146 SHORT NOTES. 



during many seasons. Eeference is made to it in Hooker and 

 Arnott and the ' Student's Flora/ Probably it has never been 

 found elsewhere. It is quite a distinct form from that I describe. 

 Mr. J. G. Baker, to whom I forwarded a specimen, has been kind 

 enough to answer my enquiries, and tells me that he had never 

 previously seen any spring flowering plant of this species. I may 

 add that I have since found it sparingly in another locality.— 

 Jas. W. White. [Mr. Baker notes upon this as follows : — M This 

 Bristol plant is the ordinary spring form of C. autumn ale, figured 

 in Eeich. Ic. Germ. fig. 951=0, vemum, Schrank— 6'. vernale, 

 Hoffm.=C pracox, Spenner. That in Eng. Bot. has a much 

 larger limb, and is green outside."] 



Silene eu-gallica in Jebsey. — In June, 1879, I found on 

 Gallows' Hill, St. Helier's, Jersey, a profusion of Silene quinque- 

 vulnera, L., and, upon examining the spot more minutely, detected 

 S. g alliea, L., with other forms of what is doubtless one Protean 

 species, to which the collective name of gallica ought properly to 

 be applied. Most British authors now sink S. quinquevulnera into 

 a variety of either anglica or gallica. In the last (seventh) edition 

 of the ■ London Catalogue of British Plants,' however, it is given 

 specific importance, and this must be my chief apology in dilating 

 upon what, to those who have studied this genus, may appear so 

 evident a fact. Dr. Boswell (Eng. Bot., vol. ii., pp. 59-61) takes, 

 in all probability, the correct view of the case, in making S. gallica 

 the typical aggregate form, and S. quinquevulnera and anglica sub- 

 ordinates. S. gallica is, however, much nearer the former of these 

 than the latter, being really only an albino state of S. quinque- 

 vulnera. It is rarely that so good a field for research as to these 

 plants uuder consideration is found as this St. Helier's locality, 

 for, altogether, five forms were observed, all merging into one 

 another, as follows : — 



1. S. gallica, L. — Stem erect, branches ascending, not spreading, 

 racemes dense, petals roundish, obvate, large in proportion, un- 

 divided, entirely white. 



2. S. gallica rosea=S. silvestris, Schott. — Precisely as the above, 

 but petals unicolorous, rose merging by every gradation into 



3. S. quinquevulnera, L., which resembles Nos. 1 and 2 in every 

 way, excepting in the conspicuous red disk of the petals. 



4. S. (inglico-quinquevulnera, which occurred but rarely, was of 

 erect growth, but more slender in every part than typical S. quinque- 

 vulnera. Petals very small, somewhat jagged, of the size of S. 

 anglica, but with the red disk of the preceding form. 



5. S. anglica, L.— Stem somewhat flexuous, branches spreading, 

 racemes not so dense as in S. gallica. Petals elliptical, often 

 jagged, very small, entirely white : occurred very rarely, and only 

 m one place on the hill. 



Form 2 is doubtless the 8. rilvatru, Schott, figured in Reicb. 

 J? lor. Germ, et Helvetiae : form 4 I cannot find has been noticed 

 before.— J. Cosmo Melvill. 



