cannot however allow the plate to be published without expressing
our entire concurrence with Mr. Stevens’s conclusions.
Root fibrous. Stems erect, 2 to 4 feet high, square, with
broadish wings at the angles. Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate,
slightly cordate at the base, acute, serrated. Panicle
of numerous alternate, lax, dichotomous, few-flowered
cymes. Peduncles and pedicels divaricated, and slightly
glandular. Bracteas leaf-like, lanceolate, serrate, acute. Sepals
broad, rounded, with a broad, slightly torn, membranous
margin. Corolla dark lurid purple. Staminodium bilobed,
the lobes diverging. Capsules subglobose, obtuse.
This plant has been noticed in but few places in Britain;
viz. near Preston in Lancashire, whence it was first communicated
to Mr. Sowerby by Mr. Gilbertson in 1836, with the
name of tortuosa given it by Mr. W. Helme; at Berwick-
upon-Tweed, by Dr. P. Maclagan ; Wilmingdon, Sussex, by
Mr. Jenner; near Cramond Bridge, West Lothian ; and Bel-
size Park, Middlesex; at the latter place Mr. Sowerby gathered
the specimen figured, on the 24th of August, 1841.
S. aguatica, Linn. (Engl. Bot. t. 854), which is S. Balbisii
of Hornemann, Koch, &c., is distinguished from this by its
rounded-obtuse crenate-serrate leaves, dense many-flowered
cymes, linear obtuse bracteas, roundish-reniform entire sla-
minodium, and pointed capsules.—C. C. B.