76 Notes oil Senebiera didyjiia, &c. [Sess. 



III.— NOTES ON SENEBIERA DIDYMA AND 

 LITHOSPERMUM ARVENSE. 



By Miss BEATRICE SPRAGUE. 

 (Read Dec. 16, 1903.) 



The lesser wart-cress (Senebiera didyma) takes its specific 

 name from the two lobes into which the fruit is divided, 

 this characteristic distinguishing it at once from the common 

 wart-cress {Senebiera coronopus). According to Hooker and 

 Arnott's 'British Flora' (8th edition, 1860), it grows on 

 " waste ground near the sea, in the south and south-west of 

 England ; about Exeter, Truro, Penrhyn, and Milfordhaven, 

 shore near Caernarvon, South of Ireland." Sir J. D. Hooker, 

 however, in his ' Students' Flora of the British Islands,' 

 says it is found from Fife soutliward, and is spreading ; also 

 that it is a colonist, its original habitat being temperate 

 South America. The whole plant has a strong cressy odour. 

 It grows in profusion round Torquay. 



Lithospermum arvense occurs in cornfields and waste 

 ground. It flowers from May to June, but we found a few 

 belated flowers at the beginning of November. The flowers 

 are about one-third of an inch across, creamy white and 

 honeyed ; and have a faint but delicious scent, which I think 

 is unusual among the Boraginaceee. We have found it grow- 

 ing in two localities near Torquay. 



At this meeting Mr Goodchild, of H.M. Geological Survey, 

 gave an extremely interesting paper on Agates, illustrated by 

 a large number of very beautiful lantern slides. 



