1918-19.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 321 



Notes from Cannock Chase on Vaccinium inter- 

 medium, RuTHE. By Captain W. Balfour Gourlay, 

 M.C., R.A.M.C. 



(Read 9tli October 1919.) 



Vaccinium intermediuin is a natural hybrid between 

 the Bilberry, Blaeberry, or Whortleberry {V. Myrtillus, 

 Liini.), and the Cowberry {V. Vitis-Idaea, Linn.). Previ- 

 ously reported as occurring in a few places in Germany ^ 

 — Euthe's original specimens being gathered in 1826, — it 

 was first recognised in Gi-eat Britain in August 1886 by 

 Professor T. G. Bonney, who found it growing on Cannock 

 Chase, in the centre of Statlbrdshire, in company wnth 

 Bilberr}- and Cowberry. The plant was described by 

 Mr. N. E. Brown, and illustrated in the Journal of the 

 Linnean Societ3^ xxiv, 125, pi. iii, the paper being read 

 on May 5, 1887. 



As early as 1870- an unusual form of Vaccinium had 

 been discovered by D. Ball, Es(|., F.R.C.8., in Maer Woods, 

 near Whitn^iore (N.W. Statlbrdshire). Specimens of the 

 plant were minutely examined by Mr. Ball and sent, with 

 a description, to Mr. Robert Garner. Fruiting specimens 

 were gathered in 1871. Mr. Garner, who firmly believed 

 the plant to be a hj^brid, showed these specimens to the 

 Linnean Society on March 7, 1872, to illustrate a paper ^ 

 "On a Hybrid Vaccinium between the Bilberry (F. 

 2fyi'fillus) and the Cowberry (V. Vitis-Idaea).'' This 

 paper, however, failed to convince the Society as to the 

 hybrid nature of the plants, " the general opinion elicited 

 by their examination being that they were a luxuriant 

 state of V. Vitis-Idaea, due to situation, rather than a 

 hybrid." However, after Mr. Brown had read his paper 

 in 1887, he receiv^ed a letter from Mr. Garner concernmg 

 the specimens from Maer Woods. These Mr. Brown 



1 VacciniiDih intermedium, Riitlie, Flora der Mark Brandenburg und 

 der Xiederlan.silz, 377, pi. 1. 



- Hardwicke's Science Gossip (1872), 248, "A Curions British Plant," 

 bv R. Garner. 

 "3 Journ. of Bot. (1872), 122. 



