EKMAN, NOMENCLATURE OF SOME NORTH-EUROPEAN DRAB.^. 15 



9. Draba incana L. 



At length we now come to the only Scandinavian species 

 that has been referred to the Section Holarges of De Candolle. 

 (As D. magellanica has been called D. incano-hirta, it has 

 been ranged amongst the Leucodrabce.) 



As we know Lindblom united the Sections Chrysodrabce, 

 Leucodrabce and Holarges in a new one under the name of 

 DrabcE. It seems to me he had good scientific reasons for so 

 doing. Among our Northern species D. crassifolia belongs 

 perhaps by its two forms of colour both to Chrysodrabce and 

 Leucodrabce and D. magellanica by its perennation to Leuco- 

 drabce, by its sometimes branched stems to Holarges; and 

 finally D. incana is not biennal, at any rate not most forms 

 of it; some individuals seems to be triennial others perennial. 

 The species seems to be still in evolution from biennal to 

 perennial. 



In the North it has as a rule not proved difficult to 

 distinguish D. incana from other species, though intermediate 

 forms — probably mostly h3^bridous — are found, on the 

 one hand to D. magellanica on the other to D. rupestris. 



A constant characteristic is the dense pubescence of the 

 short pedicels. 



The division of Ehrhart of this species into Draba con- 

 fusa and Draba contorta (Beiträge 7 1792, p. 155) has caused 

 some confusion. I have had the opportunity of seenig how 

 Hartman's objection to it (1. c. ed. 11 p. 106) is perfectly 

 just. Viz. the characters which Erhart assigns to the re- 

 spective Nothern forms are not always thus combined in 

 nature. The name of D. confusa was applied by A. P. De 

 Candolle in Systema Regni VegetabiHs tom. 2 (1821) p. 

 348 to a plant from Central Europa, differing from D. incana 

 by its longer style, its smaller flowers and its pubescence of 

 soft stellulate hairs. In the same sense it is used by L. 

 Reichenbach, who gives an illustration of the plant in 

 Plantae Criticae tab. 770 n:o 1033. In 1818 J. Gay has 

 already given it the name of Draba stijlaris Gay (in E. 

 Thomas Cat., a work which has not been accessible to me, 

 but which perhaps contains a catalogue of the plants in the 

 herbarium of Gaudin. As a synonym to D. confusa DC. 



