272 Mr. C, C. Babington on British Plants. 



In my opinion it is equally distinct from each of them. Its 

 naked elongated true stems, bearing a rosette of leaves at their 

 extremity from the axils of which the simple flower-shoots spring, 

 seem to separate it clearly from the fonner in which no such 

 rosette is found, and at the flowering season the lowest leaves 

 are very markedly smaller than those above them. 



With P. amara it agrees in possessing a rosette ; but in that 

 species the true stem is very short, and therefore the rosette and 

 flower-shoots seem to be radical. Here also the central nerve 

 of the calyx-wings is branched even as low down as its middle, 

 and these lower branches join with the lateral nerves ; in P. amara 

 the central nerve is unbranched up almost to its apex, although 

 it usually does there join the lateral nerves. 



P. calcarea is found on the chalk hills of Sun-ey and Berkshire. 



3. P. austriaca (Crantz) ; leaves in a rosette obovate obtuse larger 

 than the oblong-lanceolate ones on the flower-shoot, wings of the 

 calyx oblong or obovate obtuse their nerves simple or slightly 

 branched free, capsule wedgeshaped below rouudish broader than 

 the wings, lobes of the arillus nearly equal, lateral bracts shorter 

 than the pedicels. 



[a. genuina ; leaves of the rosette smaller than those of the branching 

 flower-shoot, flowers smaller, capsule rounded below. 



P. austriaca, " Crantz, Aust. v. 2 " ; Reich. Iconog. i. 23. t. 21 . f. 39, 

 et Ft. excurs. 350, et Fl. exsic. 1923!J 



/3. uliginosa ; leaves of the rosette larger than those of the nearly 

 constantly simple flower-shoot, flowers larger, capsules wedge- 

 shaped. 



P. uliginosa, Reich. Iconog. i. 23. t. 21. f. 40, 41, et Fl. excurs. 3.50, 

 et Fl. exsic. 52 ! ; Fries, Summa, 154, et Herb. Norm. iii. 14 ! 



P. myrtifoUa, Fries, Nov. ed. 2. 227 ; Wimm. et Grab. Fl. Sites. 

 iii. 24. 



P. amara, Sven. Hot. t. 484; Fl. Dan. t. 1169. 



P. austriaca, Coss. et Germ. Fl. Par. 56. t. 7, not Reich. 



Root slender. Root-stock short. Lower leaves collected into 

 a rosette and seeming to be radical, larger than the others, 

 broadly obovate, narrowed below, rounded at the end, but often 

 with a minute apiculus. Flowering shoots short, springing from 

 the axils of the rosette, straight, unbranched; their leaves ob- 

 long-lanceolate, upper ones acute. Flowers small, pale lilac, or 

 at length tinged with green. Wing of the calyx longer than the 

 capsule in our plant, and in that of Scandinavia (Fries, Nov. et 

 Herb. Norm.) shorter than it in southern countries. The value- 

 less character of the proportion between these parts is well 

 pointed out in the ' Flora Silesise ' (/. c). 



Fries considers this to be the plant called P. myrtifolia pa- 



