270 ]\Ir. C. C. Btibington on British Plants. 



shoots of the succeeding year ; but sometimes they retain life to 

 a considerable distance from their origin, and then the new- 

 growth is far distant from the root-stock and prostrate stems are 

 produced. In this plant, and others of similar habit, there is 

 no rosette. 



1. P. vulgaris (Linn.); leaves scattered, lower leaves smaller ob- 

 long, upper leaves lanceolate, wings of the calyx obovate mucro- 

 nate their nerves branched the lateral looping with a branch of the 

 central nerve, capsule obeordate, lobes of the arillus unequal, 

 lateral bracts shorter than the pedicels. 



P. Aulgaris auctorum. 



Stems weak, prostrate or ascending, without any clear sepa- 

 ration between the persistent part and the annual flowering 

 shoot ; sometimes branching so as to make some of the really 

 terminal racemes appear to be lateral. Leaves all scattered, the 

 lower ones much the smaller. Flowers blue, pink or white, with 

 intermediate shades. The central nerve of the wings of the calyx 

 is veiy nearly simple, only branching slightly near the top, and 

 ending in a mucro. The lateral nerves arc much branched, 

 but only on their outer side, where the branches join in loops, 

 as do the nerves themselves with a branch of the central nerve. 

 The lobes of the arillus are unequal, the two lateral being longer 

 than the central one, and half as long as the seed, which has a 

 kind of stalk that raises it so as to leave a space between its base 

 and the inside of the arillus. 



j3. depressa ; lower leaves crowded and often opposite but small, stems 



long wiry prostrate, racemes ultimately lateral. 

 P. -vulgaris* depressa, Fries, Mant. ii. 41. 

 P. depressa, " Wend." ex Koch, Syn. ed. 2. 99 ; Cass, et Germ. Fl. 



Par. 56. t. 8 ; Bromf. in Phytol. ii. 966 ; Gren. et Godr. Fl. Fr. 



i. 196. 

 P. serpyllacea, " Weihe " el Sand. Fl. Hamb. 388. 



I have examined this plant with care, but do not find any 

 cause for deviating from the opinion of Fries, confirmed as it is 

 by the accurate observations of my lamented friend Dr. Brom- 

 field. As has been remarked in the preliminary observations, the 

 long wiiy character of the stems is caused by some of the buds 

 more distant from the root remaining alive through the winter and 

 producing shoots in the succeeding spring. Similar wiry stems 

 are occasionally, although rarely, found in typical P. vulgaris. 



y. oxyptera ; flowers smaller, fruit broader than the wings of the 



calyx. 

 P. oxyptera, Reich. Iconog. i. f. 46 ! 

 P. multicaulis, Tausch. ! 



This appears to be only a variety of P. vulgai-is, the proper- 



