61 



Art. XXIII. — Varieties; Original and Select. 



21. Cnieus Forsteri I saw growing by hundreds last month in a piece of marshy 

 ground fonnerly part of Ditton Common ; at least it was the plant I previously found 

 near Weybridge and sent to Sir W. Hooker. It was growing with various numbers 

 of flowers from one up to four, each on a separate and generally a long stalk. On com- 

 paring it with the books both English and foreign, and especially with Decandolle's 

 description of his Cirsium anglicum (our Cnieus pratensis), I have little doubt that it 

 is merely a variety of that, and that C. Forsteri, as you suggested, has no existence as 

 a species. — /. S. Mill ; Kensington, July 13, 1841. 



22. Note on British Lycopodia. From what I read in " The Phytologist " I am 

 led to infer that any notice of fresh localities of our British Lycopodia, (especially in 

 the Midland Counties, where these plants are comparatively rare), may not be entirely 

 without interest. Three out of our six native species I have formerly found on Coles- 

 hill Heath (especially near Coleshill Pool), Warwickshire; viz. Lycopodium Selago, 

 clavatiim and inundatum ; — all however, seem now to have disappeared ; at least no 

 one of the three have I been able to meet with at the above station for some years 

 past. Many years ago, when quite a boy, and in company with my father, I remem- 

 ber to have seen a single plant of Lye. Selago growing in the bog below the pool. 

 This was the only specimen I ever saw, or heard of being found, in the neighbourhood ; 

 and as we gathered it, thinking it a prize, I suppose we put a finishing stroke to 

 its existence in that situation. Lye. clavatum was met with in some abundance. 

 People knowing nothing of Botany were struck with the beauty of the plant, and used 

 to gather long strings of it, hanging them in festoons round their looking-glasses and 

 picture-frames, to adorn their rooms. I have failed to meet with the plant in its old 

 quarters for some years, and I attribute its non-appearance to the growth of young 

 plantations, the trees of which have overshadowed the ground, and in great measure 

 destroyed the vegetation beneath. For the non-appearance now-a-days of Lye. inun- 

 datum I am at a loss to account, because the parts where it grew (the shores of Coles- 

 hill pool), remain much in the same state as formerly, and would seem to be peculiarly 

 suitable to the growth of the plant, being always moist, and occasionally overflowed. 

 But after repeated searches in the very spots where it used to grow plentifully, I have 

 for some years past failed to find it. A like fate, I may add, ( though the fact has 

 nothing to do with Botany), seems to have befallen the beautiful little Polyommatus 

 Argus in the above district. We used to take it in great abundance : indeed, as a 

 boy, I was more familiar with this species than with the common Pol. Alexis; but 

 now we cannot find a single specimen. True it is Coleshill Heath has been greatly 

 curtailed byinclosures and cultivation since the days I have alluded to ; still however, 

 considerable tracts yet remain in statu quo : the dryer parts purpled over with the 

 three common kinds of heath, the bogs a sheet of gold in their season with the blos- 

 soms of Narthecium, and abounding with Oxycoccus, Coraarum, Eriophorum, Me- 

 nyanthes, &c., &c., but no Polyommatus Argus, no Lycopodium inundatum, so far as 

 recent researches can discover. — W. T. Bree ,•* Allesley Rectory, August 12, 1841 . 



23. New British Narciss^ls P I have now for some years cultivated in the garden a 

 very handsome daff"odil, which was found wild by a friend of mine, near Tenby in 

 Pembrokeshire, and is quite distinct from any other British Narcissus that I am ac- 

 quainted with. The late Mr. Haworth, to whom I sent it in 1830, considered it new 



* lu a letter to E. Newman. 



