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B.S.B.I. NEWS 

Edited by R. Gwynn Ellis 

Dept. of Botany, National Museum of Wales 

Cardiff CF1 3NP 

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Spring-flowering crocuses at Church Lane, del 

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Laura Andrew O 1992 (see page 36) 

April 1992 

No. 60

Administration / Diary 

ADMINISTRATION 

HON. GENERAL SECRETARY (General Enquiries) Mrs Mary Briggs, M.B.E., 

9 Arun Prospect. PULBOROUGH, West Sussex RH20 lAL 

Tel. 0798-873234 

HON. ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY Mrs Ruth Stungo, 

22 Rosecroft Avenue, LONDON NW3 7QB 

Tel. 07 1 -415 -8903 

HON. TREASURER (Payment of Subscriptions and change of address) Mr Michael Walpole, 

68 Outwoods Road. LOUGHBOROUGH, Leics. LEl l 3LY 

TeI.0509-215598 

(Please quote membership number on correspondence conceming membership or subscriptions - 

your membership number is on the address label of your mailings). 

HON. FIELD SECRETARY (Enquiries on Field Meetings). Mrs Elinor Wiltshire 

62 Carroll House. Craven Terrace, LONDON W2 IPR 

CONTR IBUTIONS INTENDED FOR 

BSB/ NEWS 6I 

should reach the Editor before 

lst JULY 1992 

DIARY 

N,B. These dates are supplementary to those in the 1992 Calendar 

APRIL 24 

MAY 1 

ruLY 1 

.1-5 

t9 

AUGUST I 

OCTOBER 24 

1992 

Closing date for booking for Botanical Excursion to Bulgaria (see page 69). 

Revised closing date fbr booking for NMWBSBV RHS Conference: The Com' 

mon Ground oJ Wild and Cultivated Platrts (see enclosed ieaflet). 

Deadline for contributions for BSBI News. 

Course on Mediterranean Plants (see page 69). 

Correct date for Crymlyn Fen Field Meeting (see page 46). 

Revised date for Stonewon Meeting, Wickham Fen (see page 216). 

Plants & Medicine one-day meeting (see enclosed leaflet).

On Reaching 60 / Editorial 

ON REACHING 60 

Because BSBI News was started during my Presidency, Mrs Mary Briggs thought I would like to 

welcome its No 60, ?0 years on. What was said in the introduction to No I in January 1972 is 

pertinent and still stands. But it did not have an easy binh. Some of the Editors of Watsonia needed 

careful personal persuasion that it would not detract from their journal nor harm the reputation of 

the Society. Ken Beckett w()te later of its "hesitant beginnings" and "the not inconsiderable amount 

of quiet opposition to the whole project by some of the more prof'essional and elder members", and 

indeed this aiiirude did nol help the pioneer editors of the Newsletter. Ted Lousiey insisted that it 

should not be indexed. Nevenheless lndexed it has been, three times, in 1977, 19d2 and 1988, the 

last 100 pages long. Richard Fitter in 1986 produced his own index to the excellent line drawings. 

BSBI News began with 20 pages and now has 60. I was f

F:ditorial / Hon. Gencral Secreary's Notes 

Thanks also to Brian Byrne of Shipley tbr the following adven from the Weekerul Grutrdian for 

December 14115 1991, which may amuse some readers. 

.WE LOVE YEW 

A unique environmenml friendly gift suitable for all occasions. Rich in mythology and one of 

the world's oldest living organisms, the Yew (Tax Us Baccata [sicl) known as the "Sacred 

Tree" improving the quality of the air we breath, used on the reatment of cancer, the Yew is a 

remarkable tree. The planting of a new tree will be enjoyed for generations. We beiieve deforestation 

is the main cause of the deoleted ozone laver. 

A "Yew" wood will conserve and enhance our environment. create a new habitat for wildlife. 

Your tree will be planted .....' 

In fairness to the advertiser, part ofthe profits were to go to Cancerresearch. 

EDITOR 

HON. GENERAL SECRETARY'S NOTES 

Congratulations to Mrs Nora F. MacMillan, a BSBI member, who was awarded an MBE in the 

New Year's Honours List for her services to museums and natural history. lt follows a year in which 

she was also awarded an Honoriuy MSc by Liverpool University. Mrs MacMillan (now over [30) 

still goes into the Liverpool Museum regularly. She has wide interests in natural history and has 

recently contributed notes to BSB/ News, but her main interest continues in conchology. 

With deep regret we report the death of Anhur Sledge of Leeds - a BSBI member since 1924. An 

obituar:y will be published in Warsonia l9(2) (August). 

