REPORT FOR 1913. 



463 



Villarsii Jord." — G. C. Druce. "This plant is pubescent, and there- 

 fore cannot be H. Hydriensis Hacq., which is described as having 

 leaves entirely glabrous and attenuate at the base."— Ed. 



R. catharticus L. No. 2 — Near Hawes Water, Silverdale, alt. 30 

 feet. No. 3 — Dusty roadside, Silverdale, W. Lancashire, v.-c. 60, 

 alt. 150 feet. Both localities on the scar limestone. After examining 

 a large number of trees in the Silverdale district we find that the 

 amount of hairiness of the leaves and peduncles varies somewhat 

 according to the habitat. The tree from which the specimens marked 

 No. 3 were taken was growing in dry shallow soil immediately over 

 the limestone rock. The leaves of this tree were smaller and of a 

 paler green than those of other trees (see specimens marked No. 2) 

 growing in damper situations in the same neighbourhood, and the 

 tree was smaller and less robust, no doubt owing to the shallow soil. 

 The dust from the road had also increased the hoary appearance. 

 Our reason for gathering the three sets of specimens, viz., those 

 marked Nos. 2 and 3 from Silverdale, and the one from Warton Crag 

 (which is the least hairy), is to ascertain whether the plant from 

 Silverdale named var. Schraeteri by Mr Druce is distinct from our 

 common form of i?. catharticus as known in West Lancashire and 

 other parts of the North of England. Specimens gathered at Clapham 

 and elsewhere in Yorkshire are also hairy. Are any of these forms 

 referable to R. Villarsii Jord., said to be a hairy form of R. 

 catharticus, and is any of the British R. catharticus glabrous % Smith 

 in Eng. Flor. Vol. I., p. 328, says "Leaves . . . smooth. The young 

 ones downy. Footstalks downy." — J. A. Wheldon and A. Wilson. 

 "No. 3 is my var. Schroeteri (see JVew Fhyt. 311, 1911). No. 2 is 

 intermediate between it and type." — ^G. C. Druce. " I have examined 

 all the British and European material of R. catharticus at the British 

 Museum and Kew, and find a great variation in the amount of 

 pubescence, but absolutely glabrous plants seem to be quite rare." — Ed. 



Genista tinctoria L. [Ref. No. 9812.] Easton on the Hill 

 Quarries, Northants, July 1913. In great quantity, and, as was the 

 case with all yellow flowered plants in 1913, in profuse blossom. 

 Curiously this plant was omitted from the first edition of Top. Bot. 

 for Northants, notwithstanding there were specimens in Herh. Linn. 

 and Herh. Brit. Mus. from " marshy places in Naseby fields " labelled 

 G. humifusa. This was first recorded in Mastin's History of Nasehy, 

 p. 40 (1792), in which it says " the plant was never found in England 

 before [it was] discovered by Mr Dickson in 1788." Unfortunately 

 all Dickson specimens I have seen are without fruit. It would seem 

 that Babington must have had a fruiting specimen before him since 

 he reduced {Manual 1847, p. 73) G. humifusa Dicks, to a var. of 

 tinctoria, his italicised distinguishing characters are " pods hairy on 

 the backs," Babington only gives the Lizard district as yielding it, 



