TJic Occurrence of Tracheliuni avruleuin. 



On the Occurrence of Trachelium cceruleum (Linn.) 

 in Guernsey. By James Cosmo Melvill, M.A., 

 F.L.S. 



{Received October i8th, i8g2). 



TracJielium, a genus of which the derivation is disputed,* 

 was established by Linnaeus from a somewhat aberrant form 

 of the order CampanulacecE, in which the flowers were small 

 and corymbose, and the style unduly exserted ; the species 

 of this genus are all natives of the Mediterranean region of 

 Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa, no one species extend- 

 ing in range over the whole area. 



The type T. cceriileiivi (L.) is by far the best known of all 

 the species, and it may be interesting to record its occur- 

 rence, for the first time, in one of a group of islands, which, 

 though geographically French, have so long belonged to the 

 British Crown that their botanical productions find a place 

 in our native flora. 



In the early part of September I received five specimens 

 of this handsome plant from my friend Mr. Archibald 

 Buchanan Brown, who has been resident in Guernsey since 

 1874-75. He has known this plant to have existed in the 

 same profusion as it does at present for fully sixteen years, 

 but, till now, imagined it was a colour variety (with blue 

 flowers) of CentrantJiiis ruber (DC), the red valerian, and 

 this assumption was strengthened by the fact that most of 

 the specimens grew out of reach, and, therefore, the serra- 

 tions on the leaves were not discernible. It may not be 



*NoTE. — Derivation of this word either is Tpoiyps, rough, horn the rough- 

 ness of the leaves, or from the rocky habitat, or rpa.-//''k'>i, the throat. Throat- 

 wort, so-called either from its supposed efficacy, in common with certain species 

 of Cainpanida, in diseases of the larynx : or, perhaps, in allusion to the 

 lengthened tube or ' throat ' of the corolla. 



