478 
Centaur ea . [Ref. 1269]. Roadside near Amberley, 
W. Sussex, Aug. 19, 1928. — E. C. Wallace. This gathering 
consists of plants that are abundant on some of the chalk 
hills and downs of the South of England. I have gathered 
similar plants on the slopes of Amberley Mount (perhaps 
Mr. Wallace’s locality), Rackham Hill, and adjoining downs, 
and a good deal of identical material reached me from Mr. 
C. C. Lacaita who extensively collected on the downs by 
Arundel Park and in the Isle of Wight. These plants attract 
attention when growing by reason of the handsome radiant 
heads. The rayed plants are usually very plentiful at the 
localities mentioned, but with them occur plants similar in 
all characters except that the enlarged outer florets are not 
developed. In the past collectors have given much attention 
to these radiant forms, and endeavours have been made to 
identify them with the plants described by French authors 
under the names of C. decipiens Thuill., C. serotina Bor., 
C. pratensis Thuill., and C. Debeauxii G. and G. They are, 
of course, the C. nigra var. decipiens (Thuill.) of Babington 
and others. Apart from the radiant heads, the specimens 
are marked by the narrow phyllary-appendages, mostly, 
at least in the pressed state, not wholly covering the phyl- 
laries. In this feature the characters of C. Debeauxii and C. 
microptilon are recalled, but, it is my invariable experience, 
that with such plants as those under notice, others grow that 
differ only in the closely-crowded phyllaries. 
The Continental collection at South Kensington contains 
many French Centaureas from the herbarium of the late 
Mons. E. Gadeceau, a student of the genus, which are iden- 
tical with plants to be found on our chalk downs. Gadeceau’s 
plants are named either C. decipiens Lloyd or C. decipiens 
Thuill. There is no doubt that Lloyd’s description of C. 
decipiens in the Flore de L’Ouest de la France covers such 
plants as Mr. Wallace’s, but, unfortunately, Thuillier’s name 
is of doubtful application. The original description is not 
helpful, but appears to indicate an ally of C. Jacea Linn. 
According to Briquet, the examples of C. decipiens in Thuiller’s 
herbarium are identical with original specimens of C. serotina 
Bor. They consist of three large branched plants with narrow 
leaves, the upper becoming almost linear, more or less tomen- 
tose, the capitula medium-sized, appendages regularly pectinate 
in the lower three-quarters of the pericline. He regarded the 
specimens as allied to C. pratensis Thuill. My own view of 
