Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1901), No. \. 



I. The Range of Diotis candidissima, Desf, in 

 England and Wales, and in Ireland. 



By Cecil P. Hurst. 

 {Communicated by Charles Bailey, F.L.S.) 



Received and read October isf, igor. 



I have been searching for this plant in England for 

 the last four years, and there can be little doubt that it 

 is a diminishing species, its true home being on the 

 Mediterranean coast. Its occurrence in the Egyptian 

 flora was recorded by my father in Vol. VI., 3rd Series, of 

 the Society's Memoirs (1879), page 152, in his "List of 

 Desert Plants collected at Ramleh, near Alexandria, 

 Egypt," &c. 



Its comital distribution in The London Catalogue of 

 British Plants, ed. 9 (1895), is given as 9, the following 

 being the recorded counties or vice-counties : — Cornwall 

 West, Devon South, Dorset, Isle of Wight, Hants South, 

 Kent East, Essex North, Suffolk East, and Anglesey. 



A Cornish botanist (Mr. Fred. H. Davey, of Ponsanooth, 

 near Truro) writes me that it was last seen in Cornwall 

 (vice-county 2) at Praa Sands, a good many years ago. 

 Watson's New Botanist's Guide (J835) gives, "near 

 Poole ; near Burton, by Bridport," Dorset (county 9), quot- 

 ing, however, Turner and Dillwyn's Botanical Guide (1805), 

 but the Rev. E. F. Linton says he does not think it is a 

 Dorset plant. It had disappeared from the Isle of Wight 

 (vice-county 10) in Dr. Bromfield's time (1856). In Hants 

 South (vice-county 11), Mr. James Groves and Mr. Bolton 



December gth, igoi. 



