EROPHILA 51 



First found at Culham in Berkshire by the author in 1891. 



2. Ock. Waste ground at Grandpont and field near the Eidgeway 

 above Letconibe. 



4. Kennet. Casual by railway at Newbury, Weaver in 1893. 



5. Loddon. Bather plentiful in some cornfields between Culham 



Court and Great Marlow, and in a field near Maidenhead. 

 In Well Coll. List for 1894 it is reported from Tangleys, near 

 Wixenford, but I am not sure if the locality is in Berkshire. 

 A. Alyssoides does not appear to be recorded from Bucks or East 

 Gloucestershire. 



EROPHILA, DC. Syst. ii. 356 (1821). 



E. vulgaris, DC, 1. c. Whitloiv Grass, Nailwort. 



Paromjchia vulgaris, Ger. Em. 624. Dmba vulgaris, Dill. D. verna, 

 Linn. Sp. PI. 642. Erophila verna, E. Meyer. 



Top. Bot. 38. Syme, E. B. i. 139, t. 134, f. i. Baxt. t. 38. Nyman, 54. 



Fl. Oxf. 33. 

 Native. Glareal. Walls, dry banks, sandy and gravelly fields, &c. 



Common and generally distributed. A. February-May. 

 First record. Draba verna, Mavor's Agr. Berks, 1809. 



Our botanists have only admitted three species of Erophila as natives 

 of Britain, and one of these is apparently confined to Ben Lawers and 

 perhaps another locality in Scotland. The other two species are 

 recorded for Berkshire, and are formed of two groups of the micro- 

 species of Jordan, artificially arranged into two so-called species, 

 the characters by which they are practically sorted into bundles being 

 derived from the pods ; the plants with a long pod (a siliqua) being 

 grouped under Erophila vulgaris, and plants with a short broad pod 

 (a silicula) being grouped under E. praecox. The long-podded plants 

 are the more common and more widely distributed. 



Aggregate E. vulgaris, which is found in all the bordering counties, 

 is one of our most polymorphic plants. M. Jordan made most pains- 

 taking observations of its various forms over a period of many years, 

 and described fifty-three species in his Diagnoses. In the Icones ad 

 Floram Europae, Jordan and Fourreau figured twenty species. M. 

 Jordan found these micro-species kept constant during many years of 

 cultivation (some after as long as twenty years), nor did he find that 

 intermediates occurred. He also states that only a few species are found 

 growing together, usually not more than four ; and more frequently 

 a single species, occurring in millions of individuals, occupies the par- 

 ticular area which one may visit year after year and find occupied 

 by the same form. It was the intention of the late Dr. Romanes to 

 join with me in the prosecution of some experimental cultivations of 



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