgare, with comparatively sessile heads at the ends of the 

 branchlets, and apparently no other constant feature. Inter- 

 mediate specimens are constantly to be found with every variation 

 in the length of the peduncle, while the heads are never really 

 sessile, though often conglomerated at the ends of the branches." 

 This form is that which is usual north of the Border, and reaches 

 North Cornwall, though uncommon there. It also reaches the 

 Orkneys and the Shetlands, while I have not yet found typical 

 A. vulgare north of Haddingtonshire and the Isle of May. Eecords 

 of A. minus from Northern Scotland probably refer in most cases 

 to this subvariety. 



Throughout my investigations in the field I have only met 

 with one plant which appeared to be a hybrid, and that was a 

 doubtful case, as it was in bad condition. Where three or four of 

 the species grow close together hybrids might be expected, but I 

 have seen none such. On the other hand, there is no limit to the 

 hybrids that might be propounded from dried herbarium material, 



* The same conglomerated heads may often be seen in A. minus. 



