1048 



Centranthus ruler. Cliffs aud walls about Aucher Head, perhaps 

 naturalized. 



Artemisia maritima, y. salina (?). 



Centaurea nigra^ &. radiata, Bab. 



Carduus acaulis. 



Lin aria minor. 



repens. At Locking. 



Scutellaria galericulata. 



Nepeta cataria. 



Samolus Valerandi. 



Spiranthes autumnalis. 



Iris foetidissima. 



Phalaris Canariensis. 



Ceterach officinarum. On the rocks of Woi'lebury Hill, and very 

 common on almost every wall in the neighbourhood. 



I have omitted three or four rare plants which are known by every 

 botanist to exist in this neighbourhood. 



F. J. A. HoRT. 



Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 November 5, 1847. 



Note on Centaurea nigra, var. radiata, and C. nigrescens. 

 By Fenton J. A. Hort, Esq. 



In reference to the controversy now continuing respecting the 

 Centaurea nigra, /3. radiata, and the C. nigrescens of Babington, I 

 may mention that in ascending one of the Cotswolds in September, 

 from Cheltenham, by one of the beautiful grassy, bushy lanes so nu- 

 merous in that locality, I was attracted by the unusual appearance of 

 a plant: it proved a Centaurea, with larger, paler, and at the same 

 timebrighter flowers, and leaves and whole habit paler and more delicate 

 than the common C. nigra with rays, which grows most abundantly 

 in the neighbourhood, in fact quite as abundantly as the normal form 

 without rays. I observed that, as in the C. nigrescens of Babington, 

 " about the three innermost rows" of the involucral appendages were 

 " separated from the rest and exposing the scales ;" and I noticed 

 the same character in some mutilated and wretched specimens which 

 I found a few days after, again struck with the peculiar colour. The 

 other characters appeared to agree with both descriptions equally 

 well ; but the difference in the general appearance and habit could 



