72 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



S. aquaticus L., var. peimatifidus Gren. et Godi\ 



16 Galw. W. Maam and Clonbur '95— M. & S. S45- 

 26 Mayo E. Cong '95— M. & S.5^5. 



Cnicus palustris x pratensis. 



Plants found in several parts of Ireland convinced me that this 

 hybrid is of not infrequent occurrence. In 1900, in a damp pasture 

 north- vrest of Claremorris, a large colony of plants was found which 

 exhibited every gi-ade from C. palustris to C. pratensis, both of 

 which were present in abundance. Of specimens midway in the 

 series from this locality Mr. Ai'thur Bennett writes : — "19. 12. '00. I 

 have to-day compared the Carduus specimens at the British Museum. 

 Among the British specimens there is nothing so extreme as your 

 specimens. The nearest is an Irish specimen. "Watson's Forsteri is 

 an anglicum [= pratensis'] with its tenuity of the leaves retained — 

 yours has more the harshness of palustris. In the general collection 

 at the British Museum there is nothing like it ; but when I showed 

 Mr. S. Moore the specimens he said "I think a|,hybrid." Clearly, 

 your specimens retain to the heads more the characters of pratensis 

 than palustris. Did C. tuberosus occur in Ireland I should have been 

 much inclined to name one of your specimens {i.e. 3. 7. '00 N. of 

 Claremorris) C. palustris x tulerosus. You will say — well, then, 

 what do you name the specimens after all? I answer, though with 

 some doubt — a hybrid as you make them, probably C. pratensii 

 X palustris, but more extreme than any I have seen of English 

 specimens so named." The conditions under which these plants 

 occurred do away in my mind wfth any doubts which might hang 

 around the few dried specimens submitted ; and I group with this 

 gathering other plants obtained in Queen's County and Carlow. As 

 regards certain previous records of this hybrid, no valid reason 

 appears for excluding them. Eev. E. S. Marshall confirms (5^/) 

 Mr. Levinge's Westmeath record {4S4), and also Eev. E. E. Linton (in 

 litt.) ; and if Mr. Levinge, a discriminating observer, is correct about 

 his Westmeath plant, he is probably also correct about his Clare one. 

 I think, therefore, that in recording the undermentioned stations for 

 C. pratensis x palustris we are on tolerably safe ground : — 



9 Clare Lisdoonvarna '92 — H. C. Levinge. 



13 Carlow Below St. Mullins '99— P. 



14 Queen's Mountrath '97— P. 



