622 
Notes. 
Prague for his opinion. At that time he was engaged on his 
Monograph of the genus Euphrasia (which excellent work is only 
recently published), so that he did not report on the specimen till this 
year, when he writes to me saying that he has no doubt from the 
intermediate characters, from the fact that the two supposed parents 
were growing together, and from the defective (58 per cent.) pollen, 
that the plant is a hybrid of the above plants, which he calls G. Wett- 
steini , Murbeck x G. axillaris (Schmidt). These names are synonymous 
with G. germanica and G. A?narella respectively. My friend, Mr. A. B. 
Jackson, has also found a hybrid of the two species at Watership chalk 
pit, on the north Hampshire chalk escarpment to the south of the 
Rennet, not far from Newbury. 
G. CLARIDGE DRUCE. 
Aug. 14. 
THE HYBRIDS OF LIN ARIA REPENS AND L. VUL- 
GARIS IN BRITAIN. — The fact of the occurrence of hybrids of 
the two species above mentioned has been known for many years, but 
confirmatory evidence (if such were needed) of the strongest possible 
character has been afforded, during the last few years, in the neighbour- 
hood of Oxford. In the counties of Oxford and Berks the distribution 
of L.. vulgaris is fairly general, the plant being especially plentiful in 
light sandy soils. The occurrence of the second species is of a much 
more local character. Previous to the construction of railways, it was 
practically limited to the lower and upper chalk formations of the 
counties. The Great Western Railway, with its constant traffic, has 
much increased the area of its distribution, but until 1890 its northern 
limit may be said to have been at Didcot. On the soil which consists 
of bare chalk, L. vulgaris is practically absent, and there we may 
study L. repais in its natural condition. We shall find that it exhibits 
considerable variability in the colour of its flowers, which vary from 
nearly white to the darkest purple ; it is rarely found of a coral pink 
tint ; but the size of the flower, its shape, and the shape and direction 
of its spur, is fairly constant. When the soil is covered with a lighter 
subsoil, and L. vulgaris also grows with it, we shall then rarely search 
long without finding plants of an intermediate character. These plants 
are especially suitable for the purpose of observation, since, in the case 
of L. vulgaris , the large yellow flowers with an orange palate, and the 
much smaller flowers of L . repens , which are normally of a bluish or 
