Mr. C. C. Babington on Statice Dodartii and S. occidentalis. 403 



thentic specimen of >S^. Dodartii; but no',v possessing one in 

 Elliotts valuable ' Exsiccatse ' (No. 1054), I have again submitted 

 our plants to a careful examination. It was my opinion that 

 specimens gathered at Berry Head (Devon), Giltar Head (Pemb.), 

 and Pennard and Langland Bay (Glam.), were the true S. Do- 

 dartii, notwithstanding "a few slight discrepancies" in the de- 

 scription. But as a considerable addition has been gradually 

 made to my set of specimens, so has my opinion tended more 

 and more towards the belief that these plants ought not to be 

 separated from S. occidentalis : the receipt of Dr. Billot's spe- 

 cimen of the true ^. Dodartii shows that they are not identical 

 with it, and removes the only difficulty that I found in con- 

 sidering them all as S. occidentalis. 



The specific distinctness of S. Dodartii is still open to discus- 

 sion, but I do not possess the materials requisite for entering 

 upon so difficult an inquiry. All the more modern French 

 botanists— Godron, Lloyd, and Boreau, for instance— separate 

 them ; and assuredly the authentic specimens have a very dif- 

 ferent appearance, although it is not easy to define in botanical 

 language their distinctive points. Speaking generally, it may 

 be remarked that S. Dodartii is a coarser plant than S. occiden- 

 talis ; its stems are stouter ; leaves thicker, and blunt ; spikes 

 broader, owing to the spikelets being more closely placed, and 

 therefore more spreading ; inner bracts very broad and blunt, 

 and with a narrower scarious margin. 



But at the same time that the authority for including ;S^. Do- 

 dartii in the British Flora is destroyed, I am enabled to show 

 cause for its restoration to our catalogue. There has long been 

 an unnamed specimen of Statice in my herbarium, which was 

 gathered at Portland, Dorset, in September 1832, by Professor 

 Henslow. This is quite similar to the authentic S. Dodartii 

 supplied to me by Billot, agrees well with Girard's description 

 (Ann. Sc. Nat. 2 ser. xvii. 31), and is exceedingly like the fine 

 old plate of Limonium minus, Bellidis minoris folio, to be found 

 m Dodart's ' Memoires ' (ed. 1. p. 95). It is a coarse, inelegant 

 plant, of a very different aspect from any state of S. occidentalis. 

 The distribution of this plant has to be determined ; for it is 

 scarcely to be supposed that Portland is its only English station. 

 Botanists visiting our south coast in the latter part of the sum- 

 mer would do well to pay attention to these plants, so as to 

 determine their extent of variation and range. S. Dodartii 

 seems to be the less common plant on the French side of the 

 Channel. Lloyd only mentions it as tolerably plentiful on the 

 north coast of Bretagne ; but it seems to be more abundant on 

 the western coast of France. 



Mr. Bcntham combines these two species, and gives them the 



27* 



