NOTES. 
THE OCCURRENCE OF A HYBRID GENTIAN IN 
BRITAIN. — On the celebrated Ridgeway, an ancient road which 
passes along the edge of the escarpment of the chalk range which 
looks over the vale of Berkshire, there are several British camps, one 
of the largest of which is Letcombe Castle, situated on the ridge to 
the south of Wantage. On this earthwork, and on the road which 
approaches it, Geniiana germanica occurs in considerable quantity and 
in excellent condition. This is in full flower in normal seasons in Sep- 
tember. G. Amarella of English authors, = G. axillaris (Schmidt), 
Murbeck, also occurs there. It is usually in flower rather earlier than 
the former species, but in some seasons the time of flowering is more 
nearly conterminous. In 1892 I visited the place with Miss Beatrice 
Taylor, and found G. germanica in great abundance, and especially 
fine on the barer portion of the short turf. G. Amarella was more 
sparingly in flower, but there were some good specimens in the 
vallum. In this situation a few plants of a distinctly intermediate 
character were found. These had a longer and more conspicuous 
corolla than G . Amarella. The corolla was more cylindric than that 
of G. germanica, and the tint was nearer the dark purple of A 7 narella 
than the bluish purple of germanica. The pollen was defective, and 
the plant was in my opinion distinctly a hybrid of the two species with 
which it occurred. As the occurrence of a hybrid of these two 
species is only mentioned with a query in Focke’s ‘ Pflanzenmisch- 
linge/ I named it x G. Pamplinii , G. A marella x G. germanica (after 
Mr, Pamplin, the reputed discoverer of G. germanica in Berkshire) in 
the Report of the Botanical Exchange Club of the British Isles, p. 379, 
1892. Specimens were sent in that year to Dr. von Wettstein of 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. X. No. XL. December, 1896.] 