Is there a member who would like to be Secretary to the new Executive Committee, to take the 

minutes of that Committee and to assist the Hon. General Secretary with Committee, Council and 

the administration of the Society. We are looking for a member with the time and the interest, and 

who could be in lxrndon - The Natural History Museum. Depanment of Botany - one day of most 

weeks. Expenses paid. Ii interested please contact the Hon. General Seoretary. 

1992 Year Book 

Thank you to those who have written to let me know of errors or omissions, including: 

Dr E.C. Nelson, on the Editorial Panel on page 8 whose initials were there transposed; and on 

page 6 Dr Nelson was inadvenently omitted from the list of members of the Publications Commit- 

Also Peter Hall, an Honorary Member, whose entry should read Mr P.C. Hall, F.L.S. 

The Committee for Ireland on pa.qe 7 shouldread for l99l - 1992: 

IRELAND 

J.C.L. Phillips (Chairman), Dr R.S. Forbes (Haz. Secretary), P.J. Grant, Dr D.W. Nash, Dr B.S. 

Rushton, Miss M.J.P. Scannell, Dr M. Sheehy-Skeffington, Mrs S. Reynolds, P. Corbeu (Obsen'er 

D.O.E. (N.r.)). 

Representative on BSBI Council: Mrs S. Reynolds. 

and under REGIONAL FIELD SECRETARIES 

IRELAND: Dr D.W. Nash, 35 Nutley Park, Dublin 4, Republic of lreland. 

Through lack of co-ordination in timing of the information sent and the Year Book pi'nt dates, we 

inadvertently published a mixturc of the committees for two years and I apologise tbr all the above 

omissions and errors. See also changes to Irish v.c. recorders on pages 5 6.

Hon. Gcncral Secretary's Notes / Recorders and Rccording 

An addition under USEFUL ADDRESSES on page 10, rs: 

FRTENDS OF THE HARRIS GARDEN 

(the Botanic Garden of the School of Plant Sciences, University of Reading) 

C()ntact'. Dr S.L. Jury, School of Plant Sciences, Plant Science Laboratories, University of Reading, 

Whiteknights, READING, Berkshire RC6 2A'S 

MARY BRIGGS, Hon. General Secretary 

RECORDERS AND RECORDING 

May we remind members that to consult Referees for identifications and Recorders for Iocalities is a 

privilege of individual membership, not available to members of institutions which are BSBI 

members (except through their nominated representative), nor to commercial consultants - without 

cnarge. 

Unless stated otherwise the offer by Referees to identify plants is for specimens from the 

British Isles; the specimens must as far as possible comply with the requirements for each group as 

published in the List. The offer does not in general apply to slides, except where these are specifically 

mentioned (as e.g. Orchids). Members hoping for the identification of a slide, or any specimen 

frorn outside the British lsles, should write first to the Referee, with a s.a.e., to ask if the Referee 

is willing to accept these for identification. 

Occasionally members forget that Referees are busy people and that the unexpected arrival in 

the post of a very large package of specimens, or a box (or boxes) of slides, is unlikely to elicit a 

prompt response - or maybe indeed any response. Referees frequently have less spare time for their 

botany than their correspondentsl 

Many hundreds of specimens are speedily confirmed or identified for members each year, and 

we take this opponunity to thank warmly all the Rel-erees, and the v.c. Recorders, who voluntarily 

give many hours of time to members requests. 

Please do not forget s.a.e. for replies. 

Supplement no. l to List ofRecorders in 1992 Year Book 

Change of Address 

l7 Surrey Mrs J.E. Smith, 22 Station Road, Claygate, Esher, Surrey KI10 9DH 

Correction of Address 

tl9 E.Penh Dr R.A.H. Smith, Holburn, Pitcaimgreen, Penh PH1 3LU 

Apologies to Mr J. Evans, joint Recorder for v.c. 86 Stirlings, for calling him John in BSBI New.r 58 

- his name is Jerry tJeremyt 

The Irish v.c. Recorders published in 1992Year Baak, pages 27 &21 , suffered the same fate as the 

Committee for Ireland (see page 4). The current list is now published below in full, with apologies, 

thanks to those retiring for their past help, and with a welcome to all new Recorders: 

