WATSON BOTANICAL EXCHANGE CLUB 117 



Salmon. For me (and Mr. Britten agrees), this is only a starved 

 state. — E. S. Marshall. A poor little variety, which J. D. Hooker 

 calls " a starved terrestrial form." The specimens are right 

 enough, for what we knew formerly as var. micropliyllum Echb. — 

 E. F. Linton. 



Arenaria tenuifolia L. Willbury Hill Gravel Pit, Hitchin, 

 Herts., v.c. 20, Jane 8th, 1912. Except in the fact that the 

 specimens marked a are nearly eglandular, and those marked b are 

 slightly glandular-setose at the base of the calyx, there is no 

 evident difference between the plants. Mr. C. E. Salmon (B.E.C. 

 Eept., 1909, p. 442) remarks that Corbiere says (Fl. Norm., p. 105) 

 the number of stamens and length of capsule are not reliable 

 characters for distinguishing these varieties. In these plants the 

 number of stamens varies from 8-10, and the capsule, though 

 mostly exceeding, occasionally only equals the calyx. In habit 

 these plants are not nearly so robust or so much branched as the 

 other sets from cultivated land now distributed. The proportion 

 of slightly glandular plants is in this case much larger, about 40- 

 50 per cent. — J. E. Little. 



Portulaca oleracea L. In the damp sandy ground of Mr. 

 Pritchard's Nursery Garden, Christchurch, S. Hants., v.c. 11, July 

 30th, 1914, where it has occurred for a few years past. Dr. C. E. 

 Moss tells me it is quite a feature in fields in parts of Jersey, and 

 very widely distributed in warm temperate countries. — E. F. 

 Linton. 



Carum segetum Benth. & Hook. fil. Early leaves. Willbury Hill, 

 Hitchin, Herts., v.c. 20, June 5th, 1918, November 7th, 1918, and 

 March 28th, 1914. The section of the petiole above the lowest pinnae 

 is like that of a quarter moon, as compared with that of Pastinaca 

 sativa, which is reniform. There is some general resemblance in 

 the leaves of the two plants, though the pinnae of the former are 

 more acute and more numerous than in the latter. By following 

 up the leaves in clover and sainfoin fields in the autumn and 

 spring, I find that, far from being a rare plant in this district as is 

 stated in Pryor's Flora of Herts., it is now at any rate very 

 generally distributed, occurring sometimes in great quantity on 

 cultivated ground, and sometimes on roadside waste and on hedge- 

 banks. In one locality recorded by Coleman it has persisted at 

 least sixty years. — J. E. Little. 



Matricaria Chamomilla L. St. Ippolyts, Hitchin, Herts., v.c. 

 20, September 17th, 1914. Though common in the lower valley of 

 the Lea, M. Chamomilla is very scarce in N. Herts. Pryor's Flora 

 of Herts, has no records for the Ivel basin, in which St. Ippolyts lies. 

 Abbot {Flora Bedfordiensis, 1798) speaks of it as common. So far 

 as the parts of Beds, adjoining Herts, are concerned I have not 

 yet found it, though it may occur on the light lands of the green- 

 sand. M. inodora is, in S. Beds., as with us, a universal weed, 

 though not recorded by Abbot. Is it possible that he did not dis- 

 tinguish them ? Or has some change in their distribution taken 

 place? — J. E. Little. 



Plantago Coro7iopus 1j., y ox. pygmcea Lange. (/icZeE. G. Baker). 



