222 HELLEBOKUS OCCIDENTALIS IN BERKSHIRE. 



by 4-5 mm. Lip about 10-11 mm. long, fleshy, becoming thinner 

 anteriorly and on the wing-like margins of the lower part ; median 

 lobe about 5 mm. long and nearly as broad at the tip ; side lobes 

 1 mm. long ; lower part of lip 6 mm. long and nearly as broad, the 

 disc having a long tongue-like depression between the shallow lateral 

 crests, which passes on to the base of the upper half, and bears 

 below the latter a button-like tubercle. Column G mm. long by 

 3-5 mm. broad. 



Near C. canaliculatum R. Br., but distinguished by its blunter 

 broader sepals and lip-structure. 



The types of these species are in the British Museum Herbarium. 



HELLEBORUS OCCIDENTALIS IN BERKSHIRE. 

 By G. Claridge Druce, M.A., F.L.S. 



In reviewing my Flora of Berkshire in the Journal of Botany for 

 March, Mr. Britten thought it necessary to say that I had included 

 Hellehoriis occidentalis of Renter and some other forms among the 

 plants of the county on what he is pleased to call insufficient 

 evidence. I propose therefore to discuss the reasons which induced 

 me to identify our Berkshire plant with the H. occidentalis of 

 Renter, which is made a subspecies of the //. viridis of Linu£eus by 

 Prof. Schifiner in his monograph of the genus. 



As the Catalogue des graines recueillies en 1868 et offertes en echange 

 par le Jardin Botanique de Geneve, in which Renter published his 

 description, is scarce, I give a copy of his diagnosis : — 



'^Hellehoriis occidentalis Rent. mss. D. H. caule bifido vel sub- 

 dichotomo ramoso foliisque glabris, folio radicali solitario palmati- 

 pedato reticulato-venoso, segmentis lanceolatis simplicibus bi- vel 

 trifidis serrulatis, caulinis trisectis segmentis bi- vel trifidis ; floribus 

 2-3 ad apices ramorum, sepalis ovatis plus minus inter se imbricatis 

 vel contiguis, apice acutiusculis vel subapiculatis, carpellis trans- 

 verse nervosis, stylo submcurvo bis breviori superatis, seminibus 

 atris subtrigonis reticulato-insculptis nitidulis. Hab. in Gallia 

 occidentali circa Pau (Kiener?), Deux-Sevres (Sauze et Maill.), 

 Agen (Godron) etc., in Pyreuaeis centralibus supra Luchon, Gendre, 

 Gaviare, etc., in Mont. Hispan. boreal, inter Bilbao et Santander, 

 et in Britannia. H. viridis, Bot. Gallic, ex parte. H. viridis, Engl. 

 Bot. t. 200 optime. Difl'ert ab H. viridi, glabritate, floribus minori- 

 bus, 2-3 in unoquoque ramo nee 1-2, sepalis magis ovatis, carpel- 

 lis brevioribus ; stylo incurvo. 



" Deux plantes ont ete confondues sous lenom deHelleb. viridis; 

 la phrase de Linne etant trop incomplete ne pont trancher la ques- 

 tion ; cependant il indique sa plante a de Vienne et en Suisse ; 

 celle de Willdenow convient tout a fait a notre plante de Suisse, 

 ainsi que les figures de Jacquin, Fl. Austr. 1. 106, et de Reichenbach, 

 Ic. Germ. t. 105. L'espece habite FEurope orientale depuis le 



