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



spines patent, but not having a downward tendency (although 

 sometimes the act of pressing them for the herbarium pushes 

 them in that direction), and its inner ones scarcely equal the 

 limb of the corolla in length. The fruit of A. Eupatoria is 

 deeply fun-owed almost to its base, and becomes more manifestly 

 so as it ripens; that of A. odorata, which has short shallow fur- 

 rows on its upper half when young, usually altogether loses 

 them as it advances to maturity. MM. Cosson and Germain 

 (Fl. de Paris, 182) attempt to account for the difference of form, 

 &c. of the fruit by attributing the presence of two achenes to the 

 A. odorata, and of only one to A. Eupatoria. Undoubtedly such 

 is generally the case, but I have found that the latter is often 

 furnished with two achenes, and yet its fruit retains the usual 

 form and sculpture. 



A. odorata is usually larger in all its parts than its ally ; its 

 leaves are much more thickly covered with hairs, and have very 

 many minute glands on their under side. These glands are the 

 organs from which the rather agreeable scent proceeds which 

 has caused the specific name. 



The description of A. odorata in DeCandolle's 'Prodromus' 

 (ii. 587) contains the words " foveolis obovatis usque ad basin 

 productis, setis adscendentibus brevibus." In neither of these 

 respects does it agree with the plant of more recent authors, ex- 

 cept G. Don (Syst. of Gard. and Bot. ii. 563), who has translated 

 that definition. 



5. Matricaria makitima. 



Much doubt has long attended the Matricaria maritima ; and 

 numerous attempts have been made to discover distinctive cha- 

 racters between it and M. inodora ; but experience has uniformly 

 shown that those pointed out were too inconstant to be of any 

 value. Nevertheless most authors have retained them as species, 

 and although, as wUl be seen below, I am persuaded that many 

 of the plants called M. maritima are referable to a maritime state 

 of M. inodora, still I am not as yet prepared to give up the ori- 

 ginal Dillenian species upon which the Linnsean plant is founded, 

 but do not pretend to have succeeded any better than others in 

 providing a specific character for it. 



The M. maritima appears under that name in 'Linn. Sp. PI.' 

 (ed. 1. p. 891), where the Chamcemelum maritimum perenne humi- 

 lius, foliis brevibus crassis, obscure virentibus of Dillenius (Raii 

 Syn. ed. 3. 186. t. vii. f. 1) is quoted as its source. In that place 

 Dillenius has given a description of it, to which, as the Synopsis 

 is a common book, this reference will be sufficient. Linnaeus 

 also quotes his own ' Iter Westgothicum ' (p. 148), where he had 

 described the plant. That work is not of easy access, but a copy 



