108 Prof. R. Graham^s Account of a Botayiical Tour 



26th, accompanied by Dr. Macreight, the walk was along St. Au- 

 bin^s Bay by La Haule, across the Quenvais to St. Ouen's Bay and 

 the village of St. Ouen. In this route the most interesting plants 

 gathered, and not already named, were, a densely tufted glaucous 

 species of Festuca, with short, erect, very rigid and sharp subu- 

 late leaves, considered a form of Festuca ovina, but very unlike 

 any form of that species which has been observed anywhere else ; 

 Schcenus nigricans, Polycarpon tetraphyllum, Scirpus pungens; Scir- 

 pus maritimus, a variety with vmusually elongated peduncles and 

 ovato-lanceolate attenuated spikes ; Armeria plantaginea, varying 

 considerably in the breadth of its leaves, but always distinguish- 

 able from A. maritima by the want of hairiness upon the scape ; 

 Juncus acutus, Polygonum maritimum, Dianthus prolifer, Oxalis 

 corniculata, Banunculus hirsutus, Mentha rotundifolia and Oro- 

 banche Eryngii ? profuse on di"ift-sand in St. Ouen's Bay. " In 

 adopting this name I by no means wish to give an opinion as to 

 its propriety. It is, I confess, only an attempt to escape from the 

 necessity of intermeddling with a subject in almost hopeless con- 

 fusion. The species of Orobanche are, to say the least, separated by 

 ideal boundaries, and the principle in which I seem to acquiesce by 

 the name I have here given, namely to characterize species by the 

 plants on which they are parasitical, has always appeared to me 

 erroneous. Vaucher found an Orobanche parasitical on Eryngium 

 campestre in the southern provinces of France, and he called it 

 O. Eryngii, and the designation is adopted in the ' Botanicon Gal- 

 licum.^ Our plant is certainly parasitical on E. maritimum, and 

 upon this very slender ground, for I have not seen a French spe- 

 cimen, I have given it the same name. It is only half parasitical, 

 as I doubt not are all the species ; half parasitical in a different 

 sense to that in which the same thing may be said of the species 

 of Cuscuta. These are at one period of their existence wholly 

 terrestrial, and afterwards wholly parasitical ; but the Orobanche 

 is permanently attached to the extremity of a root of Eryngium, 

 which is there thickened and terminated abruptly, but it sends its 

 own roots into the sand all around. The roots were so deep in 

 the loose sand, that we failed in many attempts to raise an entire 

 plant of Eryngium with the parasite attached to it ; but Dr. Mac- 

 reight showed me, that by the peculiar and pungent taste, it was 

 quite certain that the fragment of the root which we often got up 

 with the Orobanche was that of Eryngium maritimum.'' Other 

 plants of the same day's walk, either local in Scotland or not at 

 all native there, were the following : Sibthoypia europcea, Bartsia 

 viscosa, Diplotaxis muralis, Coronopus didyma, Erigeron acris, 

 Diotis maritima, Centaurea CaJcitrapa, Spiranthes autumnalis, 

 Amuranthus Blitum, Asplenium lanceolatum, Asplenium marinum. 

 On the 2nd of September, again accompanied by Dr. Macreight, 

 we walked In' St. Brelade round the south-west corner of the island 



