520 



Tragopogon pratensis, var. minor (T. minor, Fries). In meadows, 

 pastures, by way-sides, borders of fields, woods, and along hedges ; 

 not uncommon in the Isle of Wight, though seldom in any quantity 

 together. By the foot-way over the fields from Shanklin to Cook's 

 Castle, and in pastures betwixt Shanklin and Appuldurcombe, not 

 unfrequent. In the Lenten Pit, by Carisbrook, and a troublesome 

 weed on the grass plats at Thorley Vicarage, also here and there in 

 various parts of the island. Boarhunt (pronounced Borrunt) Lane, 

 near Fareham ; Mr. W. L. Notcutt (also the var. minor). Probably 

 frequent throughout the county. In all the specimens that have yet 

 come under my notice in Hants the involucres have much exceeded 

 the floi'ets in length, which is the only character, so far as I can dis- 

 cover, on which the T. minor of Fries is founded, an insufficient one 

 surely taken alone, seeing that in the true T. pratensis, X., the invo- 

 lucres are sometimes equal to, sometimes shorter than the florets ; 

 why, then, may they not occasionally exceed them, and why should 

 not the variety of T. pratensis, with the shorter involucres, be also a 

 species, since their abbreviation is accompanied by a difference in 

 the achenes, which are " quite smooth ?" 



f} porrifolius. In similar places with the last, but rare, 



and probably not indigenous to this island and county. A solitary 

 specimen picked at Sea View, near Hyde, some years since, \>y Miss 

 Theodora Price !! Scattered here and there in fields and on hedge- 

 banks about Sandown; Miss S. Lovell, 1846! Amongst grass at 

 Niton ; Mr. Curtis, Icon, in Brit. Entom. ix. t. 433 (ad exemplar ex 

 loco delin.). I have never fallen in with the purple goat's-beard in 

 this island myself, but unless one happens to be abroad betimes, the 

 chances of stumbling upon it are not great, as the flower-heads open 

 very early, and close again for the day before noon, after which the 

 plant may pass for the commoner T. pratensis, 'or escape notice alto- 

 gether, should the larger heads and the greatly more thickened 

 peduncles fail to attract attention. I found it very abundantly ten or 

 twelve years ago at the back of a house at Hythe near Southton, but 

 I should say doubtless escaped from some garden. Meadows near 

 Odiham church, plentifully ; Mr. J. Nash, according to Mr. Pamplin, 

 in New Bot. Guide (wild ?). Often found growing on waste ground 

 at Anglesey, but only the outcast of gardens ; Miss L. Minchin. 



Picris hieracioides. On banks, by road-sides, in waste ground, 

 along hedges, the borders of fields and woods ; very common in va- 

 rious parts of the Isle of Wight, though not generally diffused over 

 its surface, being mostly confined to the calcareous districts of East 



