867 
A NEW VARIETY OF LITHOSPERMUM OFFICINALE L. 
By C. E. Satmwon, F.L.S. 
(Prate 4828.) 
In August, 1900, when botanizing in a wood between Steephill 
and St. Lama Isle of Wight, I was struck with the appearance 
of a fine Boraginaceous plant, in seed, which seemed quite new to 
closer examination showed the remarkable polished vi 
nutlets of Lithospermum alias but there was little else in com- 
mon beyond a tufted habit of gro 
Upon apes to wipe belo of continental and British oo pay 
L, officinale seems to be remarkably free from recorded varietie 
but the fo lowing “diagnosis seemed to fit the Isle of Wight at 
mens :—L. officinale B majus, foliis ovatis. . . . Duplo a foliis 
ovatis, nec lanceolatis brevioribus stis viridibus. Willd. Sp. Plant. 
751 (1797). This variety, cited as “ var. latifolium Willa, * Morn 
name I cannot find elsewhere), is stated by Asa Gray (Syn. 
- North America, 208 (1878) ), to be synonymous with L  eehiliaen 
Michx. (which is found only in North America), but the Isle of 
Wight a does not agree with the latter in several poi 
acute or ovate-lanceolate, broad based, much less hairy beneath 
than in type, and more spreading ; floral leaves a pscege! ovate. 
L. latifolium was described by Michaux (F7 , ook 
(1803) ), as follows: “L folits lato-ovalibus, ie gerne glabrius- 
culis, viridibus et asperis ; calycibus fructiferis patulis ; seminibus tur- 
gide ovatis, lucidis, undique ee Obs. Affinis L. officinale 
ab. in umbrosis sylvis Ken 
Although the leaf-characters pec above are very near those 
of the suggested variety, yet the following points ( en others) 
amply distinguish Michaux’s plant from officinale forms: Corolla 
tube only a little longer than the limb; fruiting calyx es ading ; 
seeds of L. latifolium, as, although this feature was mentioned in 
the original description of Michaux, es ahaa ia on De Can- 
8g to * 
bro: in his Prodromus, and ep very sm aringly 
pressed-punctate”’ by Asa y (Man. Bot. U. s (1856) ), i ), it is 
ey omitted from the lastname, erect Fl. North America 
8), and again from Britton & B * Fl. of N. States and 
Canada (1898). The late Mr. F. Pewee, who was interested in 
the Isle of Wight plant,* showed me a specimen of L. latifolium 
from America. We both failed to see how its seeds differed from 
those of L. officinale as regards surface-markings ; there are often 
small impressed dots or lines upon the nutlets of both species. 
* See Fl. Hants, ed. 2, 319 (1904). 
2E2 
