SILENE ELONGATA 445 



reduces B. horcleaceus to a variety 13 of B. secalinus, which (see 

 Hackel in Kerner Schedce iii. 142) is regarded as a synonym of 

 B. mollis. Therefore horcleaceus is the earliest trivial for the 

 species, and the name stands S. hobdeaceus Gren. & Godr. Fl. 

 Fr. iii. 590 (1856). 



516. Polypodium molle All. (1785). In restoring this name 

 we followed Luerrsen & Christ. Schinz & Thellung do not regard 

 Allioni's plant as sufficiently defined, and prefer to adopt the 

 name Aihyrium alpestre Rylands (in Moore Ferns Great Brit. t. vii. 

 1857) based on Aspidium alpestre Hoppe. Moore, however, merely 

 quotes the name in synonymy. 



SILENE ELONGATA Bellardi. 

 By Robert Paulson, F.R.M.S. 



This plant, which occurs on rocks in shady places in the 

 Tarentaise, Savoie, was flowering during last August in the 

 higher parts of the Valine de Chavi6re and on the upper part of 

 the route from Pralognan to the Col de la Vanoise. In habit it is 

 quite distinct from typical Silene acaulis L. in not forming moss- 

 like cushions, in spreading as a loose mat over the surface, and in 

 hanging from the crevices of rocks. The flowers are on long 

 peduncles, which carry them far above the general level of the 

 procumbent stems ; the petals are deeply notched, and of a light 

 reddish-purple colour. The capsules were not fully formed so late 

 as the third week in August, so that no comparisons of these 

 could be made. In the valley stretching from Pralognan to the 

 Col de Chavi6re (fifteen kilometres) three closely associated forms 

 of Silene — S. elongata, S. exscapa AIL, and S. bryoides Jord. 

 may be seen growing at about the same altitude. 



The specimens which were collected in August last correspond 

 exactly with Bellardi's type, dated 1788, in the Herbarium of the 

 Natural History Museum, South Kensington. The plant seems 

 to have been generally overlooked, but it differs so much from 

 S. acaulis that authors, even if they regard it as an extreme form 

 of that plant, should not omit to mention such a distinct form 

 when dealing with the flora of the district in which it occurs. 

 Apart from the question as to what constitutes a species, it seems 

 well that attention should be called to a plant that must frequently 

 puzzle the botanist in the Alps of Savoie and Dauphin6. 



Occasionally intermediate forms may be found, but they were 

 not very evident in the valleys mentioned. In a letter from the 

 Baron Perrier de la B&thie, Professor of Agriculture at Albert- 

 ville, he says: "Je reconnais qu'on trouve quelques specimens 

 embarrassants entre ces formes, surtout entre les S. bryoides Jord. 

 et S. exscapa All." May it not be that such closely allied forms 

 hybridize ? 



S. elongata is omitted from De Candolle's Prodromus, and from 



