PLUMBAGINACE^. 165 



intervals over the whole Irish coast. I am unable to separate the 

 stations for var. a and (5 : I have var. ^ from Norfolk and Glamor- 

 ganshire. Of var. 7, Professor Babington has a specimen said to 

 have been gathered in the Isle of Portland by the late Professor 

 Henslow, but Mr. T. B. Flower and myself searched there in 1866 

 and found only the common form. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer, Autumn. 



A very variable plant with a long woody taproot passing insensibly 

 upwards into a rhizome, which is sometimes branched, but more often 

 only many-headed, each head or branch producing a rosette of leaves. 

 Leaves 1 to 5 inches long, vai'iable in breadth, and sometimes dis- 

 tinctly petiolate, at other times, especially in the smaller forms, with 

 scarcely any footstalk. Scapes 2 iuclies to 1 foot high or more (the 

 Rev. W. W. Newbould informs me he has seen it on Shakesj^eare's 

 ClitF, with a stem nearly 2 feet high), branched usually from about the 

 middle, but sometimes below it ; in the latter case several of the lower 

 branches have the bracteoles of the spikelets empty. The spikes vary 

 also in the jiroximity of their spikelets, and conseqviently m their thick- 

 ness. The bracteoles have generally a broad reddish belt between the 

 green portion and the white margin, but in the plant I collected in the 

 Isle of Portland, which Professor Babington unhesitatingly refers to S. 

 occidentalis, they are wholly green and white, and in var. 7, of which 

 I have not seen fresh sj^ecimens, they are said to be always destitute 

 of the reddish band. The calyx limb is white. The corolla bright 

 purplish blue, rather darker than S. Limoniuin, but of nearly the same 

 size. The plant is of a rather dull green, the scape and branches gene- 

 rally smooth ; but in the plant I collected at Portland they are rough 

 with small projections, and much thicker than in the other forms. 



Var. /3 appears to pass insensibly into var. a, but Professor Grenier 

 names the Norfolk plant S. Dodartii, and one specimen from Cley, in 

 Mr. II. C. Watson's herbarium, is so named by M. Lloyd. 



The var. 7 I only know from the specimens in Billot's " Flora Ex- 

 siccata." It has broader and more rounded leaves than the other two 

 forms, is a much stouter plant, and has the end of the branches forked, 

 terminating in a pair of spikes, with one between them. Judging from 

 these examples, it is difficult to regard it as more than a luxuriant 

 form of S. binervosa. 



Lesser Sea Lavender. 



SPECIES III— ST ATI CE CASPIA. WllIJ. 



Plate MCLXI. 



Bdch. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MCXLII. Fig. 3. 

 ElUuf, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 446. 



S. bclHdifolia, " GoiMii ; " Gren. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. II. p. 749. 

 S. reticulata, M. Llch. Sm. Eugl. Bot. No. 328 (uou Li'mi.). 



Rootstock woody. Leaves shortly stalked, oblauceolate or oblance- 



