GERANIUM PURPUREUM VILL. AND G. ROBERTIANUM L. : II 277 



Subsp. celticum has not yet been recognised on the continent of Europe but it is 

 Ukely that its distribution, even in the British Isles, is imperfectly known. It appears 

 to be intolerant of shade, growing in crevices amongst limestone rocks in the south-west 

 of the British Isles where the humidity may be high in sheltered places. Its distribution 

 is mapped in Fig. 3. 



V.c. 41. GLAM. : Cliffs above Three Cliffs Bay, Gower, 1946, Baker (Bak.). 

 42. BRECON : Erwood, 1926. Mrs. M. S. Wedgwood (Ox.). 



44. CARM. : Reported by Hamer from Llyn-Llech Owen in Rep. Bot. Soc. & E. C, 1, 564 (1925). 



This has been misquoted as a Glamorgan locality by Vachell (in Glam. Co. Hist.) following 



a misprint in Rep. Bot. Soc. & E. C, 6, 831 (1923). 

 H. 9. CLARE : Rocks above Ballyvaughan, 1911, Ostenfeld (B.M.) (K) (Ox.) (Camb.) (WNH) (L. Rop.) ; 



1911, Druce (Ox.) (Cam.) (WNH) (L. Cry.) (L. Rop.) (B.M.) (K) (specimens cultivated from 



seed in Copenhagen and Oxford respectively) ; 1948, Baker (Bak.). 

 16. W. GALWAY : Galway (? exact locality), 1920, Mrs. Evans (Ox.) (also see Praeger (1934)). 



The record from Galway is not satisfactory as it is possible that the specimen was 

 collected in the limestone of the Burren near to Galway City (but still in Clare). In the 

 Burren the subspecies is common (along with subsp. rohertianum) in the crevices of the 

 limestone pavement and amongst the rocks at least as far south as Poulsallagh. It reaches 

 the rear of the shingle beach at Ballyvaughan but is replaced nearer the sea by subsp. 

 maritimum. 



In addition to these records of undoubted subsp. celticum there are herbarium speci- 

 mens from other western limestone regions which suggest this subspecies very strongly 

 and fresh material from these areas would undoubtedly extend its known range. For 

 example, many of the North Wales collections, some of the Somerset plants collected 

 by E. S. Marshall and the specimen from Pen Moyle (W. Glos.) collected by W. A. 

 Shoolbred in 1892 (WNH) are very close to celticum. J. A. Wheldon collected plants at 

 Silverdale, W. Lanes., and cultivated them, noting their approximation to this subspecies 

 (Wheldon, 1922). My own observations on Breconshire and Cheddar plants have 

 already been quoted (p. 272). 



There remains only one more curious form of G. rohertianum to be described. This 

 distinctive form is well-known in cultivation and is erroneously known to the horticultural 

 trade as " var. celticum." It is a very neat, prostrate, small-leaved and rather small 

 flowered form completely lacking anthocyanin. Consequently, the stems and leaves are 

 a pale, clear green while the petals and stigmata are white and the anthers are lemon 

 yellow. Almost every plant flowers in the first season and the plants are quite susceptible 

 to frost-damage. At Kew, where it grows in the Students' Garden, it is believed to have 

 come from Messrs. Ingwersen, who, in turn, believe it to have originated in Connemara. 

 This is supported by the label on a specimen in the British Museum (Natural History) 

 which was prepared by F. Dukes from a plant grown in Birmingham, labelled " var. 

 celticum Ostenf." and " origin ? Connemara." Another specimen from the beds at 

 Kew was collected jointly by A. J. Wilmott and J. S. L. Gilmour in 1936 (B.M.). Mr. 

 Gilmour later suggested (according to the label) that this was the variety *' creticum." I 

 have not been able to find any more information about such a variety and Mr. Gilmour 

 now has no reference to it. A most likely reference to this plant is given in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, 1926, i, p. 188, where it is described. Noting this description, Druce (1927) 

 says, " It came from Sir Charles Isham's garden at Menai Bridge, to which most of the 

 plants were brought from western Ireland. Possibly this is a white-flowered form of 

 Ostenfeld's G. celticum." While there is no real evidence to support this postulated 

 ancestry, it seems that this is where the horticultural trade name was picked up and 

 there is very good reason for searching for this interesting plant in western Ireland, 

 particularly in Connemara. 



