no 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



VARIATIONS IN ERYTHRAEA. 



By J. A. Wheldon. 



TTAVING resided for several years near the 

 Lancashire sandhills, the metropolis of the 

 genus Erytlimeu, so far as Great Britain is con- 

 cerned, I have taken much pleasure in collecting 



is described, no doubt our E. ceiiiaurium, but pro- 

 bably the author included all forms since defined. 



The next work to which I have access, " A 

 General System of Nature," by Sir Charles Linne, 



Erythraea littoralis, Fries. 



Erythraea littoralis, var. intermedia. 



a range of specimens to illustrate the wide varia- 

 bility of the species. 



Perhaps no representatives of our flora have 

 been more misunderstood in the past, and none 

 more frequently wrongly labelled in the herbaria 

 of collectors. Yet most of the species are old- 

 established, and the characters which separate 

 them easily demonstrated. 



In " Wilson's Synopsis of British Plants, in Mr. 

 Ray's Me:hod," 1744, one pink-flowered centaury 



edited by William Turton, M.D., describes two 

 British species, under the names of Chironia 

 pulcheUa and C. centaurium. 



E. latijolia, probably the best defined but least 

 understood of any of the species, was discovered in 

 1803 by Messrs. Bostock and Shepherd, and 

 described as a varietal form by Smith in the 

 " British Flora " (1S04). It was given specific rank 

 in 1824, in a later edition. 



In Hooker's "British Flora," 1830, four forms 



