114 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



tions his having been informed that this violet was found in the 

 mountains of the North of England, whence it has been supposed 

 to be indigenous to this country. And in Solander's manuscripts 

 it is said to have been found in the Welsh mountains. This does 

 not however appear to have been confirmed, for it is not recorded 

 as a British species in the Comyendhim Florce Britannicce of 

 Sir James Edward Smith." The note in Solander's MSS. (in his 

 own hand) runs : " Viola hiflora Linn. Sp. PI. 936 16 : Violo. alpina 

 Huds. Angl. 331 5. Plantam anghcanam Eaji eandem esse cum 

 Viola biflora Linn, docuere specimina in montibus Cambriaelecta." 

 The entry in E. Syn. ed. 3, 366, is amplified from that in ed. 1, and 

 is as follows : " Viola Martia Alpina folio tenello circinato. An 

 fort6 Alpina lutea ? florem enim non vidimus. In rupe Clogwyn 

 y Garnedh supra lacum Phynon las ; D. Lliicyd. (Hanc plantam 

 in montibus Cambrise mihi ostendit D. LJiivyd, verum a Viola 

 Martia inodora sylvestri C.B. me judice non differt ; D. Eichardson. 

 Quo jure eam Petiverii H.B., 37, Violam rotundum luteam 

 vocet, ipse viret." Petiver's figure (in his " Catalogue of Mr. Eay's 

 English Herbal, illustrated with [often excellent] figures ") is 

 headed " Yellow Eock Violet," and bears the inscription " Wales, 

 June." It stands in Hudson, ed. 2 (379), as " var. S alpina " of 

 F. canina — the species suggested by Petiver's figure, which has 

 certainly no affinity with F. hiflora. — James Britten. 



Crocus vernus in the Isle op Wight. — So far as I am 

 aware, there is no record of the occurrence of Crocus vernus in the 

 Isle of Wight, and in Hampshire the only note in Townsend's 

 Flora is of the record in Prof. Bell's Edition of White's Selborne 

 •'Holywater near the brook," the late Lord Selborne being the 

 authority. On February 14th this year I saw the plant in vast 

 abundance in a meadow, several acres in extent, at Freshwater, 

 in this Island. It extended nearly over the whole field, and was 

 a most lovely sight, the flowers even then constituting a purple 

 haze, when seen from some distance away. On March 13th the 

 effect was still more enchanting, the blossoms being well opened 

 in the sunshine. Lord Tennyson says that he has known the 

 plant growing there for fifty years past : how it has escaped the 

 observation of the many botanists who have visited Freshwater 

 during that period it is diflicult to understand, but the early period 

 of the year at which it blooms, and its absolute disappearance long 

 before midsummer, may partly account for it. Though there are 

 now cottage gardens adjoining the meadow, fifty years ago there 

 were none, the neighbouring lands being then ordinary agricultural 

 fields, either arable or pasture. I presume that the plant increases 

 mostly by seed, and I found immature seed-vessels on March 13th. — 

 Frederic Stratton. 



EpILOBIUM HIRSUTUM X PALUSTRE and E. PALUSTRE X TETRA- 



gonum in E. Kent. — Mr. E. H. Compton, of Cambridge, has 

 sent me for examination three gatherings made by him on July 18th, 

 1913, in a fresh-water shingle-marsh near Dungeness Lighthouse, 

 V. c. 15. The first is a form of E. palustre L., with very numerous, 



