58 THiRSK NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. [February, 



several specimens were distributed through thfe Botanical Society 

 of London. 



"Arenaria leptodados, Gussone. Mr. A. G. More has for- 

 warded from cultivated fields at Bembridge^ in the Isle of Wight, 

 specimens of a plant under this name. I find that I already 

 possess, marked 'A. serpyUifolia, var. tenuior,' Koch, what appears 

 to be the same, from the neighbourhood of Warwick, from Mr. T. 

 Kirk, and that I have gathered it in fallow fields in two stations 

 in North Yorkshire, neither of them very far from Thirsk. Pro- 

 bably it has often been collected in this country, and passed over 

 as serpyUifolia, but there does not seem to be any reason to doubt 

 that it is what has been described as a distinct species by various 

 recent Continental authors. As compared with genuine serpyUi- 

 folia, leptodados is greener in colour, and more graceful in its 

 habit of growth, the stems are more slender and more difiuse, 

 the panicles narrower and more elongated, not level at the top, 

 but mostly lengthened out into an irregular raceme, the hairs 

 upon the leaves and calyces longer, more spreading and more 

 conspicuous, the sepals sharper, thinner in texture, and more 

 strongly nerved, the capsules smaller in size, less ventricose in 

 shape, and more yielding under pressure. For information re- 

 specting it the works of Gussone, Reichenbach, Lloyd, Boreau, 

 and Godron may be consulted. By Lloyd, for the western de- 

 partments of France, leptodados is marked as 'very common,' 

 serpyUifolia as ' very rare.' With us it would seem to afiect cul- 

 tivated fields, and M. Crepin (' Notes sur quelques Plantes rares 

 ou critiques,' p. 7), who considers it to be a distinct species, 

 states that he meets with it in Belgium in similar places. Mr. 

 More also sends from the coast sandhills at St. Helen's, in the 

 Isle of Wight, specimens of another Arenaria, with viscid stems 

 and calyces, strongly and irregularly nerved sepals, as compared 

 with ordinary serpyUifolia, with heads much fewer in number, 

 and petals, sepals, capsules, and seeds much larger in size. Pro- 

 bably this is A. Lloydii, Jordan, Pug. Plant. Nov. p. 37, a plant 

 stated by Lloyd to be frequent on walls and sands near the sea 

 in western France. 



" Stellaria media, var. apetala. Mr. More also sends from the 

 Isle of Wight a slender, apetalous, fragile, clear-green Chickweed, 

 which is probably S. Borceana, Jordan, Pugil., iSi. apetala, Bo- 

 reau, PI. du Cent., 2nd edit. I have seen what I take to be the 



