486 



Centaurea nigra, radiate varieties. I have dried a few specimens 

 of two varieties of C. nigra, which grow very sparingly in my own 

 neighbourhood. In the one which is labelled as " C. nigra, var. ra- 

 diata," many of the outer florets, two, or even three rows, are longer 

 than the rest, giving to the flower-head a semi-double, rather than a 

 truly radiate appearance. This variety occurs on the borders of 

 fields, single plants here and there, intermingled with the ordinary C. 

 nigra, from which it differs only in the slight peculiarity mentioned. In 

 the other variety or species a few of the outer florets, usually a single 

 row, are very much longer than the rest, giving quite a radiate ap- 

 pearance to the flower-head. This variety occurs by road-sides and 

 on hedge-banks, not by single plants only, but several in a locality, 

 scattered chiefly about the borders of coppices, where the soil is very 

 sandy. I have labelled it " C. nigrescens," although the specimens 

 have not the other character given to that alleged species, namely, 

 the separation of the two or three innermost rows of involucral ap- 

 pendages from the rest ; while those of the other less radiate form do 

 show that character in some degree. But the character is utterly 

 worthless as a distinction ; for I have seen it well marked in living 

 plants of the ordinary C. nigra, totally rayless ; and it can be pro- 

 duced by the process of pressing the specimens. I may observe 

 here, while alluding to the Centaurese, that C. Jacea is a common 

 continental species, to be seen in every collection of European 

 plants ; and that the plant of the Belfast locality was the true spe- 

 cies, unless I mis-remember the specimen in Smith's herbarium. All 

 the English and Scottish specimens, which I have seen labelled as 

 C. Jacea, belonged to C. nigrescens. 



Various. None of the other plants seem to require special notice 

 or explanation. Mr. Bentall sends some neat little specimens of 

 Lathyrus Aphaca, in an early stage of growth, in order to show the 

 true leaves, which are replaced by the enlarged stipules in the more 

 advanced growth. By the by, if any recommendation of 'Bentall's 

 drying paper ' were still required, the beautiful condition of Mr. Tho- 

 mas Bentall's specimens would well furnish this. Mr. Ward sends 

 the radiate form of Bidens cernua, from Bolton-on-Swale, near Rich- 

 mond, Yorkshire. Mr. Moore sends some slight varieties of ferns. 

 Dr. Steele sends an Albino variety of Euphrasia Odontites, with 

 white flowers and pale green stems. But the labels of these and 

 some other things will sufficiently explain what they are. They are 

 distributed with the new and dubious species, because they cannot be 



