Dk. Aenott's Botanical Excursion to the Rimins of Galloway. 56 



Girard attempted to clear up tlie point, not one name given to it was 

 correct. Girard, therefore, (in the Ann. so. Nat. N.S. xvii. p. 31.) gives 

 it a new appellation, S. Dodartii, and indicated two varieties : his /3 humilis 

 was supposed to be peculiar to the Mull of Galloway, while his a was 

 not uncommon along the west coast of France. Since then the S. 

 Dodartii has been divided into two — S. Dodartii and S. occidentalis ; and 

 if distinct, it is not impossible we possess both in Great Britain. The true S. 

 Dodartii is said to have leaves obovato-spathulate, awnless or very shortly 

 mucronate, and tapering into a petiole about as long as the limb ; the 

 scapes are rigid, straight, without a trace of sterile branches ; bracteas 

 green on the back, with a narrow whitish margin, and anthers somewhat 

 linear. S. occidentalis has leaves lanceolato-spathulate acute, or with a 

 long setaceous mucro below the point, tapering into a petiole that is 

 longer than the limb ; the scapes are slender, flexuose, with some of the 

 lower branches sterile; bracteas with a shining but reddish margin; 

 anthers ovate. Such, at least, are the characters furnished by Boissier, 

 in De CandoUe's Prodromus, just published : he mentions that 8. Dodartii 

 grows in England and Ireland, on the authority of a specimen from Hooker; 

 but states that the 8. binervosa of Gerard Smith, judging from the figure 

 in Engl. Bot. Supp. t. 2663, is rather 8. occidentalis than 8. Dodartii, on 

 account of the form of its leaves. Now, I lay before the Society aU my 

 British ones, and they will see that every one has the lanceolate-spath- 

 ulate leaves of 8. ocddetUalis, although some of the other points in its 

 character do not apply. On the other hand, Boissier refers, with doubt 

 certainly, to ,5'. spailiidaia of the Bot. Mag. as a figure of 8. Dodartii: 

 but even the British 8. binervosa varies much in its leaves ; some being 

 much broader than others, although none resemble the figure in the Bot. 

 Mag. Our plant has the scapes generally low and extremely variable 

 in the mode of ramification ; whereas Boissier says his plant has them 

 thick, rigid, and often two feet high ! I have seen no such plant from 

 this country. In our herbaria, British specimens present sometimes the 

 spikelets approximated and closely imbricated, forming short dense spikes; 

 in others the flowers are more distant and the spikes slender : the former 

 I have from Devonshire and Wales, the latter from Dover : but there 

 are intermediate forms, and in all there is a tendency to produce sterile 

 branches or branchlets : nor arc the above differences accompanied with 

 the other characteristics indicated by Boissier. /^ 



I may here state that 8. Limonium has been said to grow on the Gahvay 

 coast ; but it is probable that this is rather 8. Bahusiensis of Fries, (the 

 8. rarifiora of Drejer and Babington,) a plant which may, after all, be only 

 the northern form of 8. Limonium. It is found on various places of 

 the Wigton and Kirkcudbright coasts. There^bas been lately an endless 

 change of names among the Staticcs : even the well marked 8. reti- 

 culata of England is now supposed not to be the Linnaian one, but the 8. 

 Caajyia of Willdcnow, found in England, France, and along the Mediterranean 

 to the Caspian Sea. It is therefore no longer to be found in De CandoUe's 



