352 THE JOLll>'AL or BOX ANY 



entirely distinct from the plants to which the name has been applieJ 

 by lle^el, Boissier, and Schott and Kotschj. — James Beittex. 



Surrey Helleborixes (p. 325). As one who has botanised 

 recrularlv in the neighbourhood of Leatherhead and Mickleham for 

 m()re tlian twenty ^^ears, I have read with some surprise Mr. C. E. 

 Britton's note, in'which this district is credited with producing three, 

 if not four species of Hellehorine, exclusive of H. violacea. In my 

 recollection Helleborines are to be found in some seven or eight 

 different spots on these downs, or possibly more. In all of them the 

 plant is in limited quantity and fairly uniform, except in one station, 

 where it is usually abundant, often very luxuriant, and very variable 

 in the colour of its flowers, some being entirely green, others tinted 

 with purple or violet, others again reddish or even ochreous. With- 

 out attempting any real criticism of the genus, I have at different 

 times examined these Howers and noted their characters, without 

 detecting any tangible dilferences among them except those of colour ; 

 nor have I observed any but vegetative variations in the other organs. 

 The basal hunches of the lip are usually more or less longitudinally 

 plicate-rugose and often coalesce in a central ridge — features which also 

 obtain in K. violacea — but it maj'- be doubted whether gradations of 

 this natm-e, which seem quite distinct from the rugosit}^ of the lip in 

 H. atronthens, can be said to afford specific characters. None of 

 the examples that I have seen show the long lanceolate green leav.es 

 and larger flowers with longer lip (resembling those of H. violacea) 

 as exhibited in the plant of the sandy districts of West Surrey referred 

 to H. media ; and I can only regard all that I have met with as 

 belonging to one form of H. laiifolia in which the basal hunches 

 are not uniformly smooth. They may thus be referred, perhaps, to 

 //. atroviridis^ but, if so, this plant seems at most a mere variety of 

 H. latifolia. The addition of K. afroriibens to the Surrey Flora is 

 of great interest, if the plant be not an introduction and the identi- 

 fication be correct. It seems remarkable, however, if this smaller and 

 relatively distinct species really occurs at Leatherhead, that it should 

 have been so long passed over in so well worked a district. I have 

 collected this in the dry rock-clefts of the Great Orme and elsewhere 

 near Llandudno, as well as in Western Switzerland and the Italian 

 Alps ; its reddish-brown or mahogany-coloured liowers, with broad, 

 rugose lip and a scent of vanilla, should serve to readily distinguish 

 it wlien growing. I may add that I have never seen H. violacea, 

 wliich a]jpears a good species, in this particular portion of the Downs, 

 although it grows in several neighbouring localities, both to the east 

 and to the west, in the situations indicated by Mr. Britton. — H. W. 



PUGSLEiT. 



EURHYXCIIIUM MERIDIONALE AXD BaZZANIA PeaRSOXI. I luive 



met with specimens of these pknts — the former in the collection of 

 Mosses and Hepaticsof the late Kev. A. Ley, the latter in that of the 

 late W. West, both now at the Birmingham University. E. meridioaale 

 ])e Not., Porthmd, Dorset; coll. W. C. P. Medlycott, Sept. 188... ; 

 named by H. Boswell. I sent the specimen to Mr. H. N. Dixon, 

 who oonlirmcd Boswell's naming and expressed himself as much 



