382 The Heron- Bills of Yorkshire. 



leaves are lanceolate in outline, pinnate with short stalklets, 

 the segments rather irregularly incised and serrated, but not 

 so deeply as in the hemlock-leaved stork's-bill. The bill of the 

 carpels is variously given in books as from 3-5 centimetres 

 (1 to nigh 2 inches) in length. Petals rosy lilac, or paler, not 

 contiguous. Peduncle and pedicels downy-glandose ; many 

 flowered. It varies in hairiness and depression-angle of the. 

 lateral branches from root-crown. E.B.t. 902 is generally 

 quoted as a satisfactory figure, and Babington's classic differ- 

 entiation is a concentric furrow below a circular glandular 

 depression on the carpel, stipules oval and more obvious than 

 in E. cicutarium. In Rouy and Foucard's Flore de France, 

 Vol. IV., p. 113, mention is made of a 



Var. minor. — Very small, neat and early flowering (Apl.- 

 May). Somerset growths mentioned by White (Fl. Bristol, 

 219), not exceeding 3 inches even when in fruit. Another 

 form which defies exact reference, on our Yorkshire skin-yard 

 (not flour mill or malt-kilning) heaps I would provisionally, and 

 consciously temerarious, call 



Var. pseudo-moschatum, that term expressing it well enough 

 as I know it in the artificial " fed-up ' conditions under which 

 it will grow from 1 to nearly 2 feet high. Vegetatively much 

 larger, coarser, pubescent glandular, but without even a trace 

 of musk or castor keenness to the nostril. The bracts and 

 stipules are scarious, ovate cordate almost amplexicaul ; the 

 pinnate leaves with the leaflets nearer together, ampler in their 

 lobation, and more crenately-dentate on the margin. The 

 umbel is many flowered, crowded, but the petals are still 

 non-contiguous ellipses of mostly a pale pinky lilac. Abortive 

 energy ? — disease ? well ! but the carpels ripen and oftenet 

 exceed 2 inches than fall short. The sepals, however, are not 

 bristle-tipt, and the threads of the perfect stamens are ' ciliate ' 

 (Ardoino's definition of E. ciconium W.) or, as Hooker puts it : 

 ' toothed at the base.' I have many fine specimens, some of 

 which have been shewn to Dr. F. N. Williams, at the service 

 of any who wish to pursue the enquiry further. 



E. ciconium (L) Allioni, No. 496, Oxf. List. No. 9441, 

 Loudon, — placed between E. laciniatum and E. cicutarium, 

 ' the long-beaked Stork's-bill. Stems ascending. A spithamal 

 annual of S. Europe and the Levant. Leaves somewhat 

 villous, pinnated with blunt pinnatifid-toothed segmentation 

 ■{Loudon) ; large, bipinnatifid with decurrent lobes (Ardoino) ; 

 threads of perfect stamens ciliate, and beak of fruit 6-8 cen- 

 timetres long (quite 3 inches !). Petals as long as calyx, 

 ' large, purplish ' (Ard.). Peduncles many flowered. I have 

 been confusing this with E. Botrys, unless the two are con- 

 specific. Loudon's reference is to Jacq. Vind 1, t.18. Both 

 have notably prolonged beaks to the fruit, which, too, when 

 dry, shows long white silky hairs. 



Naturalist, 



