130 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CORNISH FLORA. 



Athcea officinalis, Linn., has been found in three places. 

 Withering, I.e. mentioned it for the " sea-shore between Marazion 

 and Penzance"; Couch included it in his plants of Polperro ;* and 

 in 1850, the Botanical Gazette credited it for St. Breock. When 

 the late Mr. J. Cunnack drew up a list of West Cornwall plants 

 for Mr. H. C. Watson in 1861, and which list is preserved in 

 the library at Kew, he endorsed this Mallow " extinct." 



Lathy rus maritimus, Bigel., has only been found on the beach 

 near Penzance. It appears to have been first published as a 

 Cornish plant in Gribson's second edition of Camden's Britannia, 

 1722, and is another example of early extinction after being 

 recorded. When H. C. Watson sent forth his Cybele Britannica in 

 1847, he made the announcement that the plant had not been 

 seen in Cornwall for many years. 



Potentilla argentea, Linn. This charming little plant was 

 added to our county's flora by the late Mr. T. E. Archer Briggs, 

 who recorded it in the Journal of Botany, 1865, for a turfy spot 

 at Trevol, in the parish of Antony. It was Mr. Briggs' misfortune 

 to witness the extirpation of his pet child, for in his Flora of 

 Plymouth, 1880, he says that, after appearing in the same place 

 at intervals until 1878, it was lost sight of, having been 

 " apparently rooted out by some ruthless collector." 



Pyrus domestica, Ehrh., found its way into the older botanical 

 references to Cornwall on the strength of a specimen preserved 

 in the herbarium of the Pev. A. Buddie at the British Museum, 

 labelled "Hilly places in Cornwall." There is no date, but as 

 the Rev. gentleman died in 1715, the first and last authentic 

 record for the plant can be fixed approximately. 



Ly thrum Hyssopifolia, Linn., was gathered at Ludgvan by a 

 Dr. Penneck, and mentioned by Mr. J. 8. Courtney in his Guide 

 to Penzance, 1845. In the Phytologist for 1846, Mr. G. S. Gribson, 

 a keen student of the Cornish flora, speaks of having vainly 

 searched the locality for it, and in 1879 weflnd Dr. Ealfs classing 

 it with plants which had died out. 



Biotis candidissima, Desf. This is one of the good things 

 which Pay was privileged to see when he made his fruitful tour 



*"The Botany of Polperro and its neighbourhood," by T. Q. Couch, in the 

 Annual " Report " of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society for 1848, 