IRELAND 

HOl S. Kerrv 

H02 N. Kerry 

H0.r W. Cork & 

H0-1 Mid Cork & 

H05 E. Cork 

Mrs E.C. Mhic Daeid, Avondale, Moynalty, Kells, Co. Meath, lreland 

Dr P.S. Wyse Jackson, Botanic Gardens Conservation Secretariat, 

I.U.N.C. Conservation Secretariat, Descanso House, 199 Kew Road, 

Richmond, Surrey TW9 3BW and Mr M.B. Wyse Jackson, 26 Upper 

Mount Pleasant Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland 

Miss M.J.P. Scannell,43 Raglan Rd, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland, and 

Mr T. O'Mahonl', 6 Glenthom Way, Dublin Hill, Cork City, Ireland

H06 Co. Waterford 

H07 S. Tipperary 

H08 Co. Limerick 

H09 Co. Clare 

H10 N. Tipperary 

Hl1 Co. Kilkenny 

H12 Co. Wexford 

H13 Co. Carlow 

H14 Laois 

H15 S.E. Galway 

H16 W. Galway 

H17 N.E. Galway 

H18 Offaly 

H19 Co. Kildare 

H20 Co. Wicklow 

H21 Co. Dublin 

H22 Meath 

}{23 Westmeath 

H24 Co. l,ongford 

H25 Co. Roscommon 

H26 E. Mayo & 

H27 W. Mayo 

H28 Co. Sligo 

H29 Co. kitrim 

H30 Co. Cavan 

H31 Co. Louth & 

H32 Co. Monaghan 

H33 Fermanagh 

H34 E. Donegal 

H35 W. Donegal 

H36 Tyrone 

Recorders and Recording 

Dr I.K. Ferguson, The Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, 

Surrey TW9 3AE 

Miss R. FitzGerald, 606 River Forest, Leixlip, Co. Kildare, Ireland and 

Miss E. Ni Lamhna, 6 Ashdale Gardens, Terenure, Dublin 6, Ireland 

Mrs S. Reynolds, 115 Weirview Drive, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, Ireland 

Miss C. Brady, 66 Templeville Drive, Templeogue, Dublin 6, Ireland 

Dr D.W. Nash, 35 Nutley Park, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland 

Mr R.N. Goodwillie, Lavistown Study Centre, Lavistown, Co. Kilkenny, 

Ireland 

Lady Ro. FitzGerald, Beggar's Roost, Lilstock, nr Bridgewater, Somerset 

TA5 lSU and Dr J.R. Akeroyd, Foxglove Cottage, 24 The Street, 

Hindolveston. Dereham. Norfolk NR20 5BU 

Miss E.M. Nic Lughadha, The Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 

Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AE and Mr N. Tirard, Coolnabrune, Borris, 

Co. Kilkenny, Ireland 

Dr P.J. Foss, 5 Royal Marine Terrace, Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland 

Dr M.S. Sheehy-Skeffington, Dept. of Botany, University College, Calway, 

Ireland 

Mr C. Breen, 101 Bettyglen, Raheny, Dublin 5, Ireland. 

Dr C.M. Roden, Red Bank Fisheries, New Quay, Ballyvaughan, Co. 

Clare, lreland 

Dr J.G.D. Lamb, Woodfield, Clara, Offaly, Ireland 

Mr D.A. Doogue, 12 Glasilawn Road, Dublin 11, Ireland 

Dr T.G.F. Cunis, St Michael's, Meath Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland 

Dr D.W. Nash,, 35 Nutley Park, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland 

Miss M.P. Nonon, Tinode, Manor Kilbride, Blessington, Co. Wicklow, 

Ireland 

Mr C. Breen, 101 Bettyglen, Raheny, Dublin 5, Ireland 

Mr S. Howard, Carra, Granard, Co. Longford, lreland 

Mr J.J. Earley, The Walk, Roscommon, Co. Roscommon, Ireland 

Mr G. Sharkey, 2 Spencer Street, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland 

Dr J.A.N. Parnell, School of Botany, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland 

Dr D.L. Kelly, School of Botany, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland 

Mr P. Reilly, 26 Nephin Road, Dublin 7, Ireland 

Mr D.M. Synnott, National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland 

Dr R.S. Forbes, Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, 

N. Ireland BT7 1NN and Mr R.H. Northridge,9 Coole Drive, 

Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland 

Miss P. Hodson, 60 Forest Avenue. Kingswood Hts, Dublin 24, Ireland 

Dr T.G.F. Curtis, St Michael's, Meath Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland 

