ON WHITE-FLOWEEED VARIETIES OF BKITISH PLA>3TS. ?35 
side of tlie leaf, and stem are rougher and more hairy in the Irish 
plant ; besides, the margins of its leaves are bluntly dentate. 
Koch remarks on Inula saUcma : " Variat rarius caule foliisque 
hirtis." 
The discovery of this plant in the British Isles adds another link to 
the interesting chain of evidence, which has lately been much strength- 
ened, showing the existence, on the western shores of Ireland, of both 
south and central European plants, which do not reach Great Britain 
proper. 
ON WHITE-rLOWEKED VAEIETIES OE BRITISH 
PLANTS. 
r 
4 
By James Bbitten, Esq. 
The valuable paper " On Plants producing Double Flowers " which 
recently appeared in the 'Journal of Botany' suggested to me the 
idea that a list of those British plants "which, usually producing 
coloured blossoms, occasionally vary in having these wdiite, might be 
of some small interest to the reader. I have therefore drawn up the 
following list, })artly from books and partly from my own observation, 
from which it will be found that out of the (about) 1000 British 
plants producing flowers in the ordinary sense of the term, i. e, ex- 
cluding the Jmicacem and lower Orders, and also those species the 
corolla of which is usually white, no less than 142 occasionally depart 
from their usual habits, and pi'oduce white blossoms. From the list 
it will also be seen that plants, in the blossoms of wliich red is the 
prevailing shade, are most liable to vary in this manner. Next in 
order come those which have blue flowers, while similar varieties of 
species producing yellow flowers are comparatively very few. The 
cause of this variation is frequently ascribed to an imagined peculia- 
rity in the soil in which the variety occurs ; but my own observation 
leads me to suppose that such, in many instances at least, is not the 
case, though I am unable to suggest any other solution to the problem. 
Some of the under-mentioned species, e, g. Belpldnium Comolida^ 
Jquilegia vulgaris, Folygala vulgaris, etc., may be found with blossoms 
of various hues in almost every locality in which they occur, while the 
majority but seldom vary. I have indicated the species of which I 
