85. R. GUNTHERI. 237 



I believe this to be the R. hirtus /3 Menkii of Lees 

 (1847), and of his Botany of Worcester^ from possessing a 

 specimen gathered, named and given to me by that botanist 

 in 1849 as R, Menk'd (W. and N.). It was gathered in 

 Shrawley wood, Worcestershire. 



It has been already remarked under R. ^^yrawiiVZct^is 

 that some botanists have been inclined to believe that that 

 plant is not really distinct from R. Gilntheri. It seems 

 to me that the differences between them are amply sufficient 

 to show a distinction of species, and I am glad to find that 

 Mr Boswell Svme is of that opinion {Eng. Bot. iii. 188). 

 Had the R. "pyrmnidalis been founded upon a few specimens 

 preserved in Herbaria, its distinctness might have seemed 

 to be doubtful ; but the plant has been carefully studied in 

 a living state, in the valley of Llanberis, where it is remark- 

 ably abundant, and luxuriant, and constant to its characters. 

 It also preserves it characters when raised from seed and 

 cultivated at Cambridge, but does not luxuriate in the dry 

 climate of that place, as in the damp one of North Wales. 

 Likewise, R. Giintheri always possesses the structure de- 

 scribed above, wherever it has been found. Mr Lees, whose 

 opinion is of much value from the careful attention which 

 he has paid to Ruhl, separated R. fyraniidalis from its ally 

 in the year 1849, and conferred upon it the name of 

 R. longithyrsiger, as I learn from a specimen from him 

 which is preserved in my Herbarium. I cannot learn that 

 he ever published that name with or without a description 

 of the plant. He now [Bot. of Wore.) places my R. pyra- 

 midalls under his R. Menkii (not of W. and N.), and 

 separates the species from R. Gilntlieri. He also states that 

 his R. tJiyrsiJlorus (Steele^ s Handb. 6Q) is "a very dilated state" 

 of this species. The straight rigid rachis, pyramidal panicle, 

 want of felt on the under side of the leaves, and stronir 

 prickles of R. pyramidalis, seem to be markedly different 



