Mr. C. C. Babington on British Plants. 267 



at the secondary divisions there are rarely more than scales, 

 therefore the upper part of the stem looks naked and the pa- 

 nicle may be described as leafless. The panicle is usually small 

 relatively to the size of the plant, but in a specimen from the 

 Great Ormes Head it is very large and very much more branched 

 than is usual. In this last-mentioned instance, and in some 

 from other parts of Caernarvonshire, the stem is much softer 

 and almost might be called hollow when the plant is in fruit. 



The T. majus of Reichenbach [l. c.) seems to be a large form 

 of this species ; that of Gren. and Godr. (Fl. de France) is ren- 

 dered doubtful by the statement that it is " sans stolons." When 

 this plant is clothed with minute stalked glands, it is the T. pu- 

 bescens of Schleicher and DeCandoUe. 



T. minus appears to be pretty generally distributed, but seems 

 to prefer the neighbourhood of the sea. It is found upon sand- 

 hills adjoining the coast, and also in hilly or even mountainous 

 situations. , r ^ ■ -i 



In the 'Botanical Gazette 'i,Mr. J. Ball informs us that M.|_M. '-S'*/ 

 Jordan of Lyons considered that a plant gathered upon Ben 

 Bui ben, in the county of Shgo, is his T. calcareum (Obs. sur PI. 

 de la France, v. 9). Not having seen either the Irish plant or 

 that of M. Jordan, I am unable to form a clear idea of it, but 

 suspect that it is very nearly allied to T. minus. 



2. T.flexuosum (Reichenb.) ; stem zigzag striated branched leafy to 

 the base, stipules with reflexed auricles, leaves 2-3-pinnate, leaflets 

 3-5-cleft paler hQxve&ih, petioles with patent divaricate branches, 

 panicle leafy elongated with patent often reclinate branches, flowers 

 drooping, carpels narrowly oblong subcompressed sub-10-ribbed 

 gibbous within upwards. 



T. flexuosum, " Bernh. Cat." ex Reich. Fl. excurs. 728, et Ic. Fl. 

 Germ. iii. 14. t. 28 ; Fi-ies, Summa, 136, etHerb. Norm. vii. 24 ! 



T. coUinum, Wallr. Sched. 259. teste Reich. 



T. capillare, Reich. Fl. excurs. 729, et Ic. Fl. Germ. iii. 15. t. 36. 



T. majus, Sm. Eng. Bot. t. 611, et Eng. Fl. iii. 42. 



Varying greatly in size, but usually a taller plant than T. mi- 

 nus, often 3 feet in height. In the lesser forms the leaves are 

 rather small, and the leaflets placed rather closely; but in the 

 larger plants the latter are often very distant. The leaflets are 

 very inconstant in size, they are usually roundish, and on the 

 same plant vary from siibcordate at the base to wedge-shaped ; 

 the lobes are very blunt and cuspidate, or in the larger forms, 

 and especially in T. capillare, the lobes of the upper leaflets are 

 lanceolate-cuspidate. All the sheaths that are not subterranean 

 are furnished with leaves ; but the lower leaves soon decay, and 

 thus it is rendered difficult at an advanced period of the year to 



18* 



