20 THE NATURALIST. 



tells us that in the second edition of the *' Botanist's Guide to the Canton 

 de Vaud," M. Eapin defines two varieties : — a R. sabauda, Rapin. Bull. 

 Soc. Hall, p. 178, leaves glabrescent, simply or almost doubly dentate ; 

 and l3 R. coronata, Crepin, leaves grey hairy and velvety doubly dentate. 

 In the second edition of Renter's Plants of Geneva these two are described 

 as distinct and both localised on Mont Saleve, the former on the summit 

 of the hill, the latter in several places at a lower level. 



Mr. Borrer kindly supplied me with specimens of E. involuta, and 

 there are others from the Cambridge Botanic Garden labelled by him in 

 Mr. Robertson's collection. Judging the ]3lant by these, and the figures 

 in the English Botany, the most tangible difference from Sabini which I 

 can see is in the leaves, which are glabrous or very nearly so on the upper 

 surface, hairy principally on the ribs beneath, glandular principally on the 

 midrib and edges, with some of the teeth simple and some with one or 

 more accessory gland-tipped serrations. The sepals are usually entire but 

 have occasionally, as one of my specimens shews, an accessory pinna, and 

 the calyx tube is very prickly. The smaller size of the bush and flower, 

 the more northern station of the plant may well account for, and in other 

 points it appears to coincide with the description of Sabini already given. 



The Belgian variety subnuda, with which M. Crepin has also kindly 

 furnished me, recedes further from the type, and I cannot possibly do 

 better than transcribe M. Crepin's account of its characteristics as given 

 at page 26 of his " Notes." The leaves are glabrous on the upper surface, 

 thickly covered with glands beneath but with the nerves only slightly 

 pubescent. The petioles are hairy and setose, the peduncles and calyx 

 tubes quite naked, the corolla deep rose coloured and the fruit slightly 

 glaucescent. 



The Northumbrian plant that grows on the banks of the Ouse burn 

 in Heaton dene, near Newcastle, which was once called R. involuta, by 

 Winch (Geog. PI. second edition. No. 3, App.) is intermediate between 

 Sabini and Smith's involuta. In this the leaves are hardly at all hairy 

 above, hairy principally on the midrib beneath, and slightly glandular on 

 the margins, the serratures being sharp, some of them single, but more 

 usually compound. The peduncles are aciculate and setose, but the calyx 

 tube is nearly naked, in hue glaucous and dark purple, so that this must 

 be regarded as a connecting link between the other three forms. 



Regarding then R. Sabini as best distinguished from spinosissima by the 

 nature of its fruit and sepals, and by its more or less hairy and glandular 



