9 
losing the earlier and characteristic root-leaves before the pods attain 
their full size. Thus it becomes difficult to note what correlation 
exists between the shape of the root-leaves and that of the pods. I 
believe C. anglica to be perennial, and to be propagated to some extent 
by the younger leaf-bearing portions of the branched root-stock break- 
ing away from the older, and in this way forming separate plants in 
the soft mud. I suspect the leaves of such offset plants to differ con- 
siderably from those of plants immediately derived from seed.” — T. R. 
A. B. There can be no question that Mr. Briggs's specimens connect C- 
anglica with C. officinalis , so much so that in several instances, look- 
ing at the dried plant, I feel at a loss which name ought to be applied. 
The best time for examining the root-leaves is in late autumn, say 
September or October. There is, I suppose, no doubt that both 
typical anglica and typical officinalis occur in the neighbourhood of 
Plymouth. Can it be that these two hybridise ? By the estuary of 
the Thames C. anglica is common, chiefly, if not entirely, the form 
named var. gemina, in which the root-leaves are gradually narrowed 
into the petioles, and the pod large, oval-obovate, and much con- 
stricted on the outer side over the replum. C. officinalis I have never 
seen in the Thames estuary. In the “ Flora of Essex ” it is reported from 
the sea-shore at Wakering, which is entirely beyond the Thames 
estuary; and Mr. H. C. Watson has seen a specimen from West Kent, 
collected by “ Taylor,” which must be from the Thames estuary ; and 
Mr. Watson also records it from West Kent, on the authority of Smith’s 
Catalogue, but this may be quite out of the Thames estuary. We 
find, therefore, C. officinalis very scarce in a district where C. anglica 
is abundant ; and here, out of thousands of specimens of C. anglica , 
I have never seen any which approached C. officinalis as Mr. 
Briggs’s specimens do. A. gain, in the East of Scotland, C. officinalis 
is abundant. Two forms of this occur, one with large, mostly sub- 
globular pods, the other with smaller pods which are often ovoid. 
This last form appears to me the same as the form that oocurs iu 
alpine districts, and is entered in the “London Catalogue” as var .alpina. 
To this small-fruited form of C. officinalis belong, I suspect, all the 
plants recorded as C. danica from Scotland, and some which I have 
received from England under that name. Genuine C. danica has the 
petals about half the size of those of C. officinalis, only slightly ex- 
ceeding the sepals and obloug-oblauceolate inform, while in C. officinalis 
they are considerably longer than the sepals and spathulate-obovate. 
In the east coast of Scotland C. anglica is not known to occur. It is 
entered iu “ Topographical Botany ’ in the counties of Edinburgh and 
Elgin, but with a query after each county name. We have thus in 
the east coast of Scotland a district in which C. officinalis is abundant 
