HUM EX ItlTKSTiaS. 



the supplement to his Syllog;e gives it as Spanish (Galicia), hut it 

 is not mentioned in the more recently published " Trodromus Fl. 

 Hispanica) " of Willkomm and Lange. It is not known from elsewhere 

 iu Europe. 



From this distribution — W. Normandy and Brittany and their 

 outlying islets, Vendee, and perhaps Galicia — one was quite prepared 

 to find the plant on our own western coast, and as it has now been 

 observed in the Scilly Isles by Mr. Beeby, near Helston by Mr. 

 Cunnack, and near Plymouth by Mr. Briggs,* there is every reason 

 to expect it as a pretty frequent plant on the coasts of Devon and 

 Cornwall. The localities in which the plant occurs on our western 

 shores are precisely the same as in France. Mr. Briggs writes : — 

 ''It seems to be a truly maritime species, being absolutely confined 

 to the coast line, where it grows on low damp rocks and in sandy or 

 stony spots, but rarely extending for a yard or two up the side of a 

 clitf." All the French writers agree in regarding it as a plant strictly 

 of maritime tendency, and, as indicated by its name, specially growing 

 at the loot of rocks. 



The following description is made entirely from Mr. Briggs' series 

 of English specimens : — 



RcMEX KUPESTRis, Le Gall, in Congres Scient. do France, 1849, 1, 



p. 143 (ex Meisner); Flore de :\[orhihan, p. 601 (1852); 



Lloyd, Fl. de I'Ouest de la France, p. 388 (1854) ; Nyman, 



Suppl. Syll. Europ., p. 56 ; Gren. & Godr., Fl. tie France, 



iii., p. 37 ; Boreau, Fl. du Centre, ed. 3, ii., p. 552 ; Brebis- 



son, Fl. de la Normandie, ed. 3, p. 260. 



R. conglomeratus, var. ortltoclada, J. Gay in sched. 



R. sanguineus, L., var. (3. viridis, Sm., Meisner in DC. Prod., xiv. 



(1856), p. 49. 



Stem about 2 feet high, stiff ; branches confined to the upper half 



of the stem, rather numerous, straight, erect, all falling short of the 



central main stem, and with it forming a slender, rather compact, 



acute or slightly attenuated panicle. Root-leaves on stalks 3 or 4 inches 



long, narrowly oblong or oblong-lanceolate, about 7 inches long by 



1 1 wide at the broadest part (the middle), with no tendency to be 



ovate or panduriform, but tapering slightly and nearly equally at each 



end, apex blunt or subacute, base slightly tapering or rounded, often 



unsyrametrical ; stem-leaves linear-lanceolate or even nearly linear, 



slightly rounded (not at all cordate) at the base, bluntish at apex ; all 



rather thick, with the margins somewhat undulated. Whorls numerous, 



distinct but rather close, moderately full, the lower two or three of each 



branch with a leaf, the remainder leafless. Flowers drooping, on long 



])edicels which are jointed below the middle, but not close to the 



base ; petals very blunt. Fruit] : — Ripe petals narrowly ovate-oblong 



or oblong, scarcely tapering, fully \ inch long, the larger ones more, 



very blunt at the apex, entire, closely enveloping the nut, and each 



• The most easterly spot in which it has as yet been noticed by Mr. Briggs 

 is close hy Bigbury Bay, about 9 miles to the east of Plymouth. 



t It is convenient to inchide under the term "fruit" both the enclosed nut 

 (true fruit) and the enlarged porsistont petals which share its development after 

 fertilisation. 



