35 



A NEW VARIETY OF COW-WHEAT : 



Melampyrum pratense var. hians. 



Bv G. CLARIDGE DRUCE, F.L.S., 

 Oxford. 



(Read before the Linnean Society, June 5th, 1884.) 



Cow-wheat {M. pratense)^ a most variable plant, has been divided 

 into two well-marked varieties, i.e.^ Johnston's var. luontarium^ a 

 widely -distributed plant in hilly districts of North Britain; and 

 Oliver's var. ericetorinn, at present recorded only from Western 

 Ireland, where occasionally it is found in very boggy places ; in 

 addition to these two, a third form — which we owe, I think, to the 

 critical acumen of Mr. Borrer — is described in the 'Student's Flora' and 

 figured in 'English Botany' under the name latifoliiim., which seems to 

 have rather slender claims to a distinctive name, and is found in 

 woods on the tertiary capping the chalk in Oxfordshire, Brickhill 

 Woods, Beds, &c., and is perhaps more frequent than its records 

 suggest. To these I venture to add a fourth, which was noticed last 

 July by the Cree-sicie in Wigtownshire, occurring on the high steep 

 bank of the river a little north of Newton Stewart, opposite Minnigaff. 

 At first I considered it an interesting form of sylvatiaun^ the deep 

 yellow coloiLred flowers and open corolla tube influencing this decision, 

 but the above characteristics disappeared on drying, when its fades 

 was that of pratense alone. In October the Rev. H. P. Reader sent 

 me specimens ' of a form of pratense \\\i\Q}i\ I find commonly in woods 

 near Ambleside, at no great elevation, having the deep yellow flowers 

 and open corolla of sylvaticiun^ and all other characters of pratense, 

 not of var. monta7iwn.'' Examination showed this to be similar to 

 the Wigtown plant. In the ' Botanist's Guide' reference is made to a 

 deep yellow flowered form of pratefise, and in the 'New Botanist's 

 Guide' Mr. Watson says they both (the pale and deep yellow forms) 

 grow about Derv\-entwater, but no mention is made of the corolla 

 being open or closed. It is not improbable these may be similar 

 plants. This variety, I suggest, should be known as Meianpyrirm 

 pratense L. var. hians, which may be briefly characterised as follows : 

 plant hispidly pubescent, 6 to i8 in. high; leaves ciliate, lanceolate, 

 quite entire ; bracts toothed, or entire, ciliate ; corolla deep yelloiv, 

 horizontal or slightly ascending ; tube nearly straight and gradually 

 contracted ; lips open., palate so low as ?iot to close entrance to tube ; 

 capsule reflexed. 



It may be distinguished from sylvaticiivi by its larger, more hori- 



Sept. 1884. 



