4B8 
infrequent  at  5000  feet  in  Switzerland,  and  I  once  saw 
low  plants  of  it  at  6500  feet  near  Engelberg,  growing  with 
Lilium  Martagon  and  Hedysarum  obscurum. — H.S.T. 
V.  angustifolia  L.,  var.  Bobartii  Koch.  Poor  grass 
field,  Milford-on-Sea,  S.  Hants.,  v.c.  11,  June,  1913 — 
J.  Comber.  This  seems  correctly  named _ C.E.S.  A 
glance  at  Edw.  Forster’s  “  Observations  on  the  Vicia 
angustifolia  of  the  English  Flora  of  Sir  J.  E.  Smith”  in 
“  Trans.  Linn.  Soc.”  XVI.  (1830)  p.  435,  where  he  briefly 
describes  V.  Bobartii  as  a  species,  showrs  what  confusion 
this  group  of  plants  was  in  even  then.  Forster  gave 
the  name  Bobartii  to  V.  angustifolia  of  Smith  (not 
of  other  botanists),  but  his  description  is  meagre. 
V.  angustifolia  is  one  of  the  most  polymorphic  of  plants, 
(Godron  called  it  V.  polymorpha) ;  and  the  nomenclature 
of  its  various  varieties  and  forms  is  still  in  a  state  of 
chaos.  These  nice  specimens  have  the  "solitary  flowers, 
straight  and  patent  pods  (30 — 40mm.  long)  and  narrow 
linear  upper-leaflets  of  the  var.  Bobartii  ;  but  the  Milford 
plants  are  by  no  means  “  prostrate,”  and  the  upper  leaflets 
are  truncate  or  slightly  emarginate,  with  a  short  mucro, 
in  which  respect  and  the  single  flower  they  resemble  those 
of  V.  peregrina  L. ;  but  that  species  is  quite  distinct,  and 
it  has  larger  dull  purple  flowers  and  broader  pods.  Hooker 
&  Arnott  remarked  (“  Brit.  Flora,”  Ed.  6,  1850)  “  by  culti¬ 
vating  Bobartii  we  observed  it  pass  into  V.  angustifolia .” 
To  make  certain  of  the  plants  in  this  perplexing  group,  it 
is  advisable  to  cultivate  them,  and  see  if  the  characters 
remain  constant.  In  the  S.  of  France  one  finds  three  or 
four  forms  of  this  aggregate,  each  with  two  or  three 
different  names.  One  of  these  is  V.  heterophylla  Fresh,  a 
form  of  which  before  me  bears  a  strong  likeness  to  Mr. 
Comber’s  plant,  except  that  the  leaflets  of  his  are  more 
truncate.  I  can  suggest  no  better  name  for  these  Hamp¬ 
shire  specimens  than  the  one  adopted. — H.S.T. 
P.S. — Perhaps  Koch  did  not  know  Forster’s  plant, 
because  he  says  “  et  raro  occurrit  *floribus  3 — 4  in  axilla 
foliorum,  uno  sessili,  caeteris  pedunculo  elongato  insident- 
ibus.”  (“  Synopsis,”  Ed.  2,  1843).  Rouy  actually  calls 
V.  Bobartii  var.  a  typica  of  V.  angustifolia  Rei  chard  t _ 
H.S.T. 
