118 C: H. Ostenfeld. 
among the members of the excursion. I suggested that it was a 
hybrid between S. procumbens and S. saginoides, both of which were 
found, but, the latter, at least, only in the fruiting stage. Now 
when examining more closely the specimens brought home I must 
insist that my suggestion was quite right, as far as it is possible 
to identify the hybridity of a plant which is found growing wild 
and has not been produced by an artificial crossing. 
My friend Mr. Druce (l.c. New Phyt., Vol. X, pp. 316 and 325) 
held that the plant in question must be taken as a variety (var. 
scotica Druce of S. glabra Fenzl., a mountain species from the 
Alps, the Italian mountains, Corsica, Sardinia, etc. I think, on 
the other hand, that it is not permissable to refer the Ben Lawers 
plant to 5. glabra ; the latter has petals one-and-a-half times to 
twice as long as the sepals (our plant had petals not, or scarcely, 
exceeding the sepals), while the sepals and often the uppermost 
parts of the flower-stalks are glandular-hairy (glabrous in our 
plant); further the South-European plant is more woody and has 
larger flower-dimensions ; and lastly it is quite fertile. 
The Ben Lawers plant is practically sterile; when examining 
numerous specimens I found a few capsules containing seeds, but 
only very few of the seeds were fully developed, the remainder 
being small and hardly capable of germination. Mr. Druce’s state¬ 
ment that the capsule is “ somewhat smaller ” shows that in his 
specimens also the capsules were only partly fertile. The plant 
stands in all its characters between the two putative parents ; it 
has mostly pentamerous flowers and the petals are as large 
as those of S. saginoides. It has the growth of S. procumbens, 
and this character is of importance, as no doubt the cause of its 
abundance on Ben Lawers. Small branches of barren shoots are 
easily broken off from the stem and carried away by the flowing 
water, and thus the plant is most common along water-courses. It 
behaves just as hybrids so often do: it is nearly sterile, but propa¬ 
gates profusely by vegetative shoots, and it is more vigorous and 
the specimens larger than is the case with the parents; further 
sterile hybrids very often flower much longer than the parents, 
because they continue to produce new flowers at a time when the 
parents are fully occupied in ripening their fruits. 
The arguments brought forward by Druce are thus shown to 
be no arguments against the supposition of hybridity. 
It is probable that this hybrid will be found to be rather 
common in places where both the assumed parents grow together, 
just as I have found that the hybrid S. procumbens x subulata is 
is rather common on the Fasroes, and behaves in the same manner 
as the Ben Lawers’ hybrid does, having large and vigorous 
specimens, propagation by detached vegetative shoots, and sterility. 
This last hybrid is distinguishable from the Ben Lawers’ glandular 
plant by the hairs on the sepals and uppermost part of the flower- 
stalk. 
According to my view 5. glabra Fenzl. must then disappear 
from the British Flora as suddenly as it has appeared. 
Geraniace,e. 
Geranium Robertianum L. var. 
As far as I am able to understand the segregates of G. Roberti- 
