Mr. C. C. Babington on British Plants. 271 



tional width and length of the calyx- wings and capsule not being 

 to be trusted. 



In my ' Manual ' I have directed attention to a plant that 

 grows on the limestone ledges of Ben Bulben in the county of 

 Sligo, and which I have long suspected might be a distmct spe- 

 cies. It is remarkable for having deep blue flowers, upright 

 stems, much larger leaves than the typical P. vulgaris, and the 

 lateral nerves of the calyx-wings joining the central nerve itselt 

 instead of a lateral branch of it. Although looking very difter- 

 ent, and being even more beautiful than the common P. vulgaris, 



1 have now arrived at the conclusion that it ought not to be 

 separated from that species. Is its situation upon the ledges of 

 limestone in a damp country a sufficient cause for the above- 

 mentioned differences ? I am inchned to answer that it is. 



P. vulgaris is found throughout the British Isles, upon every 

 kind of soil, and from near the level of the sea to a high elevation 

 on mountains. 



2 P. calcarea (Schultz) ; leaves chiefly in an irregular terminal 

 tuft large obovate obtuse, leaves on the flower-shoot smaller lan- 

 ceolate, wings of the calyx oblong their nerves branched the lateral 

 looping with a branch from near the middle of the central nerve, 

 capsule oblong obcordate, lobes of the arillus unequal, lateral 

 bracts shorter than the pedicels. 



P. calcarea, Schultz in Bot. Zeit. (1837) 752, et '^ Exsic ii. 15'' ; 



Koch, Syn. ed. 2. 100 ; Bab. Man. 39 ; Gren. et Godr. Fl. Fr. 



i. 196 ! ; JValj). Rep. i. 232. -n . . n^a^y 



P. amara, Reich. Fl. exc. 350, et Fl. exsic. 749 ! ; Eng. Bot t 2764 ! 

 P. amarella, Reich. Iconog. i. f. 43, 44 ; Coss. et Germ. Fl. Par. 56. 



t. 7. 



Stems weak, prostrate or ascending, nearly naked below, pro- 

 ducing simple flower-shoots from the terminal rosette which 

 loses its leaves and disappears. Racemes terminal. 1 lowers 

 blue The central nerve of the wings of the calyx branching 

 considerably, one of its lower branches joimng in a loop with the 

 lateral nerves, which are much branched, but only externally, ihe 

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

 than the central one, and half as long as the seed, which is sessile. 

 This plant is closely allied to P. vulgaris, and is joined to it 

 by some authors of eminence ; but it is perhaps as frequently, 

 and by botanists of equal authority, combined with P. amara. 

 Fries expresses his opinion strongly that the former is the cor- 

 rect view to take of it (Summa, 154), and similarly Arnott (Bnt. 

 Fl ed 6 52). Bertoloni combines it and P. uliginosa and P. 

 austriuca with the true P. amara (Fl. Ital. vii. 321) ; as is also 

 done by the editors of the 'Compendium Fl. German, (ed. ^.157). 