Miss D.S. Lambert The Lookout, 49 Main Street, Castlerock, Co. Derry, 

H37 Co. Armagh 

N. Ireland BT51 4RA 

Dr J.S. Faulkner, Drumherriff Lodge, Orchard Road, Lough Call, 

Co. Armash 8T61 sJD 

H3tt Co. Down Mr P. Ha&ney, The Gobbins, 146 Gobbins Road, Islandmagee, 

Co. Antrim, N. Ireland BT40 3TX 

H39 

H40 

Co. Antrim 

Co. l,ondonderry 

Mr S. Beesley, 12 Downview Park, Greenisland, Carrickf'ergus, 

Co. Antrim, N. Ireland BT38 8RY 

Miss D.S. Lambert, The l-ookout, 49 Main Street, Castlerock, Co. Derry, 

N. Ireland BT51 4RA 

Supplement No. I to Panel of Referees and Specialists in 1992 Year Book 

ROSACEAE 

Sorbas: Correction of postcode 

Mr P.J.M. Nethercon ..... BS9 1PU

Rccorders and Rccording 

Cotoneaster'. Jeanette Fryer sends an additional note on her specimen requirements: 

Non flowering growing shoots (c.6" long) are very useful - for the shape of the young 

Ieaves 

MARY BRIGGS. Hon General Secrettiry 

WHITE FLOWBR FORMS IN THE GARDEN 

It does not necessarily follow that because white-flowered forms of familiar British plants are found 

in the garcien, they should also occur in the British countryside. Another possibiliiy is that wiriespread 

species have white-flowered races elsewhere in their range. 

This is true for at least two cases ouoted in BSBI News 58: 12. The white form of marsh marigold, 

Caltha palustris'alba'of commerce is in fact correctly C. palustris L. vat. himalensis 

(D. Don) Mukerjee. It is the only form found in the west Himalaya, notably Kashmir, and for some 

reason has proved to be a more popular garden plant than the yellow flowered European race. In the 

garden it remains quite distinct from the laner, being rather smaller and less rampantly vigorous, 

and with subtle differences in leaf shape and colour throushout the vear. It seems that the two do 

not hybridize, and it may well be thai the Himalayan pla-nt deserves a rank of higher level than 

vanety. 

White forms of primrose, Primula vulgaris are more complex. The very attractive and deiicate 

linle plant from the north side of Puig Major in Mallorca is always white flowered ;urd is correctly 

P. vulgaris Huds. subsp. balearica flVillk.) Smith & Forrest. It has leaves which are green beneath. 

Elsewhere in the west of its range, the primrose is usually yellow, but from northem Creece eastwards 

there are two races which are often white, although they can also be various shades of red, 

pink and yellow. P. vulgaris subsp. sibthorpli (Hoffm.) Smith & Forrest has narrow petioles and 

Ieaves which are grey-green beneath, while subsp. heterochroma (Stapfl Smith & Forrest has leaves 

with abundant white hairs beneath and broad Detioles. 

White-flowered plants in the trade are sometimes offered as P.'ingwersenianc'(Heslop-Harrison), 

named after the Danish originator of the Sussex dynasty of Sussex nurserymen, Walter, who 

probably introduced it from northern Greece. This is said to be synonymous with subsp. sibthorpii, 

although I have a sneaking feeling that at least some plants grown under this name today are the 

Mallorca olant. 

White colours are common today in garden'polyanthus'(P. x tommdsinii). These are recessive 

to one yellow allele and two red alleles, and so white flowers are unlikely to arise in the British 

counrryside as a direct result of pollination of wild primroses with girden polleir. 

I am less clear about the status of white Viola odorata. White forms are also morc common 

than the purple in Northumberland, and in our area, garden plants are nearly always white. I suspect 

that most if not all 'wild' V. odorata in our area is in fact of garden origin, and is thus white, although 

the Floras seem never to admit to a honal origin for this species. 

JOHN RICHARDS, Depanment of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Newcastle 

upon Tyne NE I 7RU 

MORE ON WHITE ORCHIDS 

White-flowered specimens of Dactylorhiza majalis s.l. are certainly rare. One or two such specimens 

of subsp. praeterml.rsc have occurred in most recent years at Greywell (v.c. 12) but I have 

never seen any elsewhere and Milne-Redhead's example (1991) is only the second I have heiud of, 

the other being in v.c. 22, though I cannot remember the details. 

I have never seen white-flowered subsp. purpurella but have heard of it in Anglesey (v.c. 52, 

I. Brown, pers. comm. 1991), also in Scotland and Yorkshire s.l. (details forgotten). White specimens 

Rccorders and Recording 

ap Schultze is the only one thal comes to mind, though Cephalanthera dumasoniumvar. chhroticu 

Tahourdin is close. 

