401 
A NEW SENECIO HYBRID (x 8. ALBESCENS). 
By F. W. Bureipez, M.A., anp Narnanren Conean, M.R.I1A. 
(Puare 444.) 
Amonest the many alien species established in the Co. Dublin 
flora, few are more interesting than the cag aise Ragwort 
known to botanists under res ames Seneci ria DC. and 
Cineraria maritima L. It is now about a Prterrts of a centu 
since Sir Francis Brady, B ae sowed seeds of the plant in his 
garden near Dalkey, and adoring Sorrento Cliffs, as the rocky 
crescent forming the northern limit of Killiney Bay is not in- 
appropriately called. So congenial did this sheltered sea-nook 
prove to the southern stranger, that it slowly ae: steadily pushed 
its way by wind-borne seeds “right ee the sweep of rock, until 
finally it succeeded in almost monopolizing i tae crest to high- 
water mark with its arpa’ trusses of silvery- ite foliage. To-day, 
the plant is a conspicuous feature of the coast at this point, so much 
so that it arrests the attention of even the unbotanical traveller as 
he journeys by rail from Bray to Kingstown. 
n the summer of 1901, one of us, who has paid special atten- 
tion to hybrids and hybridizing, observed what to less practised 
eyes would have seemed aberrant forms of ‘hie alien Senecio growing 
in Sorrento Park a small enclosure of rocky ground which lies 
inland from the cliffs, and at certain points approaches them to 
within a stone’s- throw. The aspect of these plants at once sug- 
gested to him a natural hybrid, a this suggestion was strengthened 
by the peers close at hand of likely parents in the common Rag- 
wort (Senecio Jacobea st and of its Mediterranean congener, 
S. Cineraria DC. The suggestion was not followed up at the 
time: the plants were variable, and it seemed probable that at 
least some of them were rather shade-grown states of the Medi- 
cera species than the result of its natural crossing with our 
common Ragwort. 
pee me the present year, however, we both agreed that these 
evening intermediates were deserving of further study. We ac 
ordingly paid many visits in company to the cliff and their 
helghhonsnend: ee a full series; in various stages of growth, 
of the suspected hybrid and of its probable 5 ape carefully noted 
their range and habit in the field, and fina ed, both i 
fresh and cae: specimens, their minuter Soe ee in flower and 
seed. The result was to convince us that the intermediates 
noticed b oie en us in 1901 were indeed the outcome of a ler) 
eet of Senecio Cineraria DO. with S. Jacobea L. is con- 
may id to be at on circumstantial ai rg than 
on direct evidence, since the extreme pan ncaa n the 
en 
Journat or Borany.—Vou. 40. [Drc. 1908.) " F 
