THE PHYTOLOGIST. 



Occurrence of Filago spatulata at Inworth, Essex. 

 By E. G. Varenne, Esq. 



If you and your readers are not yet quite tired of communications 

 respecting Filago germanica, and its near allies, perhaps you will al- 

 low me to record the occurrence of Filago spatulata, Presl, in a field 

 of cultivated land at Inworth, in this county, where it was growing 

 in great profusion about the end of last month. 



It may serve as a hint to botanists (who pursue their researches in 

 agricultural districts in the autumn months) not to neglect to secure 

 specimens when opportunity serves, to state that two or three days 

 after discovering the plant, on visiting the locality with the view of 

 obtaining a few specimens for distribution, I found the field entirely 

 ploughed up and the habitat temporarily destroyed. 



Filago spatulata is large and straggling, furnished with numerous 

 loose leaves, which are all more or less spathulate, and nearly entirely 

 conceal the young clusters of flowers. It bears a rough resemblance 

 to large specimens of Gnaphalium uliginosum, and would have been 

 passed over for the latter had not a few plants been gathered for ex- 

 amination. The mode of growth of this species in assuming the pros- 

 trate form is peculiar, and perhaps worthy of notice. In the few spe- 

 cimens which attempted to grow erect, the branches hung downwards 

 from the stem, somewhat after the manner of the branches of the 

 weeping ash. A form with a short upright stem, from the lowermost 

 portion of which several trailing branches were given off, was found 

 about Kelvedon during the past summer. 



The heads of flowers, when fully developed, have very little hairi- 

 ness or down on the outer surface of the scales ; the number in the 

 cluster in those examined was about twelve. The clusters are neither 

 numerous nor very conspicuous ; and the regular divaricating charac- 

 ter of the branches, as usually found in Filago germanica, is not to 

 be met with in the Inworth specimens of Filago spatulata. 



E. G. Varenne. 



Kelvedon, Essex, November 13, 1848. 



Vol. hi. 3 e 



