158 THE .TOIRXAL OF EOTAXT 



his son did not keep it up as a species) ; he wrote on the hibel of his 

 specimen : — " I discovered this on mountains in Perthshire upwards 



of 20 3'ears ago It may be an intermediate plant, but not a 



hybrid one." No man lias a higher respect than myself for the 

 splendid pioneer- work done by George Don, several of whose additions 

 to our Flora I have gathered in their original stations. It is no dis- 

 paraijement to suggest that in this instance, as in others which are 

 better known, he believed a root received from abroad to have 

 been collected by himself, owing to a confusion of labels, or some 

 other accident, such as most gardeners have suffered from. 



I am well acquainted with the flora of the Perthshire hills as a 

 w^hole, and have studied the British Saxifrages of our principal collec- 

 tions without coming across anything at all like S. qiiinquefida ; 

 and my considered judgement is that it cannot be ranked as a native 

 of Britain. 



S. LEPTOPHTLLA D. Don, /. c, pp. 450-1 ; an Persoon, Synopsis, 

 i. 490 (1805) P? — This is well and fully delined by Don, who states 

 that it grows " in alpibus Helveticis et in Cambro-Britannise monti- 

 bus " ; his /3. angustijida, only found in Wales, seems to be merely 

 a more slender state, with narrower leaves, and not worth keeping up 

 as a variety. 



In 1912 I met with a Saxifrage which was quite new to me, and 

 verv different from our others of the sponJieifiica-aet, growing plenti- 

 fuliv in Cwm Idwal ; on the peak of Snowdon ; and in Cwm Glas : 

 it is doubtless common on the Carnarvonshire hills, as bad weather 

 and mists curtailed our excursions. It was associated with S. h^p- 

 noidfs, putative hybrids being frequent. Mr. C'. E. Sahnon lately 

 sent me for examination a sheet gathered by him near Beddgelert, 

 with pinkish buds, and the rosettes at the base of the stems rather 

 densely clad with soft white hairs, but otherwise quite like my series. 

 In Herb. Borrer at Kew there is a scrappy specimen labelled " Sax. 

 leptophylla. Breiddin Mountain, 1884 " (Craig Breiddin, Mont- 

 gomer^'shire) ; it is too imperfect to be named deKnitely, but looks 

 right. 



Working through Don's Monogra])h, I came to the conclusion 

 that this series represented his leptophyUa. Mr. Williams wrote that 

 my specimens in Herb. Brit. Mus. were referable to it; he did not, 

 however, believe them to be Persoon's Swiss plant, but a species 

 endemic in Wales, which he intended to describe and rename. 



Pei-soon's diagnosis is very brief : — " 59. Icpfopln/IJa, ])i'ocumbens, 

 glabra, fol. longe petiolatis trifidis quinquefidisque : laciniis linearib. 

 divaricatis. S. procumbens et hyinioides. Herb. Juss. cfr. Willd. 

 Sp. ii. p. (358. no. 49. Hab. in alpibus." Our Welsh plant differs in 

 never being quite glabrous ; nor are the leaf-segments divaricate. 

 There are no axillary buds like those of >8'. hjjpnoidrH ; the habit and 

 flowers are also unlike that. Sternberg (Bevisio Saxifr. 59) remai-ks 

 of S. lepfojjhyUa, sponhrni/ca, and cnndensafo : — "Hie tres plantse 

 adeo inter se conveniunt, et a Haxifraga hypnoide absentia bulborum 

 tiintum potissimum differunt, ut non nisi cultura et continua obser- 

 vatio earum diffVrentiam vel identitatem comprobare ])ossit. Una 

 earum. (juani ante plures annos nomine >S'. hypnoidis accepi et colui, 



