SHORT NOTES. 225 



var. occidentalis, I may state that a specimen of our Hellebore from 

 Basildon was submitted to Prof. Scbiffner recently. He replied to 

 my query, '* Your plant is undoubtedly occidentalis y I first pointed 

 out that our Oxfordshire plant was H. viridisYSiY. occidentalis in the 

 Journal of Botany for 1890, p. 227. 



In fact, therefore, instead of having insufficient evidence to call 

 our plant by the name occidentalis, I think I have amply made good 

 my statement ; and now I ask Mr. Britten to produce evidence of 

 the occurrence of the restricted H. viridis, although I must not 

 be made to say that it does not occur, in Britain. 



[Although I regret the acrimonious expressions which Mr. Druce 

 has introduced into the foregoing note, I gladly print it in full, as 

 it supplies the evidence on which he bases the determination of 

 Hellehorns occidentalis as a British plant. That evidence, which has 

 hitherto been lacking — including, as it does. Prof. Schiffner's identi- 

 fication — is, I readily admit, amply sufficient to justify the intro- 

 duction of the plant into our lists ; and if as much can be said for 

 the other varieties which Mr. Druce has recorded in the Berkshire 

 Flora, I will readily withdraw my criticisms. 



; Mr. Druce says that he "pointed out that our Oxfordshire plant 

 was H. viridis var. occideyitalis in Journ. Bot. 1890, p. 227." This 

 is hardly correct : what he there said was that it "appears to be " 

 that plant; and he now says it "appears to be the common western 

 form." When I spoke of "our plant," I referred to the British, 

 not especially to the Berkshire, form. Mr. Druce seems to think 

 I have controverted his identification, for he speaks of my ^^ ipse 

 dixit,'' and asks me " to produce evidence of the occurrence of the 

 restricted H. viridis in Britain." But I have pronounced no ipse dixit, 

 nor have I have formed any opinion on this point ; so I cannot 

 comply with Mr. Druce's request. — James Britten.] 



SHORT NOTES. 



Fragaria muricata (p. 127). — I think any unprejudiced reader of 

 my Berkshire Flora will perceive that I felt the citation of the 

 Species Plafitarwn for F. muricata was not satisfactory, for I added 

 immediately after it "Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8 (1768), 'The 

 Hautbois Strawberry'" — a plan I have followed when there has 

 been some doubt as to the correctness or completeness of the 

 reference. The citation of the Species Plantarum was given because 

 the Kew Index says: "F. muricata Ij. = F. elatior, vesca," and 

 doubtless the authors of that work had some reasons for their 

 statement. I did not select the name F. moschata Duchesne 

 because Beck, in the Flora Xieder Oesterreich, queries it as being 

 identical with F. elatior, and Grenier and Godron selected F. elatior 

 Ehrh. in preference. — G. Claridge Druce. 



[I print Mr. Druce's note, but I fail to see how it affects the 

 point in question. Mr. Druce printed: " Fragaria muricata, Linn. 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 36. [June, 1898.] r 



