46 2) THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
. 5. SPHHROSPERMUS. Be 
“Foliis (uniformibus omnibus) in lacinulas (filiformes) breves 
Pegg eS 
parentheses which are identical with those of the common form 
of £.divaricatus. From this it seems to be a connecting link with 
vegetative characters. ~ 
Syn.—RF. spherospermus Boiss. et Blanche in Boiss. Diagn. 
Pl. Or. Nov. ser. 2, v. 6; R. aquatilis var. spherospermus Boiss. 
Fl. Orientalis, i. 23. 
Blanche’s type-specimens (1847) are in Boissier’s herbarium at 
Chambézy, and were gathered in marshy places near the sea, on 
the coast of Syria between Alexandretta and Tripoli. A plant 
gathered near Damascus (Gaillardot n. 11 in 
eaves 3—4 cm., flowers 2cm. across. There is also a plant in Herb. 
8 
Kew. (Forbes n. 17) from the valley of the river Echen Chai (plains 
of Xanthus), in the vilayet of Aidin, near the town of Gunik, not 
far from the confines of the vilayet of Koniah, which looks more 
like spherospermus than anything else, but the specimen is some- 
what scrappy and badly dried. Mr. Hiern says that this variety 
‘bears a resemblance to trichophyllus, but the stem is 
more succulent, the flowers are larger; and on longer and thicker 
peduncles, “fe the ag a more numerous: it also bears some 
says the plant is common. In all these varieties the geographical 
details have had to be worked up and amplified from official survey- 
s and the specialized maps of military to The 
the mark. The ordinary gazetteers 
as Ritter’s Index, are rarely of much use, as they contain only the 
most common names; and, as in the case of Asia Minor, give no 
clue whatever to the ity of the Turkish, Frankish, and Latin 
equivalents of the different names applied to the same place. A still 
: 
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2 
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