2 Prof. C. C. Babington on the British Species 0/ Arctium. 



distinguished from the other two by the " renflement superieur 

 du tube de la coroUe glanduleux, large, arrondi a la base et 

 resserre k la naissance des dents ; celles-ci dressees-conniventes ; 

 base de la coroUe tres-renflee, accrescente, aussi large que le 

 sommet du fruit qu'elle couronne jusqu^k la parfaite maturite.^^ 



These characters are very well shown by a specimen contained 

 in Wirtgen Herb. PI. crit. select. (No. 607), to which M. Crepin 

 refers me for an example of the true plant, except that in the dry 

 or softened specimens I am unable to detect with perfect certainty 

 the glands upon the inflated upper part of the corolla. I can 

 see the probable remains of them in tolerable abundance. The 

 corolla is very broad at the base, almost, as M. Crepin justly 

 remarks, as broad as the top of the fruit. It narrows quickly, 

 and is then cylindrical and slender up to the insertion of the 

 stamens ; there it is suddenly enlarged to a great extent, then 

 narrows slightly upwards, and is again somewhat suddenly con- 

 tracted (constricted, narrowed as if by the pressure of a string) 

 at the base of the teeth, which do not spread, but rather converge 

 round the cohering anthers. 



M. Crepin also states that the petioles of the radical leaves of 

 the -true A. tomentosum are hollow. 



A plant long cultivated, or rather naturally reproducing itself, 

 in the Cambridge Botanic Garden appears to me to be the Lappa 

 tomentosa (Lam.), as defined by M. Crepin. Its inflorescence is 

 corymbose, the central stem and (most, if not all) the branches 

 ending in corymbs raised upon long leafless stalks. Occasionally 

 there is a small leaf at the base of the corymb, and sometimes a 

 leaf, or rather bract, is found upon one or more of its branches, 

 or at the base of one or more of the heads. The stem and all its 

 subdivisions are covered by a tolerably thick coat of short crisped 

 pubescence. The heads are nearly spherical, with the under side 

 slightly flattened when young. By the time that the flowers 

 expand, they have become umbilicate at the base, and, of course, 

 widened at the top, but otherwise retain their very spherical 

 shape: measured in their widest part (from the end of the 

 spinous hooked phyllaries of one side to those of the other), they 

 are about an inch in diameter, or less. They are always very 

 thickly covered with a fine white w^eb. 



The corolla is broad at the base, but narrows immediately : 

 its divisions are about equal in length — the lower slender and 

 cylindrical, the upper very much inflated from its rounded base 

 to the base of the teeth, where it is again narrowed in a marked 

 manner ; the teeth themselves converge and clasp the stamens. 

 This inflated part of the corolla is covered with minute "glands," 

 which are not easily seen except^by the aid of a powerful glass. 



The petiole has the usual angles, but they are only slightly 



