1860] BOTANICAL CORRESPONDENCE. 339 



To the same. 



Cambridge, April 7, 1860. 

 Dear More, — I certainly do think that your Statice from a 

 "Headland in Clare on a spur of the Burren, July, 1854," is 

 occidentalis. It has the lanceolate-spathulate leaves proper to that 

 plant, and, when well-grown, the much-branched stems. I have it 

 also from Howth. Also from " Sandy banks near the sea. Bally- 

 cotton, CO. Cork, Sept., 1857, Mr. J. Carroll." It is curious that 

 I have others, with the very same ticket, which I have called 

 S. Dodartii ; and also one from him gathered by Mr. Chandler at 

 Tramore, near Waterford (I looked for it there without success). 

 I now incline very strongly to the belief that these are S. occidentalis : 

 in short, that there is no S. Dodartii in Ireland. What should you 

 say to our being obliged to give it up for England also 1 I confess 

 that my ideas tend that way : or rather I should say, tend towards 

 the junction of the two plants as one species. I have now before 

 me authentic French specimens of both plants, and certainly the 

 specimens from Dover, Cley, Jersey, Alderney, Galloway (Scotland), 

 Howth, near Dublin, Tenby, Anglesea, Glamorgan, and Pembroke, 

 are S. occidentalis. They all have the narrower, perhaps thinner, 

 and less abrupt leaves of that plant, as well as the more elegant, 

 slender, and more upright spikes; also the inner bracts have a 

 broad, scarious margin, which is usually (perhaps always) much 

 tinged with pink at its junction with the herbaceous part, but 

 white above. Notwithstanding your last remark about the leaves, 

 I place this to your Burren plant (mentioned above), Mr. Chandler's 

 Tramore plant, and Mr. Carroll's from Ballycotton. On the other 

 hand I have one specimen which is certainly the true S. Dodartii 

 (unnamed up to this day), from Portland Island, gathered in 1832 

 by Henslow, and given to me many years since. It agrees quite 

 well with an authentic specimen in Billot's "Exsicc." (1054), from 

 La Rochelle, and another also from that same place. It is a thick, 

 clumsy, inelegant plant in all its parts. Its leaves are quite blunt 

 and rounded at the end, beneath which they have a strong keel 

 usually, but not the point found so often in S. occidentalis. The 

 spikes are thick, with the dichotomous spikelets more closely set 

 and more spreading. Inner bracts less blunt and less membranous. 

 I know not how the character derived from the anthers will stand 

 examination, but none of the above seem to be of much value. 

 Nevertheless I think that the identity of the British and French 

 plants is certain, and that real S. Dodartii is only known from 

 Portland Island. I think that I shall send a short note to the 

 " Annals " on the subject. Nevertheless you may state in your paper 

 that I now consider all the Irish specimens as belonging to S. occi- 

 dentalis. Dr. Francis seems very well pleased with your powers as 

 a reviewer— so you may go on boldly in that line. Have you begun 

 to look after Draba verna 1 It is coming on fast here, and seems to 

 me not easy to bring into accordance with Jordan's species. I think 



