276 nEPOIiT OF THE BOTANICAL EICHAKGI CLUB. 



district where C. officinalis occurs unaccompanied by C. anglica, C. 

 officinalis docs not approach the latter ; thirdly, in a district where both 

 occur, intermediate forms appear connecting the one with the other. 



— J. T. BOSWELL. 



Viola lactea? "Heathy wayside north of Fleet Pond, Hants, 

 June 4, 1875." — H. C. "Watson and J. L. Warren. In a letter to 

 Mr. Warren, Mr. Watson says: " I am at fault how to label this. It 

 ill agrees with any of the three figured in ' English Botany ' — perhaps 

 least like the scrap of lactea with its very small spur. It rather 

 better comes between the figures given for J/avicornis and stagnina. I 

 wish now that we had looked for more of it in flower." In another 

 letter to Dr. Boswell, dated November 3, 1^75, Mr. Watson thus 

 writes : " Please to look at these Violets, and tell me A^hat you make 

 of them. Mr. AVarren and I were returning to Fleet Station from the 

 circuit of the pond, he looking along one side of the road, I intent on 

 the other side. He picked the Viola, and said ' What is this ? ' I 

 saw at a glance that it was the same with specimens sent me two or 

 tliree years ago by Mr. Briggs, and which have remained undecided 

 upon, but are mentioned in ' Topographical Botany ' (part ii., 

 pp. 598-9). By longer delay we ran the risk of missing the only 

 train at Fleet Station, so each took a very few flowei'ing specimens, 

 got hastily among the dense furze, &c. I fully intended to return for 

 a better examination and supply, but circumstances kept coming to 

 prevent until too late. It so chanced at length that I went on the 

 hottest day of the year, and found the seeding plants very difficult to 

 work out among an entanglement of furze, &c., while abriglit sun was 

 baking my stooping head, and the thermometer at 86° in shade. . . . 

 The plants branch like V. canina and F. lactea ; but you will see some 

 indications of a creeping root or stole." — Is not the Noith Hants plant 

 V. stricta, Hornemann ? It agrees with it in tlie tall stem, long petioles, 

 ovate-lanceolate leaves, abruptly contracted or subcordate at the base, 

 which is decurrent into a wing on the upper part of the petiole ; large 

 inciso- serrate stipules, of which the uppermost often equal the petioles ; 

 long peduncles ; large flowei s with greatly developed spurs ; obtuse 

 capsule, abruptly acuminated into the apiculus, and without prominent 

 lines. It differs, however, in the stem being weak and flexuous, but 

 tliat may be owing to its growing amongst a tangle of gorse, &c. The 

 petals of the Fleet Pond plant also seem narrower than those 

 of V. stricta ; but the flowers having withered before tliey were 

 pressed, it is not easy to be sure on this point. — J. T. JioswELL. 

 I have never seen any of these heath Violets with so short a 

 spur as that given to lactea in " E. B.," though I have very often found 

 tiicir flowers damaged through having had the point of the spur eaten 

 away by some insect. The figure in " E. B." looks exactly as if it had 

 been taken from a plant so injured. — T. R. A. B. 



Cerastium " triviale, Link. rav. c. pentatidrum.^' "If aim, July 12, 

 1874." — ArcusTiN Lky. Not pcniandrum, nor does it belong to 

 triviale at all. The specimens aie fragmentary ones of a single im- 

 mense plant, as the Rev. A. Ley lias informed me in a letter. Prof. 

 Babington has favoured me with the following opinion on a specimen 

 tliat 1 sent him: "I think that this is fine C. tetrandrum. I have 

 seen it quite as large, and the number of stamens is not of much con- 



