SAROTHAMNUS SCOPARIUS AND STACHYS BETONICA. 285 



I. Sarothamnus scoparius, Koch^ var. 



It is only in recent years that this plant has been ad- 

 mitted a Cornish species^ Mr. H. C. Watson, in vol. i. of 

 his ' Cybele Britannica/ p. 274, giving Devon, Isle of 

 Wight, and Kent as its most southern limit ; but in the 

 additions included in vol. iii. of the same work, Mr. Wat- 

 son states (p. 404) that " the south limit extends to Corn- 

 wall, according to Mr. Gibson and Mr. Pascoe " — ^no details, 

 however, being given as to the precise part of the county 

 in which it occurs. The specimen exhibited was found 

 growing in small patches on the cliffs of serpentine rock 

 about Vellan Head, situate about four miles north-west of 

 the Lizard Lights, and it differs from the normal form, 

 here named var. a, in the following characters : — 



Var. a. erecta. — Stems erect, bushy ; leaves stalked, the 

 petioles a,s long as, or longer than, the leaflets ; leaf- 

 lets elliptical-obovate, bluntish. 



Var. y8. prostrata. — Stems prostrate, spreading ; leaves 

 shortly stalked or sessile ; leaflets ovate-acute, acu- 

 minate. 



The Cornish form, here named /8. prostrata, differs from 

 the normal plant chiefly in its habit of growth, which, in- 

 stead of being erect and bushy, is remarkably prostrate, 

 the branches spreading out in fan-shaped patches and 

 growing flat upon the ground ; the branches, particularly 

 in the upper half, are densely clothed with short spreading 

 hairs ; the leaves have shorter stalks, with a greater ten- 

 dency to suppress the two lateral leaflets, the majority of 

 the leaves, in fact, being unifoliate ; the pods are less 

 numerous, have their dorsal and ventral sutures covered 

 with long silky hairs, and are black rather than brown, 

 shorter, and have fewer seeds. 



The season was too far advanced for any flowers to be 

 met with, either on Vellan Head or in the small valley 



