REPORT FOR 1914. 



131 



— R. & M. CoRSTORPHiNE. The Rev. E. S. Marshall, to whom two 

 batches of fresh plants were sent, writes : — "The Sagina strikes me as 

 being of special interest. It clearly belongs to S. maritima Don. It 

 seems nearest to var. densa in habit, but much less crowded ; from 

 that it also differs by the capsules exceeding the sepals. Besides this, 

 it has some of the stems and pedicels furnished with gland-tipped hairs, 

 which I never saw before in this species. Like var. dehilis (Jord.), it 

 is quite prostrate ; but that is a slender spreading plant, with long 

 internodes. Also var. iwoatrata Townsend MS. (never described, I 

 fancy), is a plant two or three times as large and clearly different . . . 

 The better examples of the greyish-glandular plant, in more advanced 

 condition, still quite puzzle me. The leaves resemble maritima in 

 outline ; with, however, a small mucro or apiculus at the top, as a rule. 

 The sepals are as in maritima ; broader than in apetala. S. maritima 

 does not appear to be ever grey or glaucous, or at all hairy or glandular. 

 So it seems to be either a new species (at least for Britain), or a new 

 and very marked variety of maritima.'' — E. S. Marshall, in lit. 

 " Apparently identical with the plant sent as var. prostrata Towns. 

 (Travis and Wheldon, Report 1913, p. 459), since identified as S. 

 maritima., var. ciliata Nordst. We have seen an authentic vspecimen of 

 Townsend's plant, which differs in being more glabrous and larger in 

 all its parts. It has also a different liabit. In comparing R. & M. Cor- 

 storphine's plant with that from South Lancashire, it must be noted that 

 the latter grew near docks where coal is constantly loaded. They 

 have therefore an unnaturally dark appearance." — J. A. Wheldon. 

 " This is very interesting. Clearly, I think, a maritima form, which 

 I have never seen before. There is a var. ciliata Nordst. in Hartm. 

 Skand. Fl. 1879, p. 247, and a var. glauca Strobl. in Oest. Bot. Zeit. 

 XXXV., 1885, p. 209, but unfortunately I have no examples of either." 

 — C. E. Salmon. " This is undoubtedly S. maritima Don. I have 

 not my specimens available at the moment, but, speaking from memory, 

 I think the Arbroath plant is very like the S. maritima from Garston, 

 distributed by Mr Wheldon and me last year, except that the former 

 is more glandular. Our Garston plant has been referred by Dr O. 

 Nordstedt to his var. ciliata, and I have no doubt that the Arbroath 

 plant also comes under the same variety, which is probably a northern 

 form." — W. G. Travis. "An interesting plant which Mr and Mrs 

 Corstorphine showed me in situ last J une. The large capsules and 

 fruiting calyx suggest S. maritima ; but the habit, the glandular hairs, 

 and the apiculate leaf point to S. apetala. Unless a hybrid, the 

 specimens point to the desirability of uniting S. apetala and ;S'. mari- 

 tima, two plants which in any case are closely allied. It is, in my 

 opinion, the case that the Jordanian species of Sagina are unduly 

 small ; on that standard one might easily make a score or two of 

 British species of Atriplex and Salicornia. However, of the segregates 

 or close allies of >S'. apetala, S. maritima is the best; but I would 

 reduce S. ciliata and S. reuteri to varieties of >S'. apetala, I may add 