Horsman's "semi-albino" cantbrensis is certainly remarkable; I found an equivalent, or at least 

an example of what is probably the same mechanism, at Magilligan (v.c. H40) in 1970 in a plant of 

D. incarnata whose flowers were the colour of subsp. incarnata on one side of the spike and of 

subsp. coccinea on the other. 

This brings me to Horsman's incarnota lacking anthocyanins. 

Truly albino flowers in incarnata (= f. leucantha Landwehr) seem to be very rare; I have only 

seen examples at Greywell (v.c. l2), Pentraeth (v.c.52) andWicken (v.c.29). 

Much more frequent is the form with creamy-white flowers usually shacling to pale yellow at 

the mouth of the spur (l have not seen the green tinge mentioned by Horsman). This is quite common 

in the acid-soil colonies of subsp. pulchella (e.g. the Surrey heaths and the New Forest), and is 

not rare among subsp. coccinea; a coccinea colony at Skaill (v.c. 11I) in 1971 had c.10Vr' of them, 

though they seem to have died out later (Miss E.R. Bullard, pers. comm- 1989). Bateman and Denholm 

(1985) refer to its occurrence among subsp. cruenta at L. Carra (v.c. H26). 

Bateman and Denholm (ibid.) discuss pigmentation in the species in considerable detail and 

specifically referred to the illustrations in Landwehr (1977); however, they refrained from using the 

name f. ochrantha Landwehr. I think that if this name were better known and understood there 

would be less confusion with subsp. ochroleuca, many records (and not only recent ones) of which 

are distinctly suspect. 

References 

Milne-Redhead, E. ( 1991 ). More about White Flowers, BSB/ News 58. 

Horsman, F. (1991). On Some Curious Dactylorchids, BSB/ News 58. 

Bateman, R.M. and Denholm, I. (1985). A Reappraisal of the British and lrish Dactykrrchids, 

Wtttsonia l5(4) 1985 

Landwehr, J. (1977). Wilde Orchideeen van Europa, Amsterdam. This is more accessible in its 

slightly revised FrenchJanguage edrtions Les Orchicl(es Saut'ages de Suis.se (France) et tl'Eurr-rpe. 

Lausanne, 198213. 

DEREK TURNER ETTLINGER. Royden Conage, Cliftonville, DORKING, Surrey RH4 2JF 

WHITE-FLOWERED RAN U N C U LUS ACRIS 

Edsar Milne-Redhead describes a white-flowered form of Ranunculus arrris from Suffolk in BS81 

News 58:13. 

Twice in Shetland I have seen what seems a very similar form of this species - a single plant on 

Fair Isle in 1963, and a few plants at Cunningsburgh, South Mainland, in the following year. In my 

notes I described the Fair Isle buttercup as having petals pale lemon-yellow on the outside, 

cream-coloured or almost white on the inside (nectary pale yellow); sepals with pale yellow borders; 

\^tam€ns pale yellow, not golden as in the type. 

I have never met with such a form asain. either in Shetland or elsewhere. [t must be quite 

unusual. 

RICHARD PALMER, I I Fleet Way, DIDCOT, Oxon. OX I I llBZ 

"DIFFERENT" COI,OURS IN FLOWERS IN v.c. lll 

ln v.c. 111 I have seen white Armeria maritima, Calluna vulgaris, Cirsium vulgare, Dacry-ktrhiza 

incarnota. Erico cinereu, E. tetraLix, Festuca ruhru, Gvmnadenia con()psea, Lychnis flos cuculi, 

PolygaLa serplllifolid. Prunella vulguris, Rosu mollis, Silene diltit:u (not the hybrid) and .!acr;na 

pratensis; all, with the exception of the fescue, not uncommon. I have never seen a white Primula 

scotica and white Sci//a t,ernahas been seen here but not by me. Only white Cirsiurn vulgare grows 

on the Brough of Birsay, associated with ancient Christian churches and with St Magnus the Martvr. 

Other flower colours noted were pale ptnk Vicia sepium, pale yellow Leontotlon autumnalis. 

double Ranunculus acris and double Ranunculus ficaric, all are rare. 

f n v.c. 109 I have noted white Ajuga pvramidalis. 

ELAINE R. BIJLLARD, Toftwrxrd, KIRKWALI., Orkney KWl5 1SB


ALBINO FI,OWERS? 

In the Blue Mountains 74 miles west of Sydney is a small road junction called Bell. During the 

early 1960s the road-side cafe was run by quite a character named'Perce Bergin'well renowned for 

the excellent T-Bone Steaks he served. He also had a little property a funher 10 miles west on the 

edge of some 400 acres of the evergreen Telopea speciosissima (Waratah). It is the largest concenfration 

of Waratah anywhere and in the season when the red bracts are in profusion, it is breathtaking 

and an unforgettable sight. 

