305 
ON THE NEWFOUNDLAND HEATHER. 
By BrenTHOLD Seemann, Pu.D., F.L.S. 
(Pirate LIII.) 
Dr. D. Moore has kindly supplied me with fresh specimens of the 
Heather which he received some years ago from Newfoundland, and 
which has been growing since then side by side with the common 
European Heather in the Glasnevin Gardens. It did not escape so 
acute an observer as Dr. Moore that biologically the Newfoundland 
Heather was different from the common British one ; that whilst the 
Newfoundland one always suffered from frost, and turned brown during 
the mild Irish winter, the common British form, growing by its side, 
was unaffected by cold, and retained its usual green colour. So what- 
ever opinion botanists may arrive at respecting the systematic value 
of the Newfoundland Heather as a species, variety, or form, no argu- 
ment can possibly set aside the biological distinction observed between 
the two. 
At first sight the two plants look so very distinct that one could 
not possibly confound them, and nothing would seem easier than to 
orm a good diagnosis for the two. But that is by no means the 
case. The leaves of the Newfoundland plant are always closely ad- 
pressed to the stem; those of Calluna vulgaris are generally patent ; 
the pedicels of the Newfoundland plant are always naked ; those of 
the true C. vulgaris are, especially those of the lowest flowers, folia- 
ceous, so that they form little branchlets, terminating in a solitary 
flower (Fig. 7) ; whilst the sepals and petals of the Newfoundland 
plant are ovate and inflexed, those of the common British Heather 
are rather oblong and not inflexed. 
Again, in the Newfoundland plant the tip of the flowering branches 
does not put forth fresh shoots whilst the flowering lasts; but in the 
common British Heather a fresh shoot issues when the flowering is 
at its height. I confess I should have liked to have been able to give 
more definite characters, but for the present I shall not be able to do 
so, having to defer the final settlement of the question to next season. 
At one time I thought that the length of the style offered an additional 
tangible character, but I find that that varies considerably, there being 
long and short-styled forms in our common British Heather. However, 
I fully believe that the Newfoundland plant is a distinct species, which I 
VOL. IV. [OCTOBER 1, 1866.] x 
