566 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [September, 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



Cakdamine hiksuta and C. sylvatica. 



Cardamine hirsiita, L. — Eoots fibrous. Stems nearly erect, only slightly 

 flexuous, with few, short, stiff hairs. Eoot-leaves roundish, renifonn, 

 very slightly notched. Stem-leaves few, roundish, rarely elongated. Pods 

 nearly erect, on short, half-erect pedicels, straight, nearly smooth, about 

 twice as long as their pedicels. 



C. sylvatica. — Roots fibrous. Stems stouter than in the above, with 

 more numerous and longer hairs, more deeply channelled and more zigzag 

 than the stem of C. hirsuta, rather more branchy and leafy. Leaves more 

 notched, lobed and elongated. Petals larger. Stamens six. Pods not 

 qvdte straight, on longer and more spreading pedicels. 



These two plants have different aspects. C. sylvatica is more bushy, 

 hairier, stouter, with larger flowers, and with the normal number of sta- 

 mens. The more crooked stem corresponds to the more spreading pods, 

 and the flexuous pods to the zigzag stem. The more lobed and elongate 

 leaves follow the same apparent law of normal development. 



The plant which I used to observe in the woods about Albury, in Surrey, 

 on the red sand, was probably what Mr. BoiTer calls C. hirsuta, and the 

 strong, bushy plant which grew in the vale was probably the C. sylvatica. 

 I presume all the plants which I observed in the woods about Clent, Wor- 

 cestershire, were C. sylvatica, and the same as those grooving in the vales. 

 I would infer from these recollections that C. sylvatica is the commoner 

 form, and that it is the plant usually described under the name of C. liir- 

 suta. Mr. Babington describes the stem of the latter as rather leafy, a 

 character which I would apply to the former. I lay little stress on the 

 four stamens of C. Jiirsuta, because the number is variable in this Order, 

 and especially in this genus. I also find the petals of C. sylvatica larger 

 than those of C. hirsuta. Smith's description may suit either the one or 

 the other form or species. The latter author ignores C. sylvatica, and 

 merely states, " whatever the C. sylvatica, umbrosa, and parvifiora of other 

 authors may be, the Linnsean parvijtora is clearly a distinct species," etc. 



The names are not very appropriate, unless we may believe that they 

 were conferred antiphrastically , viz. hirsuta, because the plant is not 

 rough, and sylvatica because it grows in wet, hollow places, rather than 

 in woods. 



LlNABIA PURPUREA. 



Touching the murality of Linaria purpurea, the only two places where 

 \^, \ \ have seen it undoubtedly wild were cornfields : one near Frimley^ in 

 Surrey, in the large cornfield noted by Mr. Watson as a station of that 

 thumping plant Arnoseris pusilla ; the other was on the Mont des Alouettes, 

 a richly cultivated eminence in La Vendee, along with Lathyrus angulatus, 

 a plant which wiU probably some day find its way here as an agrarian 

 plant. The exact similarity of the habitat in these two cases satisfied 

 me that L. purpurea has as much right to be considered a British as a 

 French plant. J. S. M. 



