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BUF FONIA tenuifolia.
Slender Buff onia.
TETRANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. of 4 leaves. Petals 4. Capsule of
1 cell and 2 valves, with 2 seeds.
Spec. Char...........
Stn. Buffonia tenuifolia. With. 2 0 5 . Sm. FI. B rit. 191*
Bufonia tenuifolia. Linn. Sp. P L 179. Muds. 72.
Hull. 3 8 .
Alsine polygonoides tenuifolia, Sosculis ad longitudi-
nem caulis velut in spicam dispositis nostra. Rail
Syn. 346. Pluk. Phyt. t. 75. f . 3.
T h e plant here delineated from a garden specimen is introduced
to remove, if possible, the doubts respecting it as a native
of Britain, for which Plukenet is the original authority.
He has certainly figured the real Buffonia, and asserts its being
found by the sea side about Boston, Lincolnshire. Ray relied
On him, but no succeeding botanist has found it. Sir J. Banks
suspects that Bupleurum tenuissimum might have been mis-
taken for it ; see t. 478. Doody is said to have gathered the'
flant in question on Hounslow Heath; but there it has equally
een sought in vain since his time. Boston is the most likely
place. W e recommend the search to all our maritime botanists.
It is annual, flowering in June. Habit much like an Are-
naria. Stems 1 or more, erect, branched, round,leafy, smooth.
Leaves erect, opposite, awlshaped, 3-ribbed, with a broad
sheathing base. Flowers on roughish stalks, upright, small,
white. Calyx-leaves lanceolate, striated, with a white edge.
Petals obtuse, undivided, shorter than the calyx. Stamina
equal. Germen superior, obovate, with 2 very short distant
styles, and capitate stigmas. Capsule of 21 flattish valves, containing
2 large rough seeds.
This is a very distinct genus. Linnaeus named it, at the
suggestion of Sauvages, after the celebrated Buffon, but is
thought to have applied the specific name tenuifolia to express
the slenderness of the great zoologist’s- claim to a botanical
honour, and also to have rather maliciously dropped one ƒ in
the generic name. The latter idea has been confirmed by the
authors of the Botanical Arrangement, who call it Toad-grass,