763 



Polygonum aviculare. In some one or other of its multitudinous 

 forms a most abundant weed throughout the county and Isle of 

 Wight, in almost all soils and situations. Var. a. segetale; stems 

 erect, sometimes prostrate, more or less (often copiously) branched, 

 very slender, filiform and wiry, flowers remote, leaves small, narrow 

 lanceolate, acute. Abundant in corn stubbles after harvest : the 

 Wire-weed of the Isle of Wight. Probably the P. virgatum of Loise- 

 leur Deslongchamps, as suggested by Babington (Man. p. 275). 

 Var. (3. Stems short, thickish, prostrate, much branched, spreading 

 mostly in a circular form, flowers and leaves very small, crowded, the 

 latter elliptic lanceolate or oblong. In sandy ground by the sea. 

 Betwixt Ryde and Sea View, October 2nd, 1845. I believe not at 

 all uncommon on our Hampshire shores, and certainly a remarkable 

 variety, but having neglected to make further notes of its occurrence, 

 I will not trust to memory for additional localities. Were it not that 

 I hesitate to give utterance to a word of such sesquipedalian length, 

 I would have headed this last form herniarioides, for so strong is the 

 resemblance it bears to Herniaria glabra or ciliata, and their places of 

 growth so analogous, that I have more than once been cheated into 

 the momentary belief that I had rediscovered the Herniaria formerly 

 found, according to Martyn, at Portsmouth. The first variety is not 

 less remarkable, and reminds one strongly of Bupleurum tenuissimum 

 in its habit of growth. A much branched, large and prostrate form, 

 with large opaque fruit (P. littorale, Link ?), occurs here and there 

 on our island sea-shores (see next species below) ; and lastly we have 

 another state of this most multifarious plant, with remarkably large 

 and broad obovate leaves, which grows by the path-side above the 

 cliffs of Sandown Bay and elsewhere, and comes very near the Ame- 

 rican P. erectum, if not identical with that plant, reduced by Dr. Gray 

 (Man. of the Bot. of the Northern United States) to a variety of P. 

 aviculare. 



Rail. On sandy sea-shores ; very rare ? A doubtful 



native of the Isle of Wight. On waste ground opposite Plumbley's 

 Hotel, Freshwater Gate, and at Brook, I found what I believed to be 

 this species some years since, but having preserved no specimens 

 from these localities, I am at present unable to confirm it as an 

 inhabitant of the island. I have a fine specimen of a plant labelled 

 P. Rah, which I found on the shore betwixt Sea View and the Priory, 

 near Ryde, July 26th, 1837, with a reference to the figure and de- 

 scription of that species in E. B. Supplem. iii. t. 2805, appended, as 

 if carefully compared therewith, and found identical. But on exa- 



