seeming to be narrowed above their base, owing to their
being crumpled as if by a pinch there. Involucral leaves
similar to the upper stem-leaves. First partial bracts obo-
vate-acute; other bracts cordate. Umbel of 3 to 7 rays,
most usually 4 or 5 in our plant. Each ray 3-5-fid (on the
cultivated plants all are 3-fid), and often afterward once or
twice bifid. Involucre turbinate-bell-shaped, hairy within;
lobes transversely oval, becoming reddish yellow. Stamens
rarely more than two in each involucre. Capsule nearly
spherical, covered with cylindrical tubercles. Seeds smooth,
oval, brown, shining. Seed-stalk cordate.
This plant is very abundant in the woody district about
theWynd Cliff and Tintern in Monmouthshire, growing on the
carboniferous limestone; and the Rev. F. J. A.. Hort finds it
plentifully at Bream Scowles, between Bream and Sidney in
Gloucestershire, where also it is confined to the same lime-
stone-rock. The specimen figured is the result of many
generations of growth in the Cambridge Botanic Garden,
from seeds obtained at Tintern. It is of less size than the
wild state of the plant.
There does not now seem to be much, if any, reason to
doubt that this is the plant intended by Linnaeus when
describing E. stricta in his Systema Natures. Smith fell into
the error of supposing that the starved form of E.platyphylla
(t. 333) was the Linnean E. stricta', but his idea seems
never to have been adopted out of this country. Boissier
has accidentally quoted our t. 333 to both of these species in
DeCandolle’s Prodromus.
The late Mr. Borrer seems to have been the first botanist
who recognized this plant at Tintern, as is recorded in the
fifth edition of Hooker’s British Flora, p. 292.—C. C. B.