BKITISII iTLMOXAlUVS 239 



Ejcsiccata : — Billot, 1277 (as P. tuherosa) partiin, quoad specc. 

 *' Vendee " lect,, 2508 (as P. longifolia) folia immaciilata ; Will- 

 komm, It, hisp. secund., 91 (as P. cizureu). 



Distribution: — England: Hampshire, many localities in the New 

 Forest and north Isle of Wight (see Townsend, FL Hampsh. 

 ed. 2, 317 : 1901) ; Dorset, several localities (see Mansel Pleydell, 

 FL Dorset, ed. 2, 217: 1895); see also Phytologist, 1816, p. 454— 

 *' an outcast in Surrey " ; also a doubtful record in a list of Ipswich 

 plants (Mag. Nat. Hist. N.S. iv. 319: 1840) as "Koadsides, local," 

 butc/. Phytol. 1844, p. 1108; ? Belgium [Kerner] ; West France !, 

 from Paris southwards ; Spain ! ; Portugal [Coutiuho in Bol. Soc. Brot. 

 xxi. 142: 1905]. 



This is an interesting addition to the list of species representing 

 the " western " or " southern " element in our Flora {cf. Sta^jf in Engl. 

 Bot. Jahrb. vol. 50, Engler Fest 499 : 1914). 



A second species has been included in our lists, viz. P. officinalis. 

 I cannot agree with Syme that it is '• very similar to P. anyiistifoJia " ; 

 its cordate summer radical leaves are quite different from anything 

 else in the genus (if we include P. obscuro) with the possible 

 exception of a few doubtful species which are not yet properly 

 understood. Confusion has been caused with P. affiiiis, since in the 

 spring only the ovate (not cordate) autumn leaves remain, and these 

 are very similar to those of that plant. But the presence of very 

 short minute equal setse which Kerner calls aculeoli — though Kerner's 

 figures of them are entirely misleading — are characteristic of 

 P. officinalis. The characters of the cordate summer leaves with 

 these aculeoli would enable us to separate a very distinct series if it 

 were not for the somewhat transitional P. vallarsce Kern., which has 

 subcordate leaves, with a clothing of big aculeoli which show a 

 tendency to develop into what Kerner calls *'puberes." 



Dumortier {I. c.) makes tv*-o species from P. officinalis L. : — - 



1. P. OFFICINALIS L. excl. var. /) et y, emend. Dumort., et Kerner. 

 Leaves ^spotted, radical ones ovate-cordate, acute, with thick 



semiterete, laterally winged petiole. 



2. P. OBSCURA Dumort. (P. officinalis var. /3 et y Linn., var. 

 immaciilata Opiz.). 



Leaves unspotted, radical ones oblong-cordate, acuminate, with 

 slender laterally compressed and " superne bicarinato " petiole. 

 Kerner states that as the result of man}' years' cultivation, including 

 raising them from seed, he can confirm Dumortier's observations. 

 He therefore keeps them as distinct species. No other differentiating 

 characters appear to exist, but the distributions given are in favour of 

 their distinctness. Both are said to grow in Central Europe, but 

 whereas in Pussia, Sweden, and Denmark only P. ohscura occui-s, in 

 S. Switzerland, .continental Ital}^ South Austria, and Bosnia, only 

 P. officinalis is found. 



As regards their occurrence in Britain, " possessing little claim to 

 be considered native, though occurring in many places in England 

 and the south of Scotland " (Syme), the first definite record, ex- 

 eluding the eiToneous one by Hudson, is in Eng. Bot. t. 118 

 (1793, July 1). "Wild specimens" were said to occur at Darlington. 



