432 Mr. C. C. Babington on British Plants. 



Herb. Norm. v. 6 ! ; Reich. Fl. excurs. 312, et Fl. exsic. no. 188 

 et 189 ! ; Gren. et Godr. Fl. Fr. ii. 658. 

 T. Serpyllum, Wimm. et Grab. Fl. Sites, ii. 163; Ledeb. Fl. Alt. 

 ii. 391 ; Spreng. Syst. Veg. ii. 696 ; Bieberst. Ft. Tauro-Cauc. iii. 

 402 (non Linn.). 



Stems woody, slightly and irregularly branched, procumbent 

 or ascending, not creeping but rather csespitose, producing leafy 

 stems and flowering shoots irregularly. Leaves ovate, usually 

 broad (and some rounded) below, or very shortly narrowed into 

 the petiole which is fringed, less prominently nerved than those 

 of T. Serpyllum. The lovi^er vphorls of flowers distant, the upper- 

 most usually forming a large oblong head. The upper hp of the 

 corolla is semicircular and appearing to be quite entire, but has 

 usually a deep notch in its centre, having the sides so placed as 

 to touch each other and become unapparent except upon minute 

 inspection. Nuts roundish, a little compressed, with a basal 

 apiculus, reddish. 



The plant now under consideration varies even more than 

 T. Serpyllum, but the variations are unfrequent. In its usual 

 state the stems ascend with a curve so as to present the top of 

 the spike to the eye. This spike, of which the joints are shorter 

 than the length of each of the cymes forming the false whorl, is 

 generally about an inch in length (rather more than less), and 

 has below it from one to four distant whorls of flowers. The 

 extreme variation from this type is seen in a plant called T. syl- 

 vestris by Schreber as we learn from Reichenbach, which was 

 gathered by Mr. Borrer and myself in a damp hollow on Box 

 Hill. In this curious plant the stems are long filiform and 

 nearly simple, with very many distant whorls of flowers and no 

 trace of a terminal spike or head. Its leaves are all large and 

 very broad (the length being to the breadth relatively as three 

 to two in many instances), and their presence at the end of the 

 stems where they quite hid the young flowers gave a very pecu- 

 liar appearance to the plant. The shape of the leaves, the struc- 

 ture of the flowers, and the form of the seeds, show that this 

 singular plant is a state of T. Chamtedrys. 



In this species also the form of the upper lip of the corolla 

 and that of the nuts has pi-oved constant in every specimen that 

 I have examined, although the notch in the former is sometimes 

 found to be open. The general shape also of the leaves is pro- 

 bably to be trusted, viz. that their broadest point is above the 

 middle in T. Chamcedrys and below that point in T. Serpyllum. It 

 does not appear to me that the same confidence can be placed in 

 the distribution of the hairs upon the stem ; for I find that al- 

 though the stem of T. Serpyllum is often uniformly hairy, its 

 hairs are also not unfrequently arranged in two or four rows, the 



