338 baker: on the varieties of arenaria ciliata. 



Dr. Mackay in 1807 on the high limestone ridges of Ben Bulben in 

 county Sligo, and has since been gathered by Dr. Moore, Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer, and many other botanists. It furnishes a unique instance of 

 a common arctic-alpine plant that behaves in this fashion. 



A. ciliata var. ? fugax Gren. and Godr. Fl. France, 1, p. 259. 

 Of course, like the other widely-spread arctic-alpine species, A. ciliata 

 varies greatly according to situation and elevation, becoming more 

 dwarf and condensed in high latitudes and at high altitudes, laxer, 

 with broader leaves and more numerous flowers at lower altitudes. 



A plant which grows at the Lac du Joux, in the Jura, has been 

 much discussed. It was first brought into notice by J. Gay, whose 

 specimens, gathered in 1840, are now before me. From typical 

 ciliata, as above described, it differs by its annual or biennial root, 

 lax stems attaining a length of half a foot, broader, more spread-out, 

 less distinctly ciliated leaves, and more acute sepals. By Grenier 

 and Godron it is described as a doubtful variety of A. ciliata, under 

 the name of fugax, and by Grenier in the Bulletin of the Botanical 

 Society of France, 1869, p. Ixi, it is referred to A. gothica Fries. 



Grenier (loc. cit.) writes about it as follows : — ' Everyone admits 

 that A. ciliata is perennial. Now, I believe I can affirm that the 

 plant of the lake of Pont is annual. The examination of the root 

 and the complete absence of shoots destined to produce flowering 

 stems another year, separate it clearly from A. ciliata, of which it 

 has by no means the habit. It has as much the character of an 

 annual plant as A. serpyllifolia, which grows along with it.' 



We have at Kew recent specimens of the same plant from the 

 same station, received from M. Favrat and Barbey, under the name 

 of A. ciliata var. laxior = A. gothica Gren. non Fries, but in point 

 of fact it approximates to the Scandinavian gothica very closely. 



A. norvegica Gunner, Fl. Norveg. ii, 144. — A. norvegica was 

 characterised as a species by Bishop Gunner as far back as the year 

 1772. It has not nearly such a wide range of distribution as ciliata, 

 being restricted on the continent to Norway and Lapland. As 

 represented by Fries in Herb. Norm., v. 35, it has a perennial root, 

 oblanceolate leaves with a glabrous surface and margin, 1-2-headed 

 short densely-tufted flowering stems, oblong sub-acute glabrous sepals 

 and petals but little longer than the calyx. The well-known Shetland 

 plant, figured Engl. Bot, tab. 2852 (ed. iii, tab. 237), quite agrees 

 with the Herbarium Normale examples. We have it also from 

 Inch-na-damph in Sutherlandshire, and it is said to have been 

 gathered in Orkney. We have it also from Spitzbergen, gathered 

 by Sabine, and from Iceland, gathered by Babington and Sir George 

 Mackenzie. The Iceland specimens are laxer and taller than the 



Naturalist, 



