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Durlstone Head. Isle of Wight, Steepliill and Bembridge Downs. 

 Surrey, Kiddlesdown and Banstead Downs. It seems probable to 

 me that the British plant may be merely a state of Ungulata, and 

 not a variety, a point which could be decided by cultivating the 

 two plants side by side. 



^axillaris Murb. — Middle and lower internodes rather shorter 

 than or slightly longer than their leaves. Middle and upper stem- 

 leaves ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, more or less acute at the 

 apex ; middle stem-leaves usually spreading, upper ones generally 

 greatly so. Fl. end of July to September.— The common British 

 plant.— Eng. Bot. tab. 236. 



The development of G. aliginosa and G. Amarella appears to be 

 homologous with that of G. baltica and G. campestris respectively ; 

 indeed, so strikingly close is the parallel between the two groups 

 that it cannot fail at first to suggest artificiality of treatment. 

 Hence the confirmation of Herr Murbeck's conclusions, resulting 

 from his cultivation of the plants, becomes all the more valuable. 



Judging from the comparative distribution of the various forms, 

 and from the widespread distribution of G. campestris and G. 

 Amarella, the author concludes that these latter are the ancestral 

 types, and that they existed at the time of the last glacial epoch ; 

 then, as the ice began to recede from the lowlands, as the valleys 

 became warmer, and the period available for growth in a single 

 season sensibly lengthened, opportunity was afforded for the pre- 

 servation of such annual forms as might arise through variation, 

 and thus there were eventually evolved the species G. baltica and 

 G. uliginosa, the characters of which have now become so fixed that 

 Herr Murbeck states that intermediates between them and their 

 respective allies are not now to be found, even where the habitats 

 of the plants overlap. 



After examining the specimens given me by Herr Murbeck, 

 and comparing them and various British specimens with his 

 descriptions, I think that his conclusions are certainly entitled to 

 acceptance. 



There is one point, however, on which I am sorely at variance 

 with Herr Murbeck, viz., that of nomenclature. Some of the above 

 names are given by me in an abbreviated form, but this is how 

 some of them read as given by the author of them : — 



G. campestris L. *snecica (Froel. pro var.) Murb. 



*germanica (Froel. pro var.) Murb. 

 G. Amarella L. *axillaris (Schmidt) Murb. 

 the last-named being the equivalent of Bippion axillare Schmidt. 

 Had the brackets and enclosed words been omitted, the form of the 

 names would have been legal. The case of G. *germanica \<, 

 however, open to much graver objection. The name stood originally 

 G. campestris L. /3. germanica Froel. (1796), while G. germanica 

 Willd. was not published until the following year, according to the 

 dates quoted in the treatise. On this account Herr Murbeck, in 

 raising Froelich's variety to the rank of subspecies, instead of giving 

 it a new name, retains the varietal name germanica, and makes it 

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