IRotea oil Bristol DMants. 
By James W. White, F.L.S. 
rpHOSE Members who study the distribution of flowering plants 
X around Bristol meet with many surprises in the discovery of 
species M^hose existence in this well-worked district had never been 
remarked by their predecessors — acute and able though they were. A 
number of noteworthy additions to the Bristol flora were described in 
the last number of the Society’s Proceedings ; and already, in the 
short time that has elapsed since its publication, our field-botanists are 
able to report some equally valuable finds. 
Myosurus minimus^ the Mouse-tail. An unassuming but most 
interesting plant, in which the receptacle that carries the achenes 
extends as they mature into a tail-like process often three inches in 
length. It had been repeatedly searched for in our cornfields, but 
remained unknown both in West Gloucester and North Somerset until 
the Spring of 1908, when Miss Hill and Miss Peacock, hunting in 
company, found it in good quantity on alluvial clay by the Bristol 
Channel, not far from the village of Portbury. This species is peculiar 
for its vagabond habit, as it is known rarely to stay long in one 
place. Even at Portbury, although still fairly abundant in the same 
large enclosure where it was first observed, it no longer grows on the 
ground where it was discovered during the preceding Spring. This 
nomadic trait, taken with the tiny stature, unobtrusive habit, and 
early appearance of the plant, sufficiently accounts, perhaps, for its 
having escaped notice in some large areas of cultivated land. 
Folygala ccdcarea. Hitherto the nearest stations for this Milkwort 
have been at Maiden Bradley in Somerset, and on the Cotswold Hills 
about Stroud. Between those localities there intervened a space of 
some forty miles — with Bath and Bristol near the centre — from which 
the plant had never been I’eported with certainty. A few weeks ago 
Mr. F. Samson brought specimens from a hillside between Bath and 
Combe Hay, where he had found an abundance. This species is dis- 
tinguished by its umbellate flowering stems, that spring from rosettes 
of large obovate leaves. Its habit is entirely distinct from that of 
P. depressoj, and it grows in close brilliant patches that are rendered 
conspicuous by the beautiful bright blue tint of the flowers. How it 
escaped recognition by all the keen Bath botanists of past generations 
is a mystery. Mr. Samson’s discovery at a point about midway 
between the widely separated localities above mentioned gives a most 
welcome addition to our district list. 
MoencJhia erecia. This is one of the rarities which at one time 
flourished on Brandon Hill, in those old days when that “ drying 
