2 10 
Stapf.— The Statices of the Canaries 
ing its stunted growth ; but this does not seem to prove that that feature has 
in the El Freyle plant become fixed, as one would expect of a character good 
enough for specific distinction. If, as I believe, those cultivated specimens 
were propagated from cuttings, representing short axes of the second or 
third rank, one would not expect them to behave necessarily like the primary 
axis of Statice arborea , which seems to have a natural tendency to grow, 
under favourable circumstances, into an erect leafless stem, bearing at its 
top on short branches a compound rosette of leaves, otherwise very like 
that which in the other stemless species rests on the ground. But even if 
it should not be possible to raise the arborescent form from the seed of the 
stunted Statice of El Freyle, it would hardly stand to reason to treat it as 
a species on that account only. 
Now as to Dr. Perez’s theory 1 of hybridization referred to in the 
introductory lines of this paper. He assumes that the arborescent form, 
the Statice arborea or Statice arborescens of the authors, was a hybrid 
of Statice ‘ fruticans' and Statice macrophylla . In support of this 
he points out that in the Botanic Garden at Orotava there was growing 
until lately a very old specimen representing in his opinion the now 
extinct typical (i. e. arborescent) Statice arborea , and more or less inter- 
mediate between the suggested parents, and that this is also the case 
with the daughter plants raised from the former ; and secondly that 
Statice c fruticans' and Statice macrophylla actually grew together in 
the Burgado Cove. Statice fruticans ’ and Statice macrophylla are plants 
easy enough to distinguish. Both have a short primary axis with 
the ramification and leaf-arrangement in compound rosettes, so common 
in Statice ; but the blades of the former are small and contracted into 
a long petiole, whilst they are large, lanceolate to obovate-oblong, and 
long-attenuated at the base, and practically sessile in Statice macro- 
phylla. The wings of the flowering branches of Statice fruticans ’ are 
narrow, and those of the ultimate branchlets produced into acute, often 
sickle-shaped auricles ; but they are broad and produced into obtuse 
auricles in Statice macrophylla. Further, Statice ‘ fruticans' has glabrous 
or almost glabrous inner bracts with a laterally compressed obtuse keel 
near the apex and a very narrow, scarious margin. In Statice macrophylla, 
however, these bracts are whitish-pubescent, rounded on the back without 
a keel, and bordered towards the apex with a broad, blue, crisped frill. 
The flowers are finally somewhat larger in Statice macrophylla than 
in Statice ‘ 'fruticans' Dr. Perez has supplied me with photographs 
and ample dried material of the Orotava garden plant mentioned above. 
The first thing that strikes one is that the supposed hybrid shows 
an arborescent habit which is altogether absent in the parents. As to 
the leaves, they are very large and rather intermediate between those 
1 Perez in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 3rd ser., xxxvi (1904), p. 419. 
