Mr. C. C. Babington on British Plants. 273 



lustris humilis et ramosior by Dillenius (Rail Syn. *387), and 

 found by Sherard " in the bog beyond the wood going from 

 John Coals to Croydon bogs." It is quite possible that his idea 

 may be correct, as the description accords pretty well with P. uli- 

 ginosa. It may however be doubted if Sherard's plant was not 

 P. calcarea, which inhabits the range of chalk hills to the south 

 of Croydon, and agrees even better than P. austriaca with the 

 description given in the ' Synopsis.' Smith takes no notice of 

 this Dillenian plant ; it is mentioned by Hudson, and in the 

 second edition of Withering's ' Botanical Arrangement,' but 

 neither botanist seems to have known more about it than may 

 be learned from Ray's ' Synopsis.' It is to be feared that the 

 neighbourhood of Croydon is far too much altered to allow of 

 the discovery of the spot visited by Sherard, and unless a speci- 

 men is preserved at Oxford, the P. myrtifolia pahstris humilis 

 et ramosior can never be identified with modern species. 



Much doubt exists concerning the propriety of separating 

 P. uliginosa from P. austriaca. The true P. austriaca does not 

 seem to grow in the north of Europe. The recorded differences 

 between them are very shght, and are of a kind that is likely to 

 be variable. In P. austriaca the lateral nerves of the wings are 

 usually branched and their points incline towards the central 

 nerve : in P. uliginosa these lateral nerves are, I believe, nearly 

 always simple and do not curve inwards, but continue to diverge 

 up to their extremity. The true P. austriaca has not been found 

 in this country. 



This plant was discovered "at the back of Cronkley Fell, 

 Upper Teesdale, Yorkshire, at an elevation of about 1500 feet 

 above the sea," on May 24, 1852, by Messrs. James Backhouse, 

 sen. and jun. 



The presence of this plant ; of Myosotis alpestns, which was 

 discovered by the same botanists, during the same excui-sion, at 

 an elevation of 2500 feet upon Micklefell ; and their previous 

 detection of Alsine stricta upon Widdy-bank Fell in June 1844; 

 all places in the same mountainous district of the north of En- 

 gland ; is a subject of much interest in connection with the geo- 

 graphical distribution of our plants. It is the most southern 

 extension in Britain of the three species (indeed the only station 

 known for two of them), each of which appears to have derived 

 its origin from Scandinavia, or perhaps, to use more correct terms, 

 is a remnant of that ancient flora of Britain which inhabited the 

 country when its climate nearly resembled that now found ii; 



Norway. i 



[To be contimxed.] 



