1138 



fact is, C. rubrum is a very variable plant, and some peculiar form of 

 it may be mistaken for C. botryodes by those who have not had the 

 opportunity of seeing living specimens of the latter; and thus they 

 have been thought not distinct. It would not be easy to decide the 

 question from preserved specimens, as they lose much of their charac- 

 ter in the process of drying. 



One fact connected with C. botryodes will, I think, be interesting 

 to botanists. It grows in the greatest profusion and beauty (for it is 

 a handsome plant) where mud has been thrown out of ditches during 

 the summer, and where grass has not had time to grow. Four or five 

 days since, I found a considerable number of specimens in a marsh, 

 where it had not appeared before for several years, as I have visited 

 the spot constantly in my botanical walks. This place is two miles 

 distant from where I usually find the plant, and two rivers intervene. 

 I can only account for its sudden appearance, by supposing that the 

 seeds lie dormant at the bottom of the ditches, preserving their vege- 

 tative power, until a favourable opportunity offers for them to grow, 

 when cast out with the mnd. The plant does not grow on the same 

 spot on the following year after its appearance in this manner, except 

 in small quantity, as it will not thrive among grass. I went to one 

 station last year, to gather specimens for Dr. Wood, and found to my 

 dismay, that the spot was buried beneath heaps of mud. In three 

 weeks after, an abundant crop of C. botryodes was the result. Scarce- 

 ly a specimen growls there this season, although thousands of seeds 

 must have fallen on the soil, now nearly covered with grass and.Atri- 

 plex patula. In proof that the seeds in these cases were in the mud, 

 wherever the latter was scattered about the marsh, as it was in several 

 places, there grew C. botryodes in profusion. 



I should feel greatly obliged to any botanist who would furnish me 

 with a specimen of C. ficifolium in flower and in fruit; and I should 

 be happy to give him, in return, good specimens of C. botryodes. 

 They might be sent by post. 



Geo. Fitt. 

 Nth. Yarmouth, Oct. 15, 1844. 



Art. CCLIV. — Varieties. 



528. Note on the Spotted Hieracia. Discordant opinions have 

 been given respecting the correct specific names of our hawkweeds 

 which bear leaves stained with black or purple, (Phytol. 741, 801, 



