16 



and several other plants which rewarded our researches the same day. 

 One specimen of Pinguicula vulgaris which we then gathered, has the 

 flower-stalk divided, at about half an inch from the base, into four 

 branches, of different heights, each bearing a solitary flower at the 



summit. 



Mr. Leighton does not mention the irritability exhibited by this 

 species of Pinguicula, nor is it alluded to by either Smith or Hooker. 

 When the plant is dug up the leaves bend backwards and downwards, 

 so as completely to conceal the root ; the flower-stalks also become 

 cm-ved. This action we have frequently observed in the Pinguicula 

 vulgaris ; but as we have never had an opportunity of collecting 

 either of the other British species, we are not aware whether they also 

 exhibit the same irritability ; the leaves of our specimens of Pin.alpina 

 are however deflexed quite as much as those of vulgaris, whence we 

 infer that the two species are thus acted on in an equal degree ; in 

 our specimens of Lusitanica and grandijlora the leaves are not at all 

 deflexed. 



Rhijnchofspora alba, Vahl. Two varieties of this species are record- 

 ed as growing with its usual form, and in nearly equal abundance, at 

 Bomere Pool and on Twyford Vownog, near Westfelton ; one with the 

 corymb as long as the outer bracteas, and the other having the spike- 

 lets in a somewhat oval head, shorter than the outer bracteas. For 

 other particulars relating to this species and Rhyn.fusca, see ' Mag. 

 Nat. Hist.', viii. 675. 



Referring to Festuca pratensis, Huds. and Fes.arundinacea,^chxeb. 

 [Fes. elatior, Linn.; E. Fl. i. 148; E.Bot. 1593; Hook. Br. Fl. 50), at 

 p. 51, Mr, Leighton remarks, " After a careful comparison of the two 

 preceding very closely allied species, I have been unable to discover 

 any satisfactory characteristic distinctions, and am induced to consider 

 them only as modifications of the same plant. The chief differences 

 assuredly consist in the larger size of F. arundinacea, the ovato-lan- 

 ceolate not linear form of the spikelets, and the number of florets, yet 

 all these may possibly depend on soil and situation producing a more 

 vigorous growth and a suppression of development in the florets. No 

 dependance can be placed on the awns of the corolla, since they are 

 equally present or absent in both plants, nor on the roots, which are 

 in both somewhat creeping and the fibres downy. In deference, how- 

 ever, to the authority of our British Floras, they are here retained as 

 separate species." 



(To be continued). 



