11 
a better examination and supply, but circumstances kept coming to 
prevent until too late. It so chanced at length that I went on the 
hottest day of the year, and found the seeding plants very difficult to 
work out among an entanglement of furze, &c., while a bright sun was 
baking my stooping head, and the thermometer at 86° in shade. . . . 
The plants branch like V. canina and V. lactea ; but you will see 
some indications of a creeping root or stole.” 
When Mr. Watson is in doubt about a Dog Violet, a persou must 
have large self-esteem indeed to offer an opinion at all. I therefore 
throw out a suggestion only. Is not the Noith Hants plant V. stricta, 
Hornemaun ? It agrees with it in the tall stem, long petioles, ovate- 
lanceolate leaves, abruptly contracted or subcordate at the base, 
which is decurrent into a wing on the upper part of the petiole ; large 
inciso-serrate stipules, of which the uppermost often equal the petioles ; 
long peduncles ; large flowers with greatly developed spurs ; obtuse 
capsule, abruptly acuminated into the apiculus, and without prominent 
lines. It differs, however, in the stem being weak and flexuous, but 
that may be owing to its growing amongst a tangle of gorse, &c. The 
petals of the Fleet Pond plant also seem narrower than those of V. 
stricta ; but the flowers having withered before they were pressed, it is 
not easy to be sure on this point. — J. T. Dos well. 
I have never seen any of these heath Violets with so short a 
spur as that given to lactea in “ E. B. ,” though I have very often found 
their flowers damaged through having had the point of the spur eaten 
away by some insect. The figure in “ E. B.” looks exactly as if it had 
been taken from a plant so injured. — T. K. A. B. 
Viola lactea, Sin. “ Wet heath, Staplers, Isle of Wight, 1875.” — 
I'. Stratton. In some of these examples we have rather large spurs 
and bluish petals associated with the narrow, not at all cordate leaves 
characteristic of lactea , whilst in others we find many of the leaves 
slightly cordate. The latter at least are certainly not true lactea , but 
seem to agree better with the supposed F. stricta. — T. R. A. B. 
Polygala amtriaca, Crantz. “ Wye Downs, Kent, July, 1874.” 
— F, J. Hanbury. Well-dried specimens of this rare species. (See 
Rep. B. E. C., 1872-74, p. 11, and Journ. Bot., vol. iv., n.s., 
p. 237.) 
Cerastium “ triviale, Link., var . c. pentandrumP “Nairn, July 12, 
1874.” — Augustin Ley. Not pentandrum, nor does it belong to 
triviale at all. The specimens are fragmentary ones of a single im- 
mense plaut, as the Rev. A. Ley has informed me iu a letter. Prof. 
Babington has favoured me with the following opinion on a specimen 
that I sent him: “I think that this is fine C. tetrandrum. I have 
seen it quite as large, and the number of stamens is not of much con- 
