Since the publication of my paper in the Linnean Transactions,
I have ascertained that P. Roberli is described as
above quoted, but the characters given are not sufficient to
distinguish it from P . aviculare. Through the kindness of
my friend Mr. Woods, I have been enabled to examine the
specimens which he supposed to be the plant of Loiseleur.
One of them, more particularly marked as authentic, is only
the maritime form of P . aviculare, to which I am also inclined,
in accordance with the opinion of Reichenbach (FI.
excurs.p. 573), to refer P . littorale of Link, the description
of which, in Ent. FI. Hort. Berol. 1. 385, is far from being
distinctive, the fruit not being mentioned.
Another of Mr. Woods’s specimens, gathered at Toulon
and named in pencil P . Roberti, is a far more woody plant
than ours, with broader and shorter leaves; its fruit also,
although shining, is granulated transversely and scarcely
longer than the peryanth. Under these circumstances I have
quoted Loiseleur’s plant with doubt, more especially as he
considers it to be perennial, ours being only annual.
Sir W. Hooker has lately referred our plant to P . aceto-
sum of Marsch. Beiberstein, but it does not agree with the
description of that plant, which is said to have veinless
leaves, shorter stems than P . aviculare-, the lobes of its
ochreae with short teeth, and an acid taste. I have not been
able to see a specimen. It is a native of the neighbourhood
of Astrachan and the moving sands near the Caspian Sea.
Our plant has occurred between Marazion and Penzance ;
near Muddiford, Hampshire, from whence the specimens li-
gured were obtained by the favour of Mr. Borrer, near Barmouth,
between Abermenai and Llanddwyn in Anglesea ;
on Killiney and Portmarnock sands near Dublin ; in Galloway
; and on the coast of Ayrshire.
C. C. B.