978 



shrubs had been dug up from native localities, and about their own 

 roots came various bits of turf containing fresh roots of herbaceous 

 plants destitute of leaves. These were carefully placed in pots, and 

 they produced, among other things, a plant of the Lysimachia, which 

 differed much from those previously in my possession ; the differences 

 bringing the Azoric species so far towards the British L. nemorum. 

 The stems and branches of this example from St. Michael's were far 

 longer, and more prostrate, than those of the plants raised from the 

 seeds collected in Fayal ; and they soon became fixed to the ground 

 by roots thrown out from their joints. And on producing flowers, the 

 sepals were found to have the narrow and acute form observed in L. 

 nemorum. In short, in most respects the plant from St. Michael's 

 stands as an intermediate form, or a connecting link, between the L. 

 nemorum of Europe and my other examples of L. azorica from Fayal. 

 Mr. Hunt likewise sent dried specimens from the island of St. 

 Michael's ; and most of these correspond with the living plant from 

 the same island, although some of them do evince a tendency to as- 

 sume tlie peculiarities of the Fayal plants. 



The result is, that I am no longer able to write down any technical 

 character by which L. azorica can be clearly distinguished from L. 

 nemorum ; and yet, whether living or dried, I can readily know one 

 from the other when the examples are before me. 1 requested Mr. 

 Demies to send out, through the parcels from London, two specimens 

 of L. azorica, as far as the number would allow, in order to show both 

 forms, that with the narrow, and that with the broad sepals. On 

 placing these by the side of L. nemorum the recipients will see the 

 difficulty of distinguishing between them by written characters, while 

 they may still be unable perfectly to match the L. azorica by any 

 native examples of L. nemorum. It would, hovrever, be highly 

 desirable to find some British or European specimens intermediate, if 

 such exist, between the ordinary L. nemorum and the St. Michael's 

 form or variety of L. azorica, so as to complete the transition from the 

 Fayal form into the British. 



Taking the two forms of L. azorica together, they are distinguish- 

 able from the ordinary L. nemorum of Britain, by their less creeping 

 stems ; by leaves more obtuse, usually narrower, paler in colour, more 

 rigid in consistence, more numerous and closer on the stems ; by the 

 sepals being rarely, if ever, quite so narrow ; by greater susceptibility 

 to frost. As yet, I have raised only the Fayal form from seed ; and 

 that, as before intimated, comes true and unchanged. When growing 

 wild among other herbage, the L. nemorum of Britain does not throw 



