Transactions. 7 



authority on the genus. Taking the specimens I have seen, the 

 Hebridean and Westerness specimens seem referable to 0. epithy- 

 mum, the other Scotch specimens to 0. rubra. 0. rubra has also 

 been reported for Kirkcudbright by Mr J. M 'Andrew. The 

 English botany figure of 0. rubra, t. 1011, is not good, and does 

 not convey a good idea of the species. 



Orobanche elatior (Sutton) reported from Argyle, but, I have 

 little doubt, this intended the new plant I mention below. 0. 

 elatior is not clearly known north of north-east Yorkshire, and 

 perhaps Lincoln, but the latter is very uncertain, and requires 

 confirmation. In Europe 0. elatior occurs in Denmark and 

 North Germany, so there is no great improbability that it may be 

 found in Southern Scotland ; it grows on Centaurea, Scabiosa, 

 Knautia arvensis, and perhaps Cardnus lanceolatus. 



For some time I have had in my herbarium a specimen of 

 Orobanche labelled as 0. elatior, and localised from near Oban 

 Argyle. While seeing it was not elatior, I failed to make it out 

 until this year, when dissecting its flowers. I found after care- 

 ful comparison with specimens in the Kew Herbarium and the 

 descriptions and plates in Reichenbach's Icones that it was 0. 

 cruenta Bertoloni, 0. gracilis, Smith. This is a very interesting 

 addition to our Flora. On what it grows in Argyle I am unable 

 to say, but on the Continent it occurs on Lathyrus pratensis, 

 Lotus comiculatus, Genista tinctoria, Rubus, and on many non. 

 British species. 



Of our species it is perhaps most like 0. rubra, but differs in 

 the form of the stem scales (lea\'es), the corolla form, and 

 especially in the calyx, which is bifid, while in 0. rubra it is 

 entire and much longer (very rarely a small tooth on one side 

 does occur in rubra) ; from 0. elatior it differs in the sparsely 

 flowered spike, the calyx, the anthers have no hairs, the filaments 

 are not hairy in the middle, and the corolla is not constricted at 

 the base, and the whole plant is less glandular hairy than in 

 0. elatior. 



It occurs under many names in European floras, most of them 

 being probably only varieties, or forms induced by situation, the 

 plants on which they grow, or by other local conditions. 



I give a few of their names and its distribution : — Orobanche 

 cruenta, Bertolini in Ear. it. pi. Dee. III. 56. 0. gracilis (Smith), 



