764 



mining this specimen afresh, I find the nut dull, opaque, brown, and 

 copiously covered with minute points or granulations, and therefore 

 not corresponding to the account given by Mr. Babington of the fruit 

 of P. Raii. In all other respects, and in the nut exceeding the peri- 

 anth in length, it perfectly agrees with P. Raii. The root, and base 

 of the much-branched, pi'ostrate stem in my specimen has a woody, 

 perennial look, and reddish brown colour. I suppose it can only be 

 the maritime form of P. aviculare (P. littorale, Link ?), unless it may 

 be that the fruit becomes finally dull and striate by pressure and keep- 

 ing, as I can hardly believe myself to have overlooked the most ma- 

 terial character in determining this species from the commoner P. 

 aviculare. Near Muddiford, by Christchurch ; Mr. Borrer : from 

 whence the specimen in E. B. was drawn. 



Polygonum maritimum. On sandy sea-shores ; extremely rare, 

 and there is every reason to believe extinct in the only known Hamp- 

 shire station. Discovered upwards of a dozen years ago by Mr. 

 Borrer, on the sandy shore between Christchurch or Hengistbury 

 Head and Muddiford, but in a situation that exposed it to speedy de- 

 struction from the encroaching waves ! I searched for it this autumn 

 when exploring the neighbourhood of Christchurch, and found, as I 

 had expected, — not the plant, but the fulfilment of Mr. Borrer's pre- 

 diction concerning it. We may, however, reasonably hope for its re- 

 appearance on the same or some other part of the Hampshire line of 

 coast. Mr. H. C. Watson, whose caution and moderation in adopt- 

 ing new species entitles his opinion to the greatest weight, and who 

 is much in the habit of subjecting such recent promotions to the ad 

 crucem test of protracted cultivation, is perfectly satisfied that P. Raii 

 is hereditarily distinct from both P. aviculare and P. maritimum. It 

 would ill become me to set up a decided opinion against authority 

 like those of the three able botanists best acquainted with these spe- 

 eies, backed, as their views are, by the experimental results of Mr. 

 Watson, yet I cannot divest myself of a lurking suspicion that what- 

 ever may become of P. maritimum as a species, P. Raii will hereafter 

 be acknowledged as a variety only of P. aviculare. The ochreae are 

 the same in both, the length of the nut y as compared with the peri- 

 anth, confessedly liable to variation (in my dubious Ryde plant it is 

 quite as long as in the E. B. figure), the nut, it appears, may be both 

 shining and granulated, as well as granulated and without lustre (see 

 E. B. inloc.) ; the plant either apparently annual or apparently peren- 

 nial, and lastly, to crown all, " there is a maritime variety of P. avi- 



