SHORT NOTES. 27 



overhangs the water, being inaccessible except by two narrow 

 passages very difficult of access, rising from the small pebbly 

 beach on the north-east and south-western sides. The island is an 

 outlying mass of the mountain limestone of the Mendip range, on 

 the axis of the chain prolonged under the sea, the one being con- 

 nected with Crook's Peak by the links of Brean Down, Uphill, and 

 Bleadon Hill; the other with Banwell Hill by those of Beam 

 Back and Worle Hill. The summit is a sandy unfruitful soil, 

 bearing little grass or any vegetable except those that seem 

 peculiar to such situations. The Steep Holmes, whose summit 

 rises about 400 feet above the level of the Channel, is known to 

 botanists as the habitat of the single peony (Pceonia corallina Retz.), 

 first added to the British Flora by the late Mr. F. Boucher Wright, 

 of Hinton-Blewett, Somerset, in 1803, then growing in great pro- 

 fusion in the rocky clefts of the island, where it is conjectured to have 

 grown for ages, but of late years, owing to the rapacity of collectors, 

 it has become very scarce ; but was glad to find on this visit, as 

 well as others made in recent years to the island, the peony was 

 gradually increasing. In 1848 and 1853 it was scarcely obtainable. 

 The following plants were observed on my visit : — Fumaria offici- 

 nalis L. ; Brassica oleracea L. ; Silene maritima With. ; Hypericum 

 montanum L. ; Lavatera arborea L., on the north side of the island; 

 Erodhim maritimwn L'Her. ; Smyrnium Olusatrum L. ; Coriandrum 

 sativum L. (naturalised); Crithmum maritimwn L. ; Hedera Helix L.; 

 Sambucus nigra L. ; Inula crithmoides L.; Static e occidental is Lloyd; 

 higustnim vulgare L. ; Euphorbia Lathyris L. (naturalized on the 

 declivities of the island) ; Allium Ampeloprasum L. From its great 

 abundance in the island Bay gave this the specific name of li Allium 

 Holmense spherico capite" — the great round-headed garlick of the 

 Holm Islands ; of late years it has become less plentiful. Suada 

 fruticosa Forsk. has not been observed on the island for many years. 

 It rests on the authority of Lobel. I would add, the Flat Holm is 

 about three miles to the northward of the Steep Holm, and about 

 one mile and a half in circumference. Being under cultivation it 



affords little or no interest whatever to the botanist. — T. Bruges 

 Flo wrr . 



Hieracium Gibsoni Backh. and Carex irrigua Hoppe in West- 

 moreland. — In July, 1883, I gathered, in the company of the Rev. 

 R. P. Murray, a specimen of the former plant on mountain lime- 

 stone, near Kirkby Stephen. When remounting it, this year, I was 

 struck by its appearance ; and, on careful comparison with speci- 

 mens from Settle, and with Mr. Backhouse's ■ Monograph/ feel 

 confident about the name. A few days previously we found a sedga 

 in a wet sphagnous bog above the Mazebeck, between Caldron 

 Snout and Highcup Scar, which we thought to be C. limosa, but 

 when I was looking through my sedges lately it seemed more 

 properly referable to C. irrigua. Mr. Arthur Bennett has kindly 

 examined a plant, and confirms the name. These appear to be 

 additions to the Ronnfev flora.— Edward S. Marshall. 



capillar r: Hoflin., in W 



near 



