316 



this instance Jordan's figures are less characteristic ; since that of F. 

 eriocephala, in general habit and ramification, far better represents 

 our ordinary F. germanica, than does his figure of F. canescens; and 

 the same holds true of Sagot's French specimens, which precisely ac- 

 cord with our F. germanica, growing in cultivated ground. When 

 the latter grows on dry hedge-banks and similar places, it is exactly 

 the plant represented by Jordan's figure of F. eriocephala, except in 

 being less cottony, and possibly having larger achenia. For the pre- 

 sent, therefore, I must regard Jordan's third and fourth species as a 

 single one only, sufficiently well represented by the plant so familiar 

 to British botanists under the name of F. germanica {Linn.). Boue's 

 Algerine specimens, labelled under the same name, have the copious 

 tomentum of F. eriocephala, but their achenia are too immature to 

 show their true size. The achenia of our common English F. ger- 

 manica are rather smaller than those of F. spatulata and F. apiculata ; 

 but 1 have seen no English specimen so densely cottony as those 

 from Africa. 



I take it, therefore, that we have three apparent species in Britain, 

 to which the names of germanica (or canescens), spatulata, and api- 

 culata must be applied respectively ; and these it will not be difficult 

 to distinguish whenever well grown specimens are examined. With 

 the exception of the Rev. G. E. Smith's Yorkshire specimens of F. 

 apiculata, all the British specimens in my own herbarium belonged to 

 F. germanica, until I began to seek particularly for the other two spe- 

 cies in this county ; and as I now find the F. germanica vastly more 

 abundant and general within a circuit of thirty miles, than either of 

 the others, it is probably the usual representative of the Linneau spe- 

 cies in herbaria ; and it is very well figured in English Botany. 



The other two species, spathulata and apiculata, are distinguished 

 at once from the former by the sharply pentagonal and conical form 

 of their heads, larger in size, and only about half as numerous in the 

 clusters ; as also by their achenia, which are larger and more shining. 

 From each other they are distinguishable by colour and ramification. 

 F. apiculata is more of a grass-green hue, its tomentum yellowish, 

 and scales crimson or purplish at their tips, especially in an early 

 stage of the flower. F. spathulata has a leaden-grey tint, with more 

 decidedly spathulate leaves, even those on the branches as well as 

 those at the base of the stem. The ramification is much more 

 spreading, giving a general habit more like that of Filago gallica, or 

 some species of Fedia, than is seen in either of the other two species, 

 in which the branches, if spreading at their bases, usually curve into 



