NOTES ON INTERESTING PLANTS. 51 
l. G. Menziesii. 
Anadyomene Menziesii, Harvey, Boreali-Amer. iii. 52. 
Has. Gulf of Mexico, Archibald Menzies, Esq., 1802, in B. Mus. 
(To be concluded in our nert.) 
A FEW CRITICAL, LITTLE KNOWN, OR OTHERWISE 
INTERESTING PLANTS 
By H. F. Hance, Pu.D., etc. 
1. Capsella pauciflora, Koch.—This exceedingly rare little thing was 
first distinguished by the late Professor Koch, who considered it as 
very different from Æ. elliptica, C.A.M., by its abbreviated few-flowered 
subumbellate racemes, with a much more slender rachis, its longer 
fruit-pedicels, and its more branching stem, with the branches bearing 
from their base leaf-opposed partial racemes. —Bertoloni, who belonged 
to the old school of botanists, and was very cautious in admitting 
species except on well-marked characters, nevertheless considered this 
as one, though there is little in his distinguishing phrase (Fl. Ital. vi 
572), to support the opinion. I have not access to Dou 
Tyrolese Flora, and do not therefore know what are his views with 
regard to this plant; but I am not aware that, since it was first cha- 
racterized, any botanist has contested its claim to specifie rank, except 
my friend Dr. Ferdinand Mueller, who writes (Plants Indig. to Vic- 
toria, p. 44, sub Capsella elliptica), C. pauciflora, Koch, seems merely 
a few-flowered “variety of this species." A careful examination of 
excellent specimens from the Val Vestina, in the Italian Tyrol, for 
which I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Parlatore, certainly 
inclines me to agree with Dr. Mueller; indeed, I can find- nothing 
noteworthy to separate the two so-called species. It is true that C. 
elliptica is usually taller and less branched from the base, but Held- 
reich's specimens from the Phaleron, near Athens, are quite as ramose 
from the very column. With regard to the tenuity of the rachis, and 
the length of the fruit-pedicels, I ean detect no difference whatever 
between the Tyrolese plant and authentic German specimens of C. 
elliptica, y. integrifolia, given me by Professor Mettenius. The few- 
flowered racemes, Spon which stress is chiefly laid, certainly cannot 
E 2 
MISSO TRY 
IE re ITA NA 
