997 



from nigi'a ? There would really appear to be none. We see in the 

 above citation the terms of description of the calyx-scales are only 

 slightly varied, and in fact I cannot discover in the Malvern radiated 

 and non-radiated plants any difference whatever in the ciliation of 

 the scales ; all the lower ones are ciliated, the upper ones more or 

 less torn. Attention is indeed called under nigrescens more particu- 

 larly to the foliage, and it would thus appear by leaving out any no- 

 tice of radical leaves under C. nigra, as if nigrescens had a pecu- 

 liarity in having its radical leaves obsoletely pinnatifid, its middle 

 ones only subdentate, and its upper ones entire. But this is a mere 

 delusion ; for the very same thing is observable in the true herma- 

 phrodite nigra, of which Smith remarks in Eng. Flora, " Lower leaves 

 somewhat lyrate, partly stalked, finely toothed, upper sessile, either 

 partly toothed near the base, or quite entire." So under C. Jacea 

 the French author denotes a variety with radical leaves sinuato-den- 

 tate. In fact, on collecting a series of radical leaves from both the 

 radiant and non-radiant plants at Malvern, I found it impossible to 

 draw up any satisfactory description that would without exception 

 apply to either of them as different from the other. The radiant seemed 

 in general to have the broader leaves with less elongated foot-stalks, 

 but then in other specimens they would be quite as narrow as those 

 of C. nigra, and a deeply cut or sinuato-dentate leaf would appear 

 close beside an ovate and only subdentate one. The middle leaves, 

 however, I found in both to be most frequently pinnatifid, and the 

 upper ones ahvays narrow, entire and sessile ; none even in nigra so 

 broad as shown in Eng. Bot. t. 278. With regard to the alleged 

 darker aspect of the foliage in C. nigra I must confess that I could in 

 this respect perceive very little difference between the radiant and 

 non-radiant forms, though the specious and elegant external florets 

 of the former gave quite a garden aspect to its flowers, which was of 

 course not the case with the dense, compact heads of nigra; but there 

 was no difference whatever in the colour of the scales. 



I think, then, that while the character of the scales of the calyx in 

 C. Jacea, and their permanency of aspect requires to be looked into 

 from an examinaiion of Sussex and continental specimens ; that C. 

 nigrescens has no character sufficiently important to separate it from 

 nigra, and that it must stand as a variety of that species, while pro- 

 bably the &. of nigra with radiant flowers is in reality the same 

 thing. 



I must state, in conclusion, however, that I have never found a ra- 



VoL. II. G I 



