42 



BRITISH BOTANY. 



S. Sophia, Lin. Fliwweed. — e.b. 963. l.b.s. 104. 



A. 16. C. 60. Lat. 50-58°. Alt. 0-200 yds. Tem. 51-47°. 



Root annual, tapering, with lateral fibres. Stem erect, branch- 

 ing, leafy, round, pubescent. Leaves 2-3, pinnate [bipinnate, 

 with pinnatifid linear narrow segments) . Petals shorter than the 

 calyx {very minute, erect, spatulate, greenish, inconspicuous; some- 

 times obsolete). Pods slender, linear, torulose, spreading, as- 

 cending, twice as long as the pedicels, with a very short point. 



In waste places and sandy fields ; not common. Annual ; June- 

 October. 



S. polyceratium, Lin. Reich. 4403. 



Stems erect, simple, or prostrate, with spreading erect branches, 

 leafy. Lower leaves runcinate, upper leaves hastate and toothed. 

 Flowers in pairs or in threes, rarely solitary in the axils of the 

 leaves. Sepals erect, longer than the peduncles. Clusters of the 

 fruit erect, leafy. Pods curved from the stems, glabrous or 

 hairy, with a thick spongy partition. Herbage fetid, and more 

 or less glabrous. 



Waste places and old walls ; France, al^out the Mediterranean. 

 t: j^^l "^^ the outskirts of Bury St. Edmund's; an escape from cul- 



tivation." (What is it cultivated for ?) Annual ; June-August, 



A writer in the ' Magazine of Natural History ' remarks : " I 

 think that it emanated from the garden of the late Sir T. G. 

 Cullum, Bart." 



S. pannonicum, Jacq. — A plant corresponding with the cha- 

 racters of S. pannonicum as understood by Grenier (Flore 

 Franfaise, p. 94) has been collected at Wandsworth Steam-boat 

 Pier for some years. Our plant has the following characters : — 

 , Stem erect, much branched, round, glabrous (upper and younger 

 branches only slightly downy) . Upper leaves all pinnatifid, with 

 long, linear, narrow lobes. Pods spreading, curved upwards, 

 very long (9-10 times as long as the stout pedicel), rounded, 

 compressed, with a thick spongy dissepiment. Seeds brown, 

 shagreened. 



;S^. Columnce, Jacq. — Stem rigid, erect, much branched. Leaves 

 rough; the lower runcinate_, the upper pinnate or hastate. 

 Pedicels stout, \-\ of an inch long, spreading, erect. Pods 

 spreading, erect, cylindrical, 3-4 inches long, crowned with the 

 2-lobed stigma, hairy. Seeds finely punctate, cylindrical. 



Both these exotics have grown at Wandsworth, plentifully (es- 



