scape as woolly and the flowers as red. On this account, perhaps,
Desfontaines was induced to publish it in the FI. Atl. as a
new species. He describes it as having few leaves on the stem,
and his figure indicates a leaf considerably below the panicle,
a circumstance which does not occur on any of my specimens,
French or English. DeCandolle and Persoon separated the
plant from Anthericum and referred it to Phalangium; a name
originally given to those Antherica whose filaments are without
hairs, and therefore not well-suited to this species, where the
filaments are densely hairy; to Say nothing of the objection to
a name already applied to a genus of insects. Roemer and
Schultz, again separating it, placed it with Bulbine, an arrangement
which is adopted by Bertoloni in his Flora Italica; and
lastly Kunth described it as Simetkis, distinguishing it froiyv
his Phalangium (.Anthericum of most authors) by its hairy
filaments, and from Bulbine, and the still more nearly allied
Arthropodium, by having only 2 seeds in each cell. The
position of the seeds and the way in which they are supported
is the same, except that in Arthropodium there is a marked
placenta to which the seed-bearing scales are affixed.
This species is not unfrequent on barren heaths in the west
of France, but is only known to occur in England in one spot,
on what was once part of Poole heath, but is now a plantation
of firs, chiefly of Pinus maritima. The idea suggested by its
locality is, that a patch of the plant, perhaps sixty feet in diameter,
was intersected by a road made at the time of the plantation,
i. e. I believe about forty years ago. There is no reason
to suppose, either from its position or from its usual situations
in France, that it was introduced with the trees, nor is it easy
to imagine that it has since been brought to the place by any
accident. It seems therefore probable that it was an original
native of the country, and it may perhaps be met with in other
parts of the extensive district characterized by the same soil,
though the efforts made to discover it in any other spot have
hitherto been unsuccessful. It was originally found in 1847,
by Miss Wilkins of Westbury, and by her communicated to
Dr. Lindley, who noticed it in the Garde nerd Chrotiicle. It is
also said to have been found by a young botanist near Dei’ry-
nane, in the county of Kerry, and to have been sent to Dr. Harvey
for a name. Our specimens were gathered in June 1848.
—J. W.