Notes. 
381 
‘ S. pentandra, Sm. non Linn., Bedford, Lancashire/ and identifies 
it (with his usual acumen) with the var. vulgaris [Boenn.], Syme 
ii. 127. 
In Syme, E. B., vol. ii, p. 134, he states ‘ that S. pentandra is said to 
have been gathered in Ireland by Sherrard [ sic Sherard] ; but the Rev. 
W. W. Newbould is inclined to think (from the references in the old 
herbarium) that the plant under that name was really one of the 
pentandrous Spergulariae/ an opinion which appears to have been 
adopted by Babington in ed. ii. of his Manual, p. 62, by Moore and 
More in Cyb. Hib. p. 109, and by Sir J. Hooker, in ed. iii. of Student’s 
Flora, p. 530. 
The occurrence in Ireland of S. pentandra will add another to that 
interesting group of plants characteristic to the West and South which 
extend their range to that Island, a group which includes Saxifraga 
Geum , S. hirsuta , S. umbrosa , Erica mediterranean E. Mackaiana, E. 
ciliaris , Arbutus Unedo , Daboecia , Pinguicula grandijiora , Sibthorpia, 
Euphorbia hiberna , Pogonella ( Simethis ), Trichomanes radicans , and 
Adiantum Capillus veneris. 
The continental distribution of S. pentandra , L. given in Nyman’s 
Conspectus is Hisp. Ital. Helv. mer. ? Gall. Germ. mer. occ. March. 
Siles. Bohem. r. Polon. Transs. Graec. r. Maced, r. 
In support of the contention that it is a native plant of Ireland we 
have the fact that the plant in question is true S. pentandra , that it is 
labelled c collect. G. Sherard/ that it is preserved on the original 
numbered sheet, that it was in the sheet of the Dillenian herbarium 
corresponding to the pagination of his Synopsis, and the number on 
it agrees with the especial paragraph where the plant is so aptly 
described ; and that we know Sherard visited several parts of Ireland, 
including Drogheda and the Mourne Mountains, in one of which 
places he most probably collected the plant in question. Neither 
S. pentandra nor -S', verna are represented in the Morisonian herbarium. 
In the Sherardian herbarium is a sheet of S. pentandra from various 
unlocalised sources, but neither of the specimens are quite identical in 
appearance with the presumed Irish plant. One of them is labelled 
Arenaria media, and it may be that this label influenced Mr. 
Newbould to form the opinion given in Syme’s E. B., but this label 
has nothing to do with Sherard; it is of much later date, being 
probably in Sibthorp’s writing, which possibly Mr. Newbould was not 
acquainted with. This plant (as are the rest on that sheet) is true 
