346 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



beautiful 



ifl 



But it varies from a light mauve, or even lilac, through every 

 shade of purple to a deep violet. In the Mont Cenis district, 

 where the plant is very plentiful from 6000 to 7500 ft. above the 

 sea, one specimen was entirely a rich rose colour, as pink as the 

 flowers of Pedicidaris rosea, and the bracts were the same colour ; 

 but usually the hood is purple and the lower lip a bluish mauve, 

 the central portion only of the lower lip being sometimes nearly 

 white. Last year, in Val Tournanche, on the Italian side of 

 the Matterhorn, I found some plants with the lower lip completely 

 white, but this form is very rare. At Mont Cenis, near the summit 

 of the Col, are three large patches with pure white flowers, all the 

 bracts being of a uniform pale green. In the Maritime Alps, in June, 

 S. alpina appeared to be somewhat paler in colour than at Mont 

 Cenis and on the Swiss frontier. Not only does a root send forth 

 flowering spikes of different colours, but often individual flowers 

 on the same head vary considerably in colour, some being much 

 redder than others. In shady situations the leaves are sometimes 

 nearly glabrous, but even in the shade the bracts are generally 

 tinged with purple. Although the increased brilliancy in colour 

 of flowers, and especially the reds, blues and violets, as one 

 ascends mountains is well known, it is a somewhat rare thing 

 to find flowers normally white assume a pinkish tinge in the 

 high mountains. To-day, at Moncenisio, I find Silene inflata 

 markedly tinged with pink, and here also Trifolium repens assumes 

 a rose colour, so that it is easily confounded with its near allies 

 T. pallescens and T. Thalii. Scutellaria alpina is one of the many 

 alpine plants found in the Pyrenees, the Alps of Central and 

 Southern Europe (particularly on limestone), and again in the 

 Altai region of Northern Asia — H. S. Thompson. 



The Box in England.— In Robson's The British Flora (York, 

 1777) I find the following stations given: — "On Box-hill near 

 Dorking in Surrey, at Boxwell in Cotswold in Gloucestershire, and 

 at Boxley in Kent." This is of special interest, as confirming the 

 views expressed in Journ. Bot. 1901, pp. 27-30, 73. He must be 

 very sceptical who doubts its being native on the steep slopes of 

 Box Hill, above Burford Bridge; I have also seen it growing 

 rather plentifully, a mile or more away, towards Betchworth. — 



Edward S. Marshall. 



Eosa hihernica (p. 304).— The following mention of this 

 plant in Templeton's original locality occurs in Mason's Parochial 

 Survey, iii. 183 (1819) :— " Some time ago a beautiful bed of wild 

 roses which grew to near an acre in extent, beneath the road to 

 Eichmond Lodge, was more accurately observed, and it was found 

 that the rose was a non-descript. It is now called the Bosa 

 hibernica, and a description of it is given in the Transactions of 

 Dublin Society." The writer was the Eev. W. Holmes, Vicar of 

 Holywood, in which parish the locality is situated. The spot is 

 greatly changed by a road and railway which run through the 



