. Nigella damascena, Linn. Sp. Plant. p. 753; Gren. et Godr. i. 48 ; 
Woods, Tour. Fl. p. 8. KHvrobathos damascenum, Spach, Suites 4 Buf- 
fon, vii. 301. 
(D.) Spec. Cuar.—Flowers free from leaves. Sepals ovate, claw 
very short. Petals short, lobes of lower lip ovate, attenuate, thickened 
at tip, furnished below with two shining tubercles and white, clavate 
hairs ; upper lip ovate acute. Anthers exapiculate. Carpels completely 
united. eaves irregularly tripinnate, segments lanceolate, hairy, hairs 
glandular-fusiform at base. Stem hairy. 
Nigella sativa, Linn. Sp. Plant. p. 753; Gren. et Godr. i. 43; 
Woods, Tour. FI. p. 8. 
Hasirats.—(A, B, and D.) Cultivated specimens from Kew Gardens. 
(C.) Gathered by me at Mentone, April 30, 1867. 
Remarxs.—Nigella Garidelli has usually been considered as belong- 
ing to the distinct genus Garidella; but, as Messrs. Bentham and 
Hooker point out,* the subsessile stigmas and small size of the flowers 
do not suffice to constitute a generic separation. I have therefore ven- 
tured, though most unwillingly, to introduce a new specific name into 
our already too-complex nomenclature, in order to avoid the unnatural 
severance which thrust this plant away from its own nearest blood- 
relations. Nigella Garidelli, Moggridge, grows near Marseilles and at 
Cassis, a short distance east of Marseilles (Roux !), at Toulon (Gren. et 
Godr.), formerly at Nice, and it has been stated that it grows at 
Cannes (Hanry). It is cited as coming from Granada, Crete, and Asia 
Minor (Nyman). In the quaint forms assumed by the petals in all the 
species of Nigella we are reminded of the well-known Venus-chariot in 
the flower of Monkshood (Aconitum), the irregular petals of Del- 
phinium, and the horn-shaped petals of Hellebore and Winter Aconite 
(Helleborus and Eranthis). In fact, there is an evident tendency in all 
the members of this division of the great Ranunculus family, known as 
the Tribe Helleborez, to change the petals into small cups or pouches 
full of nectar. 
Nigella arvensis, Linn., grows at Marseilles (Castagne and Derbes), 
and at Toulon (Gren. et Godr.). It has a very wide range through 
Central and Southern Europe, through Germany, France, Spain, Italy, 
Hungary, Croatia, Dalmatia, Bulgaria, to the Russian shores of the 
Black Sea (Nyman). 
Nigella damascena, Linn., abounds as a weed of cultivation along the 
whole shore from Marseilles to Genoa. I have observed a form at 
Hyeres which differs from that with which I am familiar at Mentone 
in the crowding and compactness of the more finely-divided leaves and 
the brighter colour of the sepals. This I have provisionally named var. 
conferta. 
Nigella damascena, Linn., is exclusively South European, and ranges 
* Gen. Plant. i. 8. 
