335 



THE DISCOVERY OF 

 ARENARIA GOTHICA IN WEST YORKSHIRE. 



LISTER ROTHERAY, 

 Skip to n. 



As stated in the October Naturalist this plant was discovered by me 

 at Ribblehead, in West Yorkshire, on the 12th June last. It was 

 growing in a made road near to the railway bank, but distant from 

 the latter about twelve to fourteen yards, and very near to the centre 

 of the roadway, among the road-metal, which consisted of limestone 

 intermixed with a slaty kind of stone. When first noticed, I was 

 searching and scanning the roadway and rail bank alternately as I 

 walked along, when suddenly my eye was attracted to a patch or 

 two of small bushy plants with large white petals for their size, which 

 were directly in front of me, and also at my feet. From its habit of 

 growth, and bushy appearance, I at once knew that it was a new 

 discovery to me ; and on plucking one of the plants and examining it 

 with my pocket lens, I at first concluded that it was some rare 

 species of Sagina, quite new to me. Gathering, therefore, a few of 

 the larger specimens and putting them carefully in my vasculum, I 

 left the place to search for other treasures. 



On my arrival home later in the evening, I made a closer 

 examination of the plant, and found, to my intense surprise, that it 

 was not a Sagina but an Arenaria — a genus distinguished from the 

 former by its having a lesser number of styles. This being the case, 

 the question arose in my mind, what species of Arenaria it could be. 

 From its bushy habit of growth, its succulent stems with short 

 internodes and its short but broad and fleshy pointed leaves, as well 

 as its showy white flowers, I knew that it was neither A. serpyllifolia, 

 A. verna, nor A. trinervis, all of which I had gathered beforetime 

 In this dilemma, I had recourse to Bentham's and Hookers Hand- 

 books of the British Flora, and after comparing my examination of the 

 plant's characteristics with those of Arenaria ciliata therein 

 described, I at once concluded that my find was none other than 

 that plant, to which I thought it exactly agreed, with the exception 

 that the veins on the sepals were not so prominently ribbed, nor the 

 leaves so blunt or obtuse as figured in the illustrations. 



In the belief that the species could not be other than A. ciliata, 

 I, on the 15th of June, gave a specimen of the plant to Mr. H. T. 

 Soppitt of Bradford, from whom, a few days afterwards, I received 

 a letter announcing his and Mr. West's inability to name the plant, 



Nov. 1880. 



