47 



12. Hieracium Lawsoni, (Smitlt). Distributed to show the increas- 

 ed number of flowers on plants growing free from the suffocation of 

 other species, but not in rich soil, in a garden. The wild plants have 

 commonly from two to five flowers; the garden plants ten to fifty. 

 Some correspondents of the ' Phytologist ' have appeared to attach 

 high importance to the number of flowers, and small differences in the 

 form of inflorescence, among the Hieracia. They are, however, ex- 

 tremely variable in both respects. The specific name of H. umbel- 

 latum expresses its usual inflorescence, of some five to twenty flowers; 

 but I have seen this converted into a panicle, with upwards of a hun- 

 dred flowers, on wild specimens. Smith's H. sabaudum is by no 

 means rare with only a dozen, half-a-dozen, or even fewer flowers ; 

 yet I have counted very near one thousand on the same stem, or, ex- 

 cluding four strong branches near the base, five hundred and ninety 

 six. This large specimen was growing on the south-eastern slope of 

 a railway-embankment, made from chalk and sterile sand ; and in the 

 dry summer of the present year, 1844. Its luxuriance probably arose 

 fiom the humidity of the preceding summer of 1843, favouring the 

 production of a crown of many leaves, and the free space for its roots, 

 in the railway mound but sparsely clothed with vegetation. 



13. Veronica officinalis, [Linn.) Few specimens in which the 

 young capsules are scarcely emarginate, and in so far approach to the 

 character of V. hirsuta {Hopk.), while the leaves remain clearly those 

 of V. officinalis. I have, however, seen much better examples, where 

 the advanced capsule of V. hirsuta was produced on luxuriant plants 

 of V. officinalis. 



14. Veronica humifusa, {Dicks.) Garden specimens approximating 

 to V. serpyllifolia. In the wild state, V. humifusa has usually a sim- 

 ple, or little-branched, stem, of two or three inches in length. A 

 plant of it brought from the Highlands in 1841, grew vigorously in 

 the two next years, but produced no flowers. In 1844, a portion of 

 the original plant covered a space of ground five or six feet in cir- 

 cumference, and was so much branched as to produce hundreds of 

 flowering racemes : it died during the long drought of that autumn. 



Hewett C. Watson. 



Thames Ditton, December 26, 1844. 