The Waratah is the floral emblem for the State of New South Wales, Australia, and grows to a 

height of lOft. Perce, with the registered growers right to sell the vivid red Waratahs in buckets of 

water outside his cafe, hit on the idea of immersing a few upside down. After a few weeks, this 

treatment caused the colour to fade fiom red to a creamy-white and a talking point was created by 

one of these faded specimens being placed amongst a goup of freshly picked red ones. He used to 

really enjoy listening to many of the car-key swinging dowagers from Sydney and others claiming 

to be aware of 'Albino' Waratahs. 

I'm sure Perce would not mind me sharing his Sales Secret of the 60s with BSBI members. 

NORMAN DOWNIE, 34 Shoebury Road, THORPE BAY, Essex SS1 3RS 

[Norman is'a native Ausralian recently retired and now resident permanently here 

'. Ed.] 

WHITE FORMS OF FLOWERS IN MID.KERRY 

I was interested in the anicles relating to white forms of flowers in BSBI News 5E. While it is not 

unusual to come across white-flowered forms of cenain species, it may well be for others. Some 

unusual types recorded by me in the region were Vicia sativa, Centranth*s ruber, Lamiwn purpureum, 

Succisa pratensis, Saponaria oJficinalis, Centauriutn erythraea and Armeria maritima. 

Colour variation is a fascinating aspect of botany and can be both exciting and rewarding for 

those who study the phenomenon. 

MICHAEL O'SULLIVAN, Knockavota, MILLTOWN, Co. Kerry, Ireland 

WHITE FORMS OF GERANIUM ROBERTIANUM 

With reference to the recent notes on white forms of Ceranium robertianum, there is a pure white 

form without red pigment grown increasingly in gardens and known as 'Celtic White'; it is available 

from a number of nurseries. The foliage is a fresh bright green, and my plants have not a hint of red 

pigment, even at the nodes. However, although it is a very pretty plant it has proved such a prolific 

self seeder in sun and shade that I have reluctantly decided to eradicate it. It spreads rapidly, rosettes 

and then flowering growth smothering less robust neighbours and it also frequently germinates in 

the grit on seed pots of alpines and threatens emerging seedlings. 

Peter Yeo discussed the white and almost white forms of this plant in his book Hardy Geraniums 

(Helm, 19ii5) and points out the distinction between 'Celtic White' and subsp. celticumfton 

W. Ireland and S. Wales with its pale pink flowers and red-brown pigmentation at the nodes and 

bases of the petioles. 

Just to increase the ootential for confusion there is a olant available from some nurseries called 

'Album' a strongly pigm'ented, trailing form with large white or almost white flowers, but this may 

be the same as forma hernettii. Then there's'Cygnus'with white flowers andonly slightpigmentation 

- but this may be the same as forma leucanthemum. As these plants become more popular in 

gardens there is potential for even more confusing names being coined by gardeners- 

As an aside, the normal species has even been used as a bedding plant at Kew! 

GRAHAM RICE, 70 Benefield Road. OUNDLE, Peterborough PF.8 4EZ.

Rocorders and Recording 

'SEMI-ALBINO' DACTY LORHIZA MAJALIS 

The 'semi-albino' 

plant of Dacrylorhiza majalis described by F. Horsman (BSBI News 58) would 

appear to be a sectorial chimera for anthocyanin production due to a somatic mutation in the apical 

meristem at an early point in growth. 

If, for example, the plant was heterozygous for any enzyme essential for anthocyanin production, 

then a mutation in the relevant gene in one apical meristematic cell will result in a line of 

derived cells incapable of anthocyanin production. These will grow and divide as will the normal 

cells, giving a shoot which in cross section may be as in the frgure below: 

(v) = 

(P) / 

Flower buds growing out from this will 

liom cells with anthocyanin. Where the 

which will be part pink and pa-rt white. 

Flowers from here 

white at edge, pink 

centrally. (As periclinal 

chimera). 

t 

(w) 

(r) 

be white from cells without anthocyanin (W); and pink (P) 

two types of cells adjoin, it will be possible to get flowers 

N.B. D. rnajalis mature inflorescence has holiow stem 

Diagrams adapted from The Growing Plantby W. Neiison Jones. A more comprehensive study can 

be found in Plant Chimeras by R. Tilney-Bassett. 

