i 62 
NATURE NOTES 
C, in Mr. Havelock Ellis’s scale ; but perhaps I have not really 
got any dark enough for C. My observations so far as they go 
confirm those made by Mr. Ellis.” So far as I could see, the 
specimens sent bore out Miss Fry’s description. 
Mr. Rendall sends me fifty-five specimens “ from an upland 
meadow at the north-east end of the Malvern Hills,” and points 
out that they fall into two practically equal groups. He further 
remarks that he has seen the two types growing together in the 
same proportions in the Cotswolds, and that the second group 
“ seems to have a good many characters corresponding with the 
description given of sub-species ericetoriim.” I examined Mr. 
Kendall’s series very carefully, checking all he wrote and adding 
my own notes, with the following result. Group i includes 
taller plants, about eighteen inches high. The upper part of 
the stems was tubular and slightly tinged with purple, as were 
the bracts. The leaves were carinate, the cauline ones being 
acuminate and slightly reflexed. The flowers were scentless 
and mostly dark ; but two or three light specimens were among 
the group, and white ones occur. The three lobes of the 
labellum were equally broad but the central one was longer ; 
the spots did not form continuous lines, and the spur thickened 
slightly upward. 
Those in Group 2 did not exceed twelve inches in height : 
their stems and bracts were green : their leaves were, perhaps, 
just as carinate, reflexed and acuminate as those of Group i ; 
but they were more faintly spotted and on the upper cauline 
leaves the spots were much smaller ; the flowers were light- 
coloured, some white ones occurring, and all were honey- 
scented : the three lobes of the labellum were subequal both in 
length and breadth, or the central lobe was shorter, the lateral 
lobes being gibbous and the central one apiculate ; while the 
spur was very slender. 
Mr. Hudson writes that for several years he has noticed a 
very beautiful and distinct form growing in a damp copse, 12 
to 20 inches or more high, with leaves sometimes deeply and 
sometimes very palely spotted and nearly white blossoms, some 
of which were apparently scentless, whilst others had, “ when 
freshly gathered, a distinct coumarin-like odour.” The lower lip 
of the perianth is very wide (12 or 13 millimetres) and crenately 
divided into three lobes, but not deeply divided. 
Coumarin, whatever its physiological origin and original 
function, is a perfume widely diffused among flowering plants, 
both Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. Its composition is 
stated chemically as C,HjO^, and its name is taken from that 
of the Tonquin bean, Coumarouna {Dipteryx) odorata, formerly used 
for scenting snuff. The seeds of Trigonella Fanum-gviBcum, the 
Fenugreek, which contain it and are used accordingly as an 
adulterant of bad hay, were cultivated, presumably for this 
purpose, as far back as the time of Theophrastus. Among 
Leguminosae it occurs also in Melilotus officinalis and M. ccsmlea : 
