372 Mr. C. C. Babington on the British species 0/ Arctium. 



It is probable that the long delay that has attended the 

 acknowledgement by name of this plant by English botanists, 

 although it was figured by Sowerby, may have been caused by 

 its inhabiting the eastern districts of England, and being rarely, 

 if ever, to be found in other parts of the country. Experience 

 must prove or disprove this idea. The plant really represented 

 in ' English Botany ' not having been seen, any woolly-headed 

 Arctium was called A. Bardana. The A. minus, which possesses 

 many of the characters of A. tomentosum, being figured in the 

 same work under the name of A. Lappa, the conclusion was 

 arrived at that A. Lappa and A. Bardana formed only one spe- 

 cies. For if tab. 2478 is a representation of the plant com- 

 monly called A. Bardana in England, then its difference from the 

 specimens generally found and so named would show that there 

 is so great a range of variation in the species as to render it 

 highly probable that the A. Lappa of tab. 1228 is another of its 

 states. If the true A. Lappa of WilJdenow had been figured in 

 that valuable work, no such idea would probably have arisen. 



In most respects Sowerby's figure is an excellent represen- 

 tation of A. tomentosum, but the drawing was probably taken 

 from a lateral branch, and the relative length of the phyllaries 

 and florets (as shown in the dissected figure) does not appear to 

 be correct. The inflated form of the floret is excellently shown. 



The A. Lappa (Willd.) not being presented to the notice of 

 our botanists, but that name given by Smith to A. minus, caused 

 the erroneous conclusions that only a single variable species 

 existed in Britain, and also, that there were no more species 

 upon the European continent. 



Although Fries informs us that the A. minus (Schkuhr) is the 

 true A. Lappa a. of Linnseus, a statement confirmed by the spe- 

 cimen in his herbarium, still the var. /3. (Linn.), which we know 

 on the same excellent authority is the plant called^, tomentosum 

 by Persoou and A. Bardana by Willdenow, is figured in the 

 'Svensk Botanik' (tab. 63) and 'Flora Danica' (tab. 643) as 

 A. Lappa. 



It is proper to direct attention to the fact that Gray (/. c.) 

 and Lindley (/. c.) correctly identified the plant of Sowerby as 

 A. tomentosum, but neither of them seems to have known that 

 there are two other woolly-headed species in this country. 



I have not observed this plant out of Cambridgeshire, but it 

 is probably much more extensively distributed. 



Flowering in August. 



2. A. majus (Schkuhr) ; heads subcorymbose long-stalked hemi- 

 spherical and open in fruit glabrous (green), phyllaries equal- 

 ling or exceeding the florets subulate, inner row shorter than 



