174 THE SEGREGATES OF SPERGULA ARVENSIS L. 
from S. vulgaris by the more viscid pubescence with which it is 
clothed, ~ by the duller and more yellowish green colour of the 
pater plan S. vulgaris is Ss of a rather glossy grass-green 
ably i 
by Mr. Nicholson will be found to be correct when describing plants 
from the British Isles 
Boreau (Flore du Contre, i ii. 102) says of S. sativa (to = - 
gives specific rank as S. arvensis L.), ‘‘Pubescente et un 
visqueuse au sommet”; while’S. vulgaris is *‘ plus gréle, sehseoesitt 
glanduleuse un peu visqueuse.”’ 
The difference in the relative viscosity of S. sativa and S. 
vulgaris was strongly salaiaeond upon my mind in September rie 
when I found S. sativa (accompanied with S. vulgaris) for the firs 
time in Berks in a sandy field ses ag soe Hill, near Oxford, ae 
with many plants of Senecio Jacobaa. It was a singular fact that 
plants of S. sativa might be picked out from those of S. vulgaris, 
from their being more or ieee pew red with the pappus of the 
Senecio which in its wind-driven progress across the field — 
attached tyke S. sativa, but which a less viscid foliage of S. vulga 
did not r 
The eter; in Syme’s E. B. plates seems to show that Syme 
was not well acquainted with the characters of the forms of 8. 
arvensis which he called varieties. Through the nary 1 of Mr. 
Hanbury, I have seen the specimens in the Boswell Herbarium, 
and I find he by no means invariably separates nee hails to which 
he gave varietal rank. As I have pointed nt the E. B. 1535 is 
reproduced with additions in Syme’s E. B. 252 (the seeds of the 
two plants being iifortitintely transposed on the plates) as his var. 
sativa; while the KE. B. 1586, which Smith in error called S 
do duty for Syme’s var. vulgaris. Since the original KE. B. plate 
1536 was also a figure of S. sativa, we really lack a true fi 
duced plate no. 253 ae fairly well for S. vulgaris, if we follow 
arg <n m and transpose the drawings of the seeds from the 
Syme says the seeds of his var. vulgaris are clothed with 
‘clavate deciduous papille.’’ I have never found any seeds of 
darken in colour, and so may more easily eseape observation. 
I have not noticed the variety — by 7 Acacia Bape which, 
he says, has uniformly 
Smith Sam Flora, ii. 938) Pe that ‘intermediate appear- 
ances may ed bet the round rough angular seeds of the 
common sais [vulgaris] and the smooth lenticular bordered 
ones of this [sativa] variety.” If this statement be co rrect, it 
would militate against their claim to specific distinction. a are is it 
true? I have never seen any seeds of S. sativa with papille, nor 
