28 ENGLISU BOTANY. 



to be its soutlicrn limits. In Scotland it seems to be generally 

 distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer and Autumn. 



V. lutca difTcrs from all the preceding in having a very slender 

 creeping rootstock, but it appears to pass almost imperceptibly 

 into V. Curtisii. Specimens from sandhills at Milton, co. Clare, 

 collected by Mr. A. G. More, are quite intermediate between the 

 two. These have the large yellow flowers (If inch long) of the 

 ordinary form of V. lutea, when growing at low elevations ; but 

 the subterranean branching of the rootstock more nearly resembles 

 V. Curtisii. The flowers vary from purple with a yellow spot at 

 the base of the lower petal, to bright yellow with purple 

 lines at the base of the lower and lateral petals, the former being 

 certainly the more frequent form in Scotland. The leaves vary 

 from rovmdish-deltoid (the lower ones) to narrowly elliptical. The 

 height of the stem above ground seldom exceeds 6 inches, but a 

 plant growing among bushes at Crookston, near Edinburgh (which 

 has flowers varying from yellow to purple), has stems 15 or 18 

 inches high. 



The Pansies are a good instance of the convenience of the 

 employment of sub-specific groups; the difference between V. 

 eu-tricolor, V. arvensis, and V. lutea is so great that Mr. Bentham 

 is the only botanist who has united them : yet to get shai'ply- 

 defined characters by which they may be separated, seems to be 

 impossible; nevertheless, each has peculiar permanent features 

 of its o\Tn. On this account it is convenient to speak of the whole 

 of the forms collectively, considering them as belonging to one 

 aggregate species ; and also of each group individually, as some- 

 thing distinct from a variety, which is liable to change in a few 

 generations. 



Mountain Tansy. 



