180 ON GALIUM COMMUTATUM. 
latter fact it may be inferred that its spores are not so fruitful as 
are those of the other two. All these circumstances would tend 
towards a belief in its hybrid origin; but, on the other side of the 
question, it is more robust in its growth than either L. spinosa 
or L. cristata; and there is no hybrid that I know of which is 
stronger than either of its parents, mdeed the contrary is the 
fact amongst phznogamous plants. I must say that I cannot 
understand how a Fern could hybridize. Now the fructification 
is covered with an indusium, which certainly must be quite suf- 
ficient to prevent any communication with those parts on a se- 
parate frond upon the same plant, much more with one belong- 
ing to another species, until after the bursting of the spore-cases 
and the dispersion of the spores; and to affirm that impregna- 
tion may take place between the spores subsequently, is, I think, 
a theory too vague and speculative to be seriously entertained. 
On Galium commutatum of Jordan, a Species new to Britain. 
By Jno. G. Baxur. 
This addition to our flora I first specially noticed - upon an ex- 
cursion into Teesdale in the summer of 1853 in company with 
my friends W. Foggett, J. W. Watson, and W. Mudd. At the 
east end of ,Cronkley Fell, the small stream, on the banks of 
which grow Polygala uliginosa and the stemless variety of Pri- 
mula ee mosa, falls down a precipitous scar of limestone, bleached” 
through its proximity to the plutonic “ whin sill,” and forms the 
picturesque cataract known as the White Force. Here the bo- 
tanical tourist who possesses a clear head and a steady foot may 
perhaps succeed in procuring specimens for his herbarium of 
HMieracium cerinthoides and Pyrola secunda (the latter known 
only in a single other locality in Yorkshire); and if he does not 
care to earn them by running the risk of breaking his neck by 
falling down from the spray-covered rocks, may at least reap 
without danger a rich harvest of rare mosses: Andreea alpina and 
rupestris, Grimmia torta and spiralis, Bartramia Ctderi, Bryum 
Zier, Zygodon Mougeoti, and gather Asplenium viride, Pelti- 
gera aphthosa, and other ferns and lichens in condition scarcely 
to be equalled. Amongst the rocks and upheaped piles of fallen 
debris below the scar, grows our Ga/iwm im abundance, at an eleva- 
tion above the level of the sea of between 1200 and 1500 feet. 
