110 COMPOSITE. 



G. Horfield, Patchway. Fishponds. Sea Mills. 



S. Clevedon. Stockwood. Tickenham. Uphill. Wells. 

 Whitchurch. Yatton. 



Prof. Babingtou is almost alone in considering this plant 

 to be specifically distinct from the last. It is hardly 

 possible to draw a satisfactory line between them, as 

 they differ only by the relative length of florets and 

 phyllaries ; and although when growing this character is 

 easily determined, in herbarium specimens the relative 

 length depends partly on the age of the head when 

 pressed, and partly on the degree of pressure used in 

 drying the plants. VI. VTI. 



478. T. porrifolius, L. Salsify. 



Possibly native with us, though introduced in many of its 

 stations in this country. It was first recorded as a 

 Bristol plant by Mr. Sowerby, who towards the end of 

 the last century gathered the specimen figured in 

 English Botany " in the meadows below St. Vincent's 

 Rocks, Bristol." Dr. Dyer also appears to have gathered 

 it in 1805, and it is included by Mr. Rootsey in a list of 

 Bristol plants, publ. 1898. Swete in 1854 considered 

 the habitat to be then lost. Fl. 43. However, many 

 years later, and after the construction of the Avon mouth 

 Railway, which must have thoroughly' disturbed the soil, 

 the plant reappeared in a spot under Cook's Folly, which 

 without doubt corresponds with Sowerbj's station. It 

 ■would have been the nearest bit of meadow land below 

 St. Vincent's Rocks. We first saw it there in 1878, 

 and have found it every season since, but only in small 

 quantity. 

 One is tempted to ask if this can be an instance of the 

 well-attested and marvellous property possessed by many 

 seeds of retaining their vitality under conditions adverse 



