44 



" Silene maritima, Withering. The sea-campion. This 

 plant bears a very close resemblance to S. ciwubalus, Wibel 

 ( ^ 5. infiata, Sur.), the bladder campion, and some have 

 doubted whether the differences are sufficient to be regarded 

 as specific. It is of more diffuse habit than cucubalus, the 

 stems not growing erectly, but falling over on all sides, and 

 forming a patch several feet in diameter, well covered with 

 the pure white flowers. These are borne in few-flowered 

 (i to 4) cymes, whilst those oi cucubalus are in many-flowered 

 panicles. The petals are less deeply cleft in maritima ; and 

 whereas the bracts in cuciihalns are thin, dry, and trans- 

 parent, in niaritiina they are green and opaque. This plant 

 also is set down in the Floras as flowering in June. Last 

 year I gathered flowers and green seed-vessels on April 28th. 

 This year it was well out on several parts of our cliffs by 

 April 5th, and its first flush of beauty is now past ; full- 

 sized capsules are almost as plentiful as flowers. 



" These two instances suggest that the time has come 

 when some attempt might be made to correct the dates 

 given in the Floras for the flowering of our wild plants. 

 This is a thought that has been in my mind for several 

 years ; and I suppose most botanists frequently notice the 

 wide divergence between their observations and the books 

 in this respect. Since residing so far south this difference 

 has been, in my own case, accentuated. Here we are 

 seasonably considerably in advance of many other portions 

 of the country ; but I think botanists in any part of these 

 islands who note the first general flowering of a few species 

 will find their dates in many cases differing from those 

 given in the books. The book dates appear to have been 

 religiously copied from the Floras of a past generation, and 

 are now regarded as a standard. Probably they give the 

 average dates for the whole country, and are therefore 

 wrong for most districts. By a little co-operation among 

 field botanists in various parts of the country the average 

 dates might be correctly formulated in the course of a few 

 years, and future editions of standard works might give the 

 required information for such divisions of the country as 

 might be fixed upon with due regard to our present 

 knowledge of climatology. Such provincial average dates 

 would, I think, be more valuable to botanists, and could 

 not be without interest for the entomologist and the 

 meteorologist." 



