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that locality. In two short papers (Botaniska Notiser, Lund, 

 1880, p. 137, and 1893, p. Ill), where an account is given of the 

 finds of this plant in the Sc m huuviau Peninsula, I have en- 

 deavoured to show the probability of its being indigenous to Europe, 

 and of its representing a flora now becoming extinct in our part of 

 the globe. I have therefore thought it might be of soma interest 

 to state my reasons for the above opinion, especially as these papers 

 seem to have entirely escaped the notice of foreign botanists. 



most southerly province of Sweden, in 1876, but did not attract 

 any special attention till 1880, when I visited, in company with 

 some young botanists, the place where it grew. It occurred for a 

 distance of about ten miles along the shore between the two coast- 

 towns of Landskrona and Helsingborg, and in groups containing 

 a few plants and situated several hundred or thousand feet from 

 one another. It extended along a zone immediately above that 

 bearing the (maritime littoral) saline^flora, growing on sand and in 



dispersion of this species along the coast of Skane, as well as the 

 great age which some individuals, judging by their very con- 

 siderable size, must be assumed to have attained, renders it highly 

 probable that, if this plant be a naturalized form in Skane, its 

 naturalization must have taken place at a time far removed from 

 the present. For if this plant has been brought to Skane in some 

 casual manner, it first appeared, in all likelihood, at some solitary 

 point, and thence spread further. But this process must have 

 been very slow. The fruit of this plant is not furnished with any 

 contrivance for its dispersion by the wind or its adhesion to the 

 hair or feathers of animals. Nor does it seem credible that the 

 fruit, clogged with earth, can have stuck between the toes of birds, 

 and been transported in that manner, for the loose, sandy soil in 

 which this plant lives cannot possibly adhere in such a situation. 

 It is also quite out of the question that the fruit can have been 

 spread by granivorous birds. The fruit has no fleshy outer 

 envelope, and would undoubtedly be digested if swallowed by birds. 

 Furthermore, it is highly probable that, on account of its intense 

 odour, this plant is avoided by animals. And it has not spread at 

 all on the coast of Skane since it was observed in 1880, in spite 

 of the fact that its growth was then very luxuriant. 



The above circumstances are decisive evidence that this plant 

 can but slowly extend its area, and that, if it has been introduced 

 into Skane in a manner impossible for us to ascertain, this must 

 have happened very long ago. But when A. Stelleriana was first 

 observed (1876), in no part of Sweden had it been cultivated, to the 

 best of my knowledge, in the open. In the Botanical Garden 

 of Copenhagen it was cultivated about 1865, though it soon died 

 out; and in the gardens of North Germany it can hardly have 

 occurred earlier than in Copenhagen. But, considering the slow 

 rate at which A. Stelleriana spreads, it could not possibly have 

 attained so wide an extension on the west coast of Skane as it had 

 in 1880, even if it had been transported thither immediately on its 



