306 COMPOSITAE 



quantity as an extreme dwarf form, as on Salisbury Plain. He did 

 not see a plant which he would call typical nigra.' Mr. Britten 

 also recorded it from Wargrave in his Cofitributions, 1871, and Dr. F. 

 Arnold Lees, in the Rep. of Bot. Rtc. Club for 1883, p. 42, alludes to 

 the Berkshire and Oxfordshire plant as C. decipiens, Thuill. He de- 

 scribes it as • smaller, less branched, lower leaves more deeply cut 

 and sinuate, upper much narrower than in nigra, var. radiata. 

 Flowers too of a different hue — a clear rose-pink. Involucral bract- 

 appendages short, light brown. Bab. Man. ed. 8, has leaf broader than 

 in eu-nigra, but the reverse is the case in all the many and very 

 characteristic examples he examined m situ in Bei'ks and Oxon in 1883.' 



Var. DECIPIENS, Bab. and Syine, is abundant on the chalk downs, 

 and in the meadows between Henley and Maidenhead. 



Our Berkshire plants are perhaps best treated as follows : — 



C. NIGRA, Linn. Flower dark pui'ple, usually with only tubular 

 florets, phyllary-appendages long, blackish brown. 



forma integra, leaves entire. /. sinuata, leaves sinuately cut. /. minor, 

 a dwarf form. /. radiata, with radiate flowers. /. laxa, phyllaries not 

 closely imbricated. 



Var. DECIPIENS, Bab. and Syme. Flowers lighter coloured, often of 



a bright rose-pink and always radiate, the phyllary-appendages paler 



brown than the foregoing, and smaller, not so closely covering the 



receptacle. This varies considerably as—/, integra, f. sinuaia, f. minor, 



f. pollens, with very pale phyllary-appendages. 



If we were to follow the example of some botanists and reject inter- 

 mediate forms, we should have little difficulty in making two sub-species 

 of extreme forms of C. nigra ; but in nature we do not meet with these 

 sharp lines of demarcation, and it is almost impossible to distinguish 

 the pale phyllaried form of radiate nigra from the var. decipiens. Our 

 forms of C. nigra are certainly worthy of more critical attention than 

 I have been able to give them. Jordan has described a number of 

 species which are allied to and may be identical with some of the 

 Berkshire plants. 



C. nigra occurs in all the bordering counties. 



C. Scabiosa, Linn. Sp. PI. 913 (1753)- Greater Knapweed, Matfellon. 



Scabiosa 7najor squammatis capitidis, C. B. Pin. 269. Jacea major, Gerard, 

 588. 

 Top. Bot. 247. Syme, E. B. v. 33, t. 708. Nyman, 424. Fl. Oxf. 177. 

 Native. Agrestal. Cornfields, field-borders, hedge-sides, chalk downs, 

 &c. Locally common, especially on the central chalk plateau of 

 the county, and occurs in all the districts. P. May-October. 

 First record. C. Scabiosa (without locality}, in Bussell's Cat. 1839. 

 C. Scabiosa occurs in all the bordering counties. 



