442 Mr. C. C. Babington on British species of Plumbaginacese. 



wards repeatedly forked with acute-angled axils. Outer bract 

 almost wholly diaphanous, bluntly pointed ; inner twice as long, 

 blunt, upper half wholly diaphanous. Leaves short, variable in 

 breadth and often rather acute, usually with a small mucro from 

 below their extremity ; the point sometimes so strongly recurved 

 as to cause the leaf to appear retuse. 



Muddy shores of Norfolk and Suffolk. Jersey, Dr. Jos. Dick- 

 son» 



British botanists will doubtless complain that the name usually 

 employed by them for this plant is here replaced by one nearly 

 or altogether a stranger to them, and which certainly seems 

 far from appropriate when applied to an English plant ; but it 

 may be remarked that the name S. reticulata has been attached 

 to so many quite different species as to make its retention a source 

 of confusion and difficulty rather than of use. The remark of 

 Boissier seems very just w^hen, after stating that the Linnsean 

 plant is probably that now called S. cancellata (Bernh.), he adds, 

 " hoc nomen cseterum multis plantis attributum omnino rejici- 

 endum.^' The Linnsean specific character is short, but to my 

 mind conclusive against our plant being his S. reticulata. His 

 words are, '^ S. scapo paniculato prostrato, ramis sterilibus retro- 

 flexis nudis, foliis cuneiformibus " (Sp. PI. 394) ; and it is curious 

 to observe how Smith, when publishing the supposed S. reticu- 

 lata in 'Eng. Bot.^ (t. 328), slightly altered that character by the 

 addition of the words " a little pointed ^' to the description of 

 the leaves: in the 'Eng. Fl.^ (ii. 116) he has omitted the term 

 " ramis retroflexis '^ of Linnaeus, but still says " leaves w^edge- 

 shaped " in the specific character, but alters it to '* spathulate '' 

 in the description. Our plant certainly cannot be correctly de- 

 scribed as having " ramis sterilibus retroflexis,^^ for they are all 

 ascending or even erect, forming very acute angles at their bifur- 

 cations ; neither are its leaves at all " wedge-shaped,^' but may 

 be correctly designated obovate-spathulate. The remark in ' Eng. 

 Bot.,' that the "bark in our specimens is a little crisped and 

 tuberculated, which we do not observe in the Linnsean ones/' 

 shows that Smith was not altogether satisfied of the identity of 

 the plants. 



Let us now turn to the S. cancellata (Bernh.); a specimen of 

 which (the S. furfuracea^ Beich. Fl. exsic.) is now before me, and 

 we shall find the " ramis retroflexis " of Linna3us, or as Boissier 

 says, " scapis ramosissimis rectangule-infracto-flexuosis,'' and 

 also the "foliis cuneiformibus,'' or ashe describes them, "obovato- 

 cuneatis retusis." 



Having I think disposed of the name S. reticulata as applica- 

 ble to our plant, we now come to the proof of its identity with 

 the S. jcaspica (Willd.), and here it may be remarked that Sir W. 



