459 



ficient to enable him to judge if such was the case in the instances 

 depicted by him, but maintains that the Peloria violets which form 

 the subject of the present communication "owe their monstrous regu- 

 larity to a very different phenomenon, viz., the effort of an irregular 

 flower to become regular by the multiplication and symmetricaliza- 

 tion of its irregular parts.'''' 



Dates of the Flowering of British Plants. 

 By Isaiah W. N. Keys, Esq. 



August 19, 1848. Atriplex rosea luxuriant on the embankment of 

 the Laira, the embouchure of the river Plym, near Plymouth. Many 

 plants in ripe fruit. Hooker, " Fl. Sept." The surface of the em- 

 bankment just named is formed of slates vertically placed, between 

 which the roots of the Atriplex descended to the depth in some in- 

 stances of a foot or more. Remarked here the leaves of Tussilago 

 Farfara. This is an additional instance (Phytol. iii. 307) of the va- 

 riety of soil on which this plant grows. On the borders of the salt- 

 water ditch adjoining this embankment, the Sonchus arvensis (mark, 

 arvensis !) is colonized in a very rank condition. I have examined 

 this plant repeatedly, and can make nothing else of it. Mr. Babing- 

 ton, to whom I have shown it, calls it by this name. I should be 

 glad to learn whether any of your correspondents have elsewhere no- 

 ticed a similar eccentricity in this plant. It certainly has gone far 

 from its wonted abode in roving from the corn-field to the brink of a 

 salt ditch. Within a few yards of it grow Juncus lamprocarpus and 

 J. conglomeratus, Carex divulsa, " et hoc genus ot?ine." 



August 21. No flowering-period for Melissa officinalis being 

 mentioned in the 'Manual of Botany,' I may record having gathered 

 it this day, near Alphington. As this plant is considered merely 

 " naturalized," it may be interesting to mention that it grows near 

 some cottages at Rame, Cornwall (about six miles from Plymouth) ; 

 and that one of its habitats in this neighbourhood has been recently 

 destroyed by the South Devon railway. Lycopsis arvensis in flower 

 on the road-side, near Exminster. Hooker, " Fl. June, July.' Ba- 

 bington, " 6, 7." Also, Chelidonium majus in fl. Hooker, "Fl. May, 

 June." Babinglon is right : he says " 5—8." Epilobium hirsutum 

 in fl. Hooker, " Fl. July." Babington is right here also : " 7, 8." 

 Myosotis csespitosa in fl. Hooker, " Fl. May, June." Babington, 



