﻿which is much better drawn than usual, is from a specimen collected 

 in the Hook of Holland. 



I began at once to examine all the specimens of Sherardia in 

 our Oxford herbaria, and as many fresh specimens as I could 

 collect. In our herbaria I found specimens of this variety from 

 Mitcham in Surrey, and from Hartlepool. In some cornfields on 

 the chalk near Hurley I found it growing with the type, and after- 

 Forest Hill, in Oxfordshire, in which county our herbarium 

 assistant Baker also found it in sandy fields near Headington. All 

 the Scotch specimens that I have examined so far belong to the 

 type. A white-flowered form (8. neglecta Coss. et Germ.) which 

 I have from Oxford and Berkshire has also the long calyx-teeth of 

 the type. The plant from Hurley was rather more hairy than 

 usual (var. hirsute, Baguet), and a plant which I gathered in Glen 

 Spean had rather broader leaves than usual (var. ovata Fisch.-Benz.), 

 but neither the breadth or narrowness of the leaves or their hairi- 

 ness or absence of hairs warrant varietal names. This var. Wal- 

 ravam, which is differentiated by the very greatly reduced calyx- 

 limb, appears to be worth closer study, especially when the generic 

 characters which separate Sherardia and Asperula are considered. 



Later in the year my valued correspondent, Prof. Ascherson 

 sent me a copy of his paper in Beriehte der Deutschen Botanischm 

 Gesellsclw/t, xi. 29 (1893), on a remarkable variety of SI, n Jin 

 ervensis, which he identifies with the variety named and described 

 by Grisebach in the Flora Rumelica, vol. ii. 1844, p. 169, as var 

 maritima, " foliis breviter ovatis, dentibus calycis sub'anthesi 

 exiguis corniculiformibus (demum excrescentibus) corolla rosea 

 lc. an. Fhra Ikmira, t, 439." In Wirtgen's Herb. plant, select. Fasc! 

 vui. No. 865, the same plant was distributed under the name of 

 Sherardia arvensis var. rnutica, » calyx almost effaced, fruit with 6 

 short broadly triangular naked teeth. This remarkable plant, which 

 actually departs from the character assigned to the genus by many 

 authors, i. e., < fruit with six subulate teeth,' deserves to be raised to 

 the dignity of a species, and I would therefore propose the name 

 S. Walraveni for it in honour of the discoverer. But before I 

 determine upon this, I will cultivate and further observe it " 

 Ascherson gives a long list of localities where this plant has been 

 found, including some from Germany, Netherlands (from the 

 narrow strip of Netherlands territory south of the Western Scheldt), 

 Belgium (battle field of Waterloo), Denmark, Italy, European 

 Turkey, and Asia Minor. In seven cases this shortness of calyx- 

 limb was combined with a denser hairiness. That the plant has 

 some degree of constancy may be inferred from the fact that it has 

 occurred for three successive years in the same locality. 



Ascherson says :— « We do not need Wirtgen's proposed ex- 

 periments m the cultivation of the plant to enable us to reject 

 decidedly the specific difference which he assumed as possible. 

 This orm is united, like the variety Ursula, with the type by 

 transitions, and this combination and the manner of its fttm««.r- 

 ather of a variation 

 32. [Aug. 1894.] 