In the event of self pollination being possible in this species, either within a single albino flower, or 

between one totalit white flower and another on the same plant, then it might be possible that a 

generation of truly'albino' flowered plants could arise from the seed. (Does anyone know if this 

species can successfully self pollinate?) 

As to how mutations may occur; on the molecul:r level it could be due to 'Point mutation' 

(substitution 

'Insenion' 

of one DNA base for another), (of 

'Deletion' 

extra DNA bases), (of relevant 

DNA bases) or 'Transposition' 

(the movement of DNA into a gene, thus inactivating it.) Any of 

these can give an incorrect DNA sequence and a subsequently inactivated gene. 

On the chromosomal level, mitotic recombination in a heterozygous plant can result in one 

daughter cell homozygous for pink and the other homozygous for white. 

I = gene 

P = pink (dominant) 

P = white 

P 

r 

P 

P 

t0 

Flowers from here 

Vzwhite,/zp:Lrkn 

vertical plane. 

Homologous 

chromosomes 

Chromosomes replicate 

and recombine

P 

m---Tl 

rF--rI 

P 

One cell receives 

both copies of the 

white allele p 

t/ 

Recorders and Recordins 

Cell division 

\ 

t|'-----r-.] 

A more experienced geneticist may offer even more possible explanations! 

MARGARET WEBSTER, l8 Lye Mead, Winford, BRISTOL BS18 8AU 

WHITE-FLOWERED PLANTS . FINALE 

Y 

One cell receives 

both copies of the 

pink allele P 

I have been most interested in the correspondence sparked tn BSBI News 57 & 58 by my letter about 

white flowered variants. Apart from the suggestion by Helen Megaw conceming W & NW winds 

(of which we get plenty) unfonunately I am no nearer an explanation, although it was rnterestrng to 

see that many other observers had noted the phenomenon. 

This year I also noted pure white Thymw praecox, a patch about l5cm in the middle of a large 

area of normal coloured thyme on a cliff top, white Misopates (,rontium growing in fine shingle at 

the top of the beach on Platte Saline, and white Cuscuta epithymurn, growing on the ground (again, 

as is usual here) on Thymus, on sand dunes at sea level. 

BRIAN BONNARD, The Twins, Le Petit Val, ALDERNEY, Channel Isles 

[Unless something very exciting tums up, I think we may draw this correspondence to a close. Ed.] 

ALLIUM SATIVUM L. (GARLIC) 

During 1990 whilst engaged in a botanical survey of Lancaster we found a colony (100+ plants) of 

an Allium. These plants were growing in a salt-marsh in the tidal reach of the River Lune where, 

during periods of high tides, they would have been panially or totally immersed in sea-water. 

A specimen was sent to Prof. Stearn who identified it as Allium sativwn and commented that 

this was the first instance known to him ofgarlic being naturalised in Britain. 

We next wrote to the late Adrian Grenfell to enquire if he had any knowledge of A. sativum 

being naturalised in Britain. He responded by telephone, saying that he knew of only one instance 

and this also was on an estuary, presumably originating from a drift bulb (BSB1 News 36 28, April 

19t14). Both of these sites are on estuaries, possibly resulting from bulbs/bulbils being carried on a 

rising tide; alternatively they may have originated from garden rubbish being washed downstream. 

MostFlorasrefertoA. sa,tivumasacasual,noneof thosethatweconsultedrefertothecoiling 

of the stem (which later straightens out), a most distinctive feature that is very obvious. hof. Stearn 

confirmed that this is a characteristic of the plant. 

A full year after the first finding, the Lancaster colony was still thriving. There can be little 

doubt that many of the relatively large bulbils from the fruiting heads will have been distributed up 

and down the estuarine banks of the River Lune and, possibly, out into Morecambe Bay. 

We would be interested to hear from others who may have found AIIiwn sativum, with as much 

detail as possible. In the event of a possible response we would consolidate the information and 

submit a further note to BSB/ Naws. 

LEN & PAT LIVERMORE. 8 Durham Avenue. LANCASTER LAI 4ED 

ll

Rmorders and Rccordinq 

RECORDING ISLANDS 

From time to time objections are raised about the difficulty caused in island groups by recording on 

the 1Okm grid system which can obscure the identity of the exact island on which a panicular planr 

is found. 

