SOME HYBRIDS OF THE GENUS SYMPHYTUM 335 



show the influence of S. peregriniim, but the lower stature, more 

 completely winged stem, and the purplish tint of the flowers, 

 which are not so large or crowded as in x S. densiflorum, show 

 that it approaches still more closely to S. officinale fi imrjpureum. 



A plant which I believe to be S. officinale x '<ijerefjnnum is 

 described under the name of S. ccendeuni Petitmengin n. sp. inedit. 

 1903 {S. cceruleum Hort. Angl. ex Steud. ?) by Dr. A. Thellung, as 

 follows" : — " Near S. officinale L., from which it is distinguished 

 by the upper leaves being imperfectly decurrent (only to the 

 middle of the internodes), corolla sky-blue (not violaceous or 

 yellowish- white), 3-4 times longer than the calyx (not only tw^ce 

 as long), calyx often divided only to the lower ^ (not almost to 

 the base), filaments nearly equal to the anthers (not scarcely more 

 than half their length)." 



Dr. Thellung refers to this the figure of S. x>eregrinum (Bot. 

 Mag. t. 6466), and the S. peregrimcm of Ascherson and Grabner 

 (Fl. Nordd. Flach. 1878-9, p. 577), which he says are not the 

 plant of Ledebour, but may be the hybrid S. aspenim x officinale. 

 He states that a plant which occurs as a weed in the Botanical 

 Garden at Zurich, as well as one from Sion (F. 0. Wolf, cult. ?), is 

 the same as Petitmengin's S. coeruleum, which grew at Doumarte- 

 mont (Meurthe and Moselle), France. As regards Bot. Mag. 

 6466, it represents, in my opinion, S. peregrinimi, but if the plants 

 to which Dr. Thellung refers have the stem partially winged, as 

 in S. C(xruleum, they are doubtless hybrids, of which S. officinale 

 is one of the parents ; and, as there is no evidence in the 

 description of S. ccerulewn that it possesses the characters which 

 separate S. asperum from S.peregrinum, and as the latter probably 

 occurs more frequently than the former on the Continent as well 

 as in Britain, I consider it more likely that S. peregrinum rather 

 than S. asperum is the other parent. 



It being therefore fairly certain that the plant of Petitmengin 

 and Thellung is the hybrid S. officinale x peregrinum, and that 

 it cannot be included with either of those which I have described, 

 I have little hesitation in referring to it a plant in the Botanic 

 Garden of Bristol University wdiich agrees with Thellung's de- 

 scription as far as it goes, and of which the characters are as 

 follows : — 



X S. ccERULEUM Petitmengin. [S. officinale a ochroleucum 

 X peregrimcm.) Habit and stature of S. peregrinum, but almost 

 entirely sterile. Stem hispid, asperous, partially and rather 

 broadly winged ; lower leaves oblong, attenuated into the petiole, 

 upper lanceolate, semidecurrent from the rather broad base ; calyx 

 with acute segments ; corolla rose tipped with green when in bud, 

 then bright blue or rose and blue, the tips of the lobes sometimes 

 yellowish ; anthers equal to filaments ; nutlets (very seldom pro- 

 duced) closely granulated. 



Some plants in the Oakford Valley with shortly decurrent leaves 



* A. Thellung, Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Schweizerjlora (viii.). Separat, 

 Dec. Uth, 1907, pp. 459-462. 



