[ 95 ] 
CONVOLVULUS NITIDUS BOISS., FROM THE 
BALKAN PENINSULA 
By W. B. TURRILL, M.Sc. 
Royal Gardens, Kew 
I t is well known that a considerable number of plants are common 
to the Iberian and Balkan Peninsulas but have not been found in 
Italy. This is usually, and probably correctly, explained on the basis 
of the geological history of the countries of the Mediterranean Basin. 
In the centre of both Spain and the Balkan Peninsula there is a 
considerable area of ancient land which has probably never been 
submerged entirely, at any one time, since, at least, the beginning 
of the Tertiary epoch. Italy, on the other hand, is geologically a 
young country and owes most of its land surface to foldings and 
elevations which took place in Miocene and Pliocene times. Hence, 
it is reasonably concluded that those species of plants which occur 
in the Iberian and Balkan Peninsulas but miss Italy attained their 
wide east and west distribution before the Italian peninsula, as we 
now know it, was formed. Additions to the number of species having 
the type of distribution just outlined naturally excite considerable 
interest and the discovery of a species of Convolvulus, hitherto known 
only from Spain, in the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula, is 
decidedly worthy of record. 
Dr N. Stoianoff, Professor of Botany in the Faculty of Agriculture, 
Sofia University, sent to Kew specimens of a Convolvulus under the 
provisional name of C. cochlearis, the specimens having been collected 
by him in Mt Ali-Botusch. They have been definitely determined by 
the present writer as Convolvulus nitidus Boiss. This species was first 
described by Boissier, in his Voyage botanique dans le midi de VEspagne, 
2, 417 (1839-1847), from specimens collected “in argillosis calcareis 
aridissimis regionis alpinse, Sierra Nevada ad Trevenque supra San 
Geronimo, Dornajo, Aguilones de Dilar. Alt. 630o'~7ooo'. FI. JulA 
The plant appears to be fairly common in the Sierra Nevada and 
there are also specimens in the Kew Herbarium from the Sierra del 
Mana and the Sierra de Segura, both in the south of Spain not far 
distant from the Sierra Nevada. In Vol. 1, at Table CXXII, of the 
work cited above, Boissier gives an excellent coloured representation 
of the plant, accompanied by analyses of the flower. 
