380 
Notes. 
tudinali munitis ; [3] sepalis petalisque ovalibus obtusis ; [4] staminibus 
1 o; [5] capsula quinque partita semine angustissime marginatis \yel 
emarginatis] faciebus, brevis sime albido papillosis. 
S. verna, Willd. [S. Morisonii, Bor.] [1 et 2] folia glabra crassiora et 
crebiora ; [3] Petalis ovalibus obtusis ; [4] Staminibus 5 ; [5] capsula 
quinque partita , seminibus marginem versus punctatis et ala semine ipso 
paulo angustiore fuscescente cinctus. 
The following is the history of Spergula pentandra as a plant of 
Great Britain. Following the record in Ray’s Synopsis alluded to, 
which is simply copied by Hudson in his first edition of the Flora 
Anglica, comes the reduction of it in edition ii. to var. pentandra of 
arvensis, an arrangement which is followed in ed. iii. of the same 
work. Stokes in Withering, 1787, vol. i. p. 482, says it is much like 
S. arvensis but smoother, and simply quotes Sherard’s locality. Sir 
James Smith in E. B., No. 1536 (1805) figured a plant which he called 
S. pentandra , L., but which, as figured, is apparently a form of 
S. arvensis , L. It was found, he says, in several sandy spots near 
Liverpool growing intermixed with S. arvensis , and was .first discovered 
there by Mr. John Shepherd. Smith described the seeds as ‘ lenticular, 
smooth, and bordered by a very conspicuous whitish membrane/ In 
the English Flora, vol. ii. 337 Smith reduces the plant to a variety of 
S. arvensis , and identifies it with Morison’s Alsine Spergula dicta 
membranaceo fusco , not a very good description of the plant described 
by Smith in E. B., which he says had conspicuous whitish margins to 
the seed. Probably he was influenced by Prof. Hooker in reducing 
S. pentandra to a variety of arvensis ; at any rate Smith goes on to say 
‘ that there is not the smallest difference in the size or structure of the 
plant except the seeds, in which indeed the difference is remarkable. 
But intermediate appearances may be traced between the rough 
angular seeds of the common Spurrey and the smooth, lenticular, 
bordered ones of this variety/ Probably Smith had never seen seeds 
of true S. pentandra. Sir William Hooker in Br. Flora, 1835, simply 
quotes the E. B. plate as representing S. arvensis , of which ‘ he says the 
seed varies exceedingly in the width of its margin/ 
Babington, in the first edition of his Manual, 1843, P* 4 6, describes 
S. pentandra, leaves subterete, convex beneath, seeds much compressed, 
smooth with a broad membranous margin, said to have been found in 
Ireland. In ed. ii. p. 49, he says 4 he has not seen specimens which 
only differ by the seeds/ In Comp. Cyb. Br. iii. 490 Watson says, 
