252 Mr Arthur Bennett's Notice of the Occurrence of 



Notice of the Occurrence of ArenaoHa gothica, Fries, in Great 

 Britain. By Arthur Bennett, F.L.S., &c. 



(Read February 13, 1890.) 



Last July Mr W. Whitwell of Balham brought to me two 

 specimens of an Arenaria that he said had been referred to 

 A. norvegiea, Gunn. At first I was inclined to so consider 

 them, but the habitat (Yorkshire) seemed so unlikely that I 

 felt it was necessary to look to some other plant allied to 

 A. ciliata, L. 



On comparing the specimens with Fries' description of his 

 A. gothica, it seemed to fit the plants very well; on further 

 looking out some Gothland specimens kindly sent me by 

 Dr Mlsson, it was at once evident that they were exactly 

 similar. 



The specimens had been gathered on the 12th of June at 

 Eibblehead in West Yorkshire, by Mr Lister Eothesay of 

 Shipton. On the 11th of September Dr F. Arnold Lees visited 

 the station and found the plant growing amongst Arenaria 

 serpyllifolia, Sagina nodosa, &c., with grasses and moss. In 

 September also it was visited by Mr J. G. Baker of Kew, and 

 his opinion, expressed in a letter to Mr W. Whitwell, was : 

 " The locality is not satisfactory as regards nativeness. It is 

 a road close to the railway station. But this is a plant 

 not likely to have been introduced, and I exj)ect it will be 

 found on some of the neighbouring hills." 



For some time I have had in my possession a fragment of 

 a plant, that came to me attached to a Potamogcton that 

 had been gathered at Grassmere Lake, Westmoreland, by Mr 

 Pioper of Eastbourne. While Mr Whitwell was at my house 

 this specimen was thought of, examining it carefully I could 

 come to no other conclusion than that it was Arenaria gothica. 



The next day I wrote to Mr Martindale of Kendal, who 

 has studied the county botany for many years ; and told him 

 of my suspicion and expectation that the plant might be 

 found somewhere around the lake, on the rocks surrounding 

 it. I regret to say that on visiting the locality with his son, 

 he was unable to find any trace of it. He hopes to lenew 

 the search next summer. 



