PLANTAGO CORONOPUS, LINN. 91 



Reid kindly searched Poole Harbour and gathered there a very 

 similar plant, which, though perhaps not quite so broad in the rachis, 

 approaches the Charmouth plant very closely. If, then, we accept 

 this Dorsetshire plant as the Portuguese P. ceratopliylla, Hoff. and 

 Link, we have an exceedingly interesting addition to our Flora, but 

 one which I hardly think can be held to be specificially distinct from 

 Corojiopus, L., but is very easily recognisable as a well marked 

 variety. 



Prof. Henriques suggests its identity with var. latifolia. This 

 variety, which first appears in De Candolle's Flore Francaise, 

 tome III., p. 41 7, is founded on Plantago columnoe of Gouan's 

 Illustr., p. 6. 



I quote a portion of Gouan's diagnosis and description 



" Plantago, foliis bipinnatis, basi lanatis, foliolis confluentibus, 

 summis auriculatis, scapo tereti. 



In monte Ceti, Agatham versus, cum priori (P. Coronopus) oritur. 

 Radix crassa, perennis. Scapi plures 8-16, pilis appressis hirti, 

 biunciales, paulove altiores, alii erecti, alii ad terram deflexi. Folia 

 basi lanata, scapis triple breviora, hirta, variabilia; quandoque 

 pinnata (more Scabiosarum ut notat Bauhinus confer Bauhin, 

 Prod. p. 98.) foliolis utrinque tribus lanceolatis mucronatis ; 

 quorum duo, quse proxima foliolo impari, basi deorsum auriculata 



sunt Spica in omnibus cylindrica semiuncialis 



canescens, fere glatra." 



Specimens of Gouan's plant exist in the Kew Herbarium, but as 

 neither the specimens nor the description quite agree with the 

 Dorsetshire plant, although closely approaching, this will have to 

 be referred to a var. ceratophyllon, which I find Mons. Rapin in 

 1827, in his "Esquisse de 1' Histoire Naturelle de Plantaginees" 

 described of P. Coronopus, it being founded on P. ceratoplnjlla 

 and P. coronopifolia, Brot. 



PLANTAGO CORONOPUS, var. CERATOPHYLLON, Rapin, Esquisse de 

 1' Histoire Naturelle. de Plantaginees in Mem. Soc. Lin., Paris vi. 

 (1827), p 482, 



