164 BRITISH HIERACTA. [/uly, 



" Hieracium stelligerum." — Ou the continued and very de- 

 cided opinion of Fries, that our plant, although exhibiting some 

 of the characteristics of H. stelligerum, is unquestionably distinct 

 from that species, I shall for the future adopt the original name 



of H. FLOCCULOSUM. 



" Hierac'mm rigidum." — Continued observation of this plant 

 only confirms my impression that it is not specifically distiact 

 from H. corymbosum (that is, the Braemar plant recognized by 

 IFries as "typical H. corymbosum"). Though not yet fully pre- 

 pared to discontinue the name, my strong belief is, that our 

 plant is wo^ any form oi H. rigiduiii, Fries, which I doubt being 

 a British species. 



" Hieracium Gibsoni." — In reply to the observations upon this 

 plant in the 'Phytologist ' for April 1857, page 73, I may state 

 by way of explanation, that when usiag the words " original dis- 

 coverer," I did not at all mean to imply that I supposed the late 

 Samuel Gibson to have been the first person who noticed the 

 plant, but the one who first challenged it as a distinct and un- 

 named species. The fact of its having been known long before, 

 first associated with Hypochoeris maculata, and afterwards with 

 various species of Eieracium (incorrectly), does not, I apprehend, 

 rightly constitute "discovery" in a scientific sense. Twenty 

 years before Care.v paradoxa was "discovered" as a British 

 plant, my father gathered specimens of it in the vicinity of York, 

 and after having failed fully to satisfy himself that it was a form 

 of C. teretiuscula, preserved specimens of it for his herbarium, 

 referring them to the latter species with a ? attached, not hav- 

 ing then in his possession any work describing the Continental 

 C.paradoxa. Numerous other similar instances might be named; 

 but no one will, I think, be disposed to regard the first finders 

 of these plants as their " discoverers." Perhaps it would have 

 been better had I used the words, " who first detected it as a dis- 

 tiuct and unnamed species." These few remarks will however 

 explain what I wished to convey. Respecting its possible iden- 

 titv with H. pallidum, or H. ccesium, it may perhaps be a fitting 

 place just to say that H. ccesium is very abundant in the same 

 locality and district, and that H. pallidum also occurs sparingly. 

 \ TJie latter {H. pallidum) very frequently has spotted or blotched 

 i leaves : but so many plants of this genus exhibit this character 

 more or less, that I beheve it is unsafe to allow ourselves to be 



