1 88 ROSACEAE 



Abundant in many of the Kennet meadows and in the trenches by 

 the railway from Hungerford to Reading, especially plentiful about 

 Theale, Midgham, and Aldermaston. 



It will be observed that G. rivale is absent from the districts of the 

 Isis, the Ock, and the Loddon. Its absence is difficult to account for ; 

 it evidently prefers a peaty soil, but the geological character of the 

 Cherwell district in Oxfordshire, in which it occurs, is not essentially 

 different from that of the Isis, nor are the physical characters appa- 

 rently the reason. It is often associated with Carex paniculata, but the 

 distribution of the two plants is by no means identical. 



G. rivale is unrecorded for Bucks, Surrey, or Gloucestershire. 



G. intermedium, Ehrh. Beitr, vi. 143 (1791). 



G. urbamim x rivale, Eeichb. 



Top. Bot. 130. Syme, E. B. iii, 199, t. 458. Nyman, 230. Fl. Oxf. 103. 

 Native. Coppices, meadows. Veiy local and rather rare. P. June- 

 September. 

 First found by the author and recorded in Bot Exch. Club, 1892. 



3. Pang. In a moist spinney on peaty soil in the meadows JDetween 



Bradfield and Tidmarsh. 



4. Kennet. Near Newbury. 



I had the plant from Tidmarsh in cultivation and it retained its 

 characters. The seeds were mostly barren, but Mr. Marshall of Ely 

 told me that he had succeeded in raising plants which came fairly true 

 to the parent form. At Newbury a plant occurred which was nearer 

 G. rivale ; it is the G. rivali-urbanum of Reichenbach, which has drooping 

 flowers and brown calyx, but with the petals showing unmistakeable 

 evidence of the urbanum parentage. 



Var. rubifoUum (Lej. Rev. 103, as a species) is the reddish-petalled 

 form, with a more emarginate apex. A proliferous form is the 

 'Childing Avens' of Petiver s Herb. Brit. xl. 4. 



Dr. Bell-Salter produced Geum intermedium by artificial fertilization. 

 He fovind that the oifspring not only closely resembled each other, but that 

 they were fertile, and the intermediate characters were transmitted un- 

 changed through several generations — in fact, plants of this hybrid 

 came up in his garden for many years after. See Phyt. iv. (1852) 737. In 

 support of this statement inay be adduced the fact that a specimen of 

 6r. urbanum x rivale, brought from Bradfield, produced good seed. These 

 seeds were sown in garden soil at Oxford, and in Mr. B. S. Ogle's garden at 

 Heyford. Plants of the third generation were practically similar to the 

 original specimen. 



It may be stated that in the districts of the Isis and Ock where G. rivale 

 is absent, G. urbanum does not vary in the colour or shape of its petals, and 

 the statement holds true of Northamptonshire, where I have never seen 

 G. rivale growing ; but in that portion of Oxfordshire and Berkshire where 

 both species are found, plants having intermediate characters may be 

 met with. 



G. intermedium is recoi'ded from Hants, Wilts, and Oxfordshire. 



