PLANT NOTES FOR 1913, ETC. 



337 



to soil conditions and exposures than Helleborine latifolia, the varia- 

 tions of which are most numerous and perplexing. Many botanists 

 consider that even H. purpurata, H. atrorubens, and H. media are 

 but sub-species, notwithstanding that the former has but a slight 

 range .of variation ; H. atrorubens is much more variable, and H. 

 media still more so. The latter is a much misunderstood plant. 

 Fries when he described his media had two plants under his eye. 

 He separated media from latifolia by the hunch character being 

 plicately rugose ; in latifolia the hunches are smooth. As his quoted 

 synonymy shows, his media also included the very different 

 atrorubens. It may be argued that the hunch character is a very 

 poor one, and being scarcely discernible in dried specimens is of 

 little use for herbarium work. Babington, therefore, in describing E. 

 media dwelt more upon the shape of the label, i.e., 4 ' roundish- 

 cordate " in latifolia and "triangular-cordate" in media, stress being 

 also laid upon the leaf -shape, the lower " broadly ovate " in the former 

 and " ovate-oblong in the lower and lanceolate-acute in the upper " 

 ones of media. Experience, however, shows that the label has con- 

 siderable variation ; also plants with smooth hunches may have 

 narrow leaves, and plants with plicate-rugose hunches may have very 

 broad leaves, as in my var. platyphylla from Grassington. H. atrorubens 

 also varies considerably according as to whether its station is on an 

 exposed limestone cliff or in the shade of a limestone wood, the two 

 extreme forms being very distinct. It may be urged that the 

 characters which distinguish British viridiflora may be due to the 

 place of growth, but Rouy says in France viridiflora has a wide area 

 of distribution, and is by no means confined to dunal situations. 

 If some botanists are correct in saying it is identical with the plant 

 called E. Helleborine var. varians Crantz (Stirp. Austr. 468, 1769), 

 then the plant was woodland, i.e., " Locis umbrosis sylvae, Dornbach." 

 Although in that plant the leaves are described as " ovatis 

 lanceolata omnia et margine ciliato et retrorsum hispida," which differ 

 from the British plant, yet the flower is said " exactissime prioris 

 viridantis. Ergo petala tria externa magis viridia," which seems to 

 fit our plant. Rouy, however, holds it is not the varians of Crantz, 

 although it is the varians of Reichenbach's Icones. If, however, our 

 plant is refused specific rank, and there is an almost complete 

 consensus of continental opinion against that grade, under which 

 species shall it be placed 1 Nyman {Conspectus Fl. Europ. 688) puts 



