102 
THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Having the branched leafy stems of the annual daisy and the duration 
and stature of the perennial daisy, it may be considered a bastard 
born from the crossing of these two species.” 
In FI. Neap. Prodr. Appx. iv. 32, also published in 1823 and re¬ 
printed in folio form in vol. v. of the Flora Napolitana , Tenore 
gives a shorter Latin diagnosis : “ caulibus adscendentibus basi ramosis 
foliosis : pedunculis floriferis axillaribus longissimis; foliis radicalibus 
elliptico-oblongis remote prof undeque dentatis, dentibus acutis; 
caulinis ovalibus vel spathulatis dentatis. Ten. FI. Med. t. 2. p. 04.” 
This is repeated, word for word, in the Sylloge of 1831, p. 430. 
Tenore evidently describes a much more extreme plant than is met 
with in E ngland or Central Europe. The time of dowering agrees 
with Hr. Carano’s experience that such developed ramidcation is only 
completed late in the season, B. perennis being a very early dowerer 
in the south. The statement that the dower-stalks are axillary is 
incorrect, as has been explained above ; so is the remark about the 
size of the dower-heads, which are precisely those of perennis, varying 
in width from If to nearly 4 cm. The deep and acute dentation 
claimed is the exception rather than the rule, and varies in the same 
individual; though south Italian examples fall naturally into a broad¬ 
leaved and a narrow-leaved group. 
Tenore’s suggestion of hybridity, though quite untenable, is a 
remarkable one, for he does not mean hybrid individuals, but an 
established hereditary race originally derived from the crossing of 
man} 7- individuals of the presumed parent species. This was a very 
unusual conception in his days ; both in his works and in Gussone’s 
it is suggested in respect of some puzzling intermediates in other 
genera, but in an amorphous way without propounding any theory. 
We may at once put aside any notion that the great mass of liybricla 
plants could be individual crosses, although both perennis and annua 
are present in the immediate vicinity of Naples, because in some 
other districts where liybricla is very plentiful, annua is entirely 
absent. Nor will the supposition of a hybrid race hold water in this 
instance, for, apart from the last-mentioned difficulty, Tenore’s 
hybrida shows no resemblance at all to annua except in being a 
branched form; the statement as to intermediate size of the flower- 
heads is incorrect. 
Tenore knew better than to propose a cross of silvestris with 
perennis as the origin of his hybrida : how could the parentage of a 
practically stemless species like silvestris produce the required result? 
This preposterous notion is due to Decandolle, who (Prodr. v. 305) 
reduces Tenore’s species to a variety, not of perennis but of silvestris , 
with the remark “omnino media inter B. perennem et B. sylvestrem 
et forte vere hybrida ? ” This absurdity was severely criticised long 
ago by J. Gay in a MS. note on a specimen received from Tenore and 
now in Herb. Kew. ; “ fleurit au printemps comme le B. perennis , 
dont il me semble a peine pouvoir etre distingue comme variete. 
C’est done a tort, suivant moi, que DC. le rapporte comme var. au 
B. sylvestris Cyr., qui fleurit en automne et qui est remarquable pour 
son involucre a grandes folioles herbacees. Aout 1839.” Loret is 
equally decided in his Obs. crit. sur quelques plantes Montpellieraines 
