Arabis.] CRUCIFERA. 19 
Var. cntata (R. Br.).—II. On sandhills near Darrynane 
(Drummond) Mackay Cat. 1825.—V. Sandy banks at 
Trabeg, near Dingle: Hart 1884. Abundant on sandhills 
near Castlegregory with its var. HIspIDA Syme (Marshall & 
Shoolbred) R.W.S. 1903 Plants agreeing with the 
descriptions of A. ciliata R. Br. and its var. HISPIDA Syme, 
still (1914) occur in Drummond’s original station on the 
Darrynane sandhills and on nearly all the sandhills and 
sandy pastures round the Kerry coast. 
The great diversity of opinion among competent botanists 
as to what Arabis ciliata R. Br. really is, species, subspecies 
or variety, is very remarkable, and as the plant is an abun- 
dant and characteristic member of the Kerry flora, a some- 
what lengthy investigation of its claims to specific rank 
would appear to be fully justified. 
On most of the Kerry sandhills and sandy pastures, a 
plant fully agreeing with the text-book descriptions of 
A. ciliata R. Br. is found in greater or less abundance. 
This plant is glabrous both in its stem and leaves except for 
a ciliate rim to the latter ; the stem leaves are sessile and 
not cordate or auricled as in A. hirsuta. Growing mixed 
with these, however, are other plants showing every grada- 
tion between this almost completely glabrous A. ciliata 
and a form so densely ciliate on both stem and leaves as to 
appear woolly or even white at some little distance. The 
degree of ciliation, moreover, is found to vary even on the 
same plant ; thus a plant gathered on the Kells sandhills, 
Dingle Bay, with several stems growing from the same root, 
had some of these stems almost quite glabrous, while others 
showed well marked ciliation. The mode of insertion of the 
stem leaves, a character largely relied on in separating 
A. ciliata from A. hirsuta, varies also in plants otherwise 
similar. Reference to botanical text-books shows that this 
difficulty of limiting A. ciliata, or of separating it from 
A. hirsuta, has engaged the attention of several authorities. 
Among these may be mentioned Syme, who endeavoured 
to solve the difficulty by making the more hairy of the sessile 
stem-leaved forms, a var. HISPIDA of A. ciliata, and the less 
hairy of the cordate or auricled-leaved forms a var. GLABRATA 
of A. hirsuta. 
For some years this difficulty was further complicated by the 
distribution by foreign botanists under the name A. ciliata 
R. Br. of a continental alpine plant,* which differs in several 
* Vide Willkomm et Lange, Prod, Flor, Hisp., Vol. iii., p. 817. 
