228 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



danicus has already been eliminated for other reasons. The words 

 " non squamis furfuraceis," of course, allude to ^. i:)entaglottis. 

 Lange having expressed his objections, for whatever they are 

 worth, to accepting A. jpurpureus as the true A. hypoglottis, 

 suggests that a rare Spanish species, A. asperulus Duf., would 

 agree better with Linnasus's description. It has to recommend it 

 that : (a) It is annual, (b) It has small heads of only 8-10 flowers, 

 (c) It has a rather conspicuous double beak to the legume when 

 dead ripe. On the other hand : (a) It is utterly unlike A. penta- 

 glottis in most respects, {h) It is a rare plant, unlikely to have 

 been known to Linnaeus, (c) There is no trace of it either in 

 Linngeus's herbarium or in that of Cliffort. {d) The flowers are 

 whitish or very pale lilac. (e) The legume, though pubescent, 

 does not agree at all with the " tecta pilis longis albis mollibus." 

 (/) The legume has a triangular or cordate base, as in A. epiglottis, 

 so does not agree with " ovata." {g) Above all, the legumes are 

 reflexed against the peduncle even more markedly than in epi- 

 glottis. Those who have not access to good specimens of asperulus 

 can see all this in Lange's figure, tab. iv. fig. 1. ' 



Willkomm raises the further objection to asperulus that the 

 flowers form a spike. But they seem only to acquire this form in 

 fruit, so that the objection is not a very important one. He says 

 in Prodr. Fl. Hisp. iii. p. 270: — "Capitula a Linnaeo globosa et 

 flores purpurascentes vel caerulei dicuntur, quamobrem A. aspe- 

 rulum ad A. hypoglottidem ducere adhuc hgesito. Hanc vero 

 speciem ab A. danico Eetz., quacum cl. Bunge et Boissier eam 

 perperam conjunxerunt toto cselo abhorrere, optime demonstravit 

 amiciss. Lange." 



Lange also passes in review four other Spanish species, the 

 only ones which could conceivably be supposed by anyone to repre- 

 sent A. hypoglottis. Of these he very properly dismisses at once 

 A. Glaux Si^nd A. pentaglottis. Of A. granatensis Lange remarks: 

 •' This species, from the mountains of Granada, closely allied (to 

 A. Glaux) though certainly different from it, does not suit the 

 description of A. hypoglottis on account of its flattish heads with 

 numerous flowers." 



I have not seen specimens of A. granatensis, but the opinion 

 of Lange, its own author, may be accepted as conclusive. 



Of the fourth species he says: " Another neighbouring species, 

 from the South of Spain, A. Bourgcea7ius Coss., which resembles 

 A. purpureus in habit, and A. Stella in the form of its legumes, 

 could perhaps be referred to [A. hypoglottis) more plausibly; but 

 as I have seen no specimen of it, I dare not express an opinion." 



The description given by Willkomm, Prodr. Fl. Hisp. iii. 

 p. 276, is : "Differt a prsecedenti (A. purpureo), cui habitu simihs, 

 capitulis floribusque minoribus et prgecipue leguminibus estipitatis, 

 cylindrico-trigonis, in mucronem subuncinatum attenuatis, sub- 

 tus anguste profundeque canaliculatis, adpresse pubescentibus." 

 Habitat : Sierra de Baza, S. Pedro Martyr, in Catalonia, and 

 somewhere, not specified, in the kingdom of Murcia. 



I have inspected Bourgeau's original specimens, no. 1144, 



