Erica cinerea L. var. Rendlei L. B. Hall. Parkstone, Dorset, 
Aug. 12, 1930. [Ref. 703]. From same plant as specimens 
distributed 1928 and 1929. This bush has again this year 
produced only bracteate heads in the place of the flowers. 
Members may like to have these specimens from the same 
plant, to see the persistent nature of the variation. Since 
1926, when I first saw this plant in Dorset, I have seen it in 
eleven different places in the county, covering a wide area. 
In most of these localities there appears to be onty one bush. 
They have been visited each year, and none has hitherto 
shown any alteration. On the other hand, Erica Tetralix L. 
var. fissa Dr., in which the corolla is deeply cut, appears to be 
only a temporary state. Plants which I have noted in Dorset 
with divided corollas have produced only normal flowers the 
following year. I removed one root to my garden where the 
first flowers developed had divided corollas, and all the 
subsequent ones were normal during the same season, and all 
were normal the following year. — L. B. Hall. This is a lusus 
and ought not to receive a varietal name. It is not a chimaera 
in the only sense (i.e. Winkler’s) in which this term is used 
botanically. — E. Drabble. 
Limonium humile Mill. Bosham Creek, W. Sussex, Aug. 
13, 1904. A. 0. Hume. Comm. S.L.B.I. Correct. Sometimes 
named Statice rarifiora Drej. and S. bahusiensis, Fr. — J. Fraser. 
The specimen received is a fine example of L. humile, which 
in this station grows with L. vulgare and forms hybrids with 
it. — H. W. Pugsley. 
Gentiana germanica Willd. Letcombe Castle, Berks., Sept. 
13, 1905. — W. H. Grinling. Comm. S.L.B.I. Yes. — E. C. 
Wallace. 
Symphytum officinale L. var. purpureum Pers. = S. patens 
Sibth. Hedgebottom, Stockwood Vale, Keynsham, N. 
Somerset, May 16 and June 7, 1930. After a century of doubt 
and speculation Dr. Sibthorp's elusive patens, represented 
by his specimen in the Oxford Herbarium, is determined to be 
(as Dr. Druce puts it) “ only a rather luxuriant purple- 
flowered form of S. officinale.” Bucknall, in his Revision 
of the genus, remarks that “ no one has been able to recognize 
the ‘ spreading calyx ’ described by Sibthorp. A possible 
explanation of this is that in sterile plants, which are of 
frequent occurrence, the calyx is wide open after the corolla 