In Orkney, visiting botanists complain most about the inabilitv of separating Hoy, with its 

'arctic/alpine'plants, from the adjacent Mainland, but for locals, the greater problem is the very 

large number of 1Okm squares to be recorded for a small land area. At least four islands, each well 

under 5000 ha, manage to spread themselves over four 1Okm squares each - this includes poor little 

Papa Westray which has a total area of about 5[D ha. Including Sule Skerry, Orkney spreads itself 

over 37 lOkm squares yet its total land area is less than ten lOkm squares. This makes an assessment 

of the comparative frequency of a number of species impossible. 

No one having come up with a better idea, I have played about with the grid lines and produced 

a 'modified grid' (see page l3) which does give all the larger islands sepilate identities and groups 

the smaller ones, Iike with like, reducing the total number - including Sule Skerry - to 24 squares. 

lhis modification will allow a better comparison with the old A//ds than might seem possible at first 

sight, for I suspect exact 10km square boundaries were not fully adhered to then. 

Within Orkney, our lcrcal BRC will continue to record on a tetrad-and-island basis and the 

above modification would only be used for any records normally based on lOkm square distribution, 

for example a fonhcoming Flora for which there are insufficient tetrad records and for any 

new 1Okm-based Atlas. 

Comments? Perhaps from other island v.c. Recorders? 

ELAINE R. BULLARD, Toftwood, KIRKWALL, Orkney KW15 1SB 

IRISH MTSTLETOE, A'HERBARIUM' RECORD! 

Mistletoe has so far failed to gain a permanent place in the Irish flora. There are a few records of it 

on apple rrees, including two fiom eighteenth century Dublin and a more recent one (1909) from 

Roscommon. Parrick Browne's early repon of it on birch in County Mayo was surely based on a 

witches-broom. 

Still rare as a garden plant in lreland, mistletoe was ;rlready 'in cultivation' at the Botanic 

Gardens, Glasnevin, in 1804, when John Underwood produced his catalogue, though he was mistaken 

about it being a native lrish plant. The number and size of the plants at Glasnevin have increased 

dramatically in the past decade. It now occurs on alm

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Rccordcrs and Recording 

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Between l97l and 1986 there was an average ofone new record a year. In 19[i7 and 1988 there 

was a total of nine, including three found during surveys for the BSBI Monitoring Scheme. In 1989, 

Pam Copson, BSBI Recorder, invited some 30 Warwickshire wild-flower lovers to join in the 

fieldwork to discover the extent of increases and decreases of some of the county's wild flowers. 

L. serriola was on the list and records for all sightings were requested. 26 records (19 new) were 

produced in 19U9; eleven (nine new) in 1990 (see fig. 2, page 15). By then it was apparent that an 

exceptional increase in population and range was occurring and in 1991 a few collectors produced 

69 new records, mostiy from stable habitats, including at least 23 for single or only two plants (see 

fig. 3, page 15). There were undoubtedly more to find. 

The species had also spread far beyond the demarcation line into the west and nonh of the 

county: to Hockley Hearh (1412) in 1979, l,ongford (3483) in 1981, Hampton in Arden (2179) in 

1986, followed by ten in the four years to 1990 and a further 20 in 1991. Except for the north eastern 

corner, L. serriola is now more or less present in all major squares of the county (see figs. 2 & 

3, page 15). The spread is in Iine with national trends but Warwickshire records far exceed nationai 

growrh of 32(Vo since 1962 (Rich & Woodruff 1990). 

Hanf (1986) says that the species "likes a fair amount of warmth" which, in the context of 

widespread continental distribution (Finer 1978), means summer heat. Its spread in Britain, therefore, 

is unlikely to have been influenced by mild winters or recent unexceptional summers. However, 

L. serriola is a plant of moist or dry soils (Fitter 1978) which explains its distribution in this 

country where even after expansion it is mostly confined to areas with an annual average rainfall of 

less than 30". Thus the spread of this naturaily fluctuating iLnnuaVbienniai plant, panicularly across 

the demarcation line, could at least have been assisted by several years of below average rainfall. 

Much more exceptional in Warwickshire since about 1987, has been a considerable number of 

major civil engineering projects. Besides the M40 and M42, there have been many new major 

by-passes, roundabouts, road-widening, estates for industry and houses, golf courses, and other 

excavation work, panicularly gravel pits. L. serriola has a preference for "places where large 

arnounts of eanh have been moved" (Prince & Carter 19'17) and this has been amply demonstrated 

al many srtes. 

Between the two world wars there was a similar increase of population in Surrey and Henfordshire. 

It was thought that the impetus came from gravel pits "associated with the development of 

anerial roads which gave the requisite density of propagule production that appears necessary to 

ensure rapid spread" (Salisbury 1953). 

It is evident that in Warwickshire between 1988 and 1990 L. serriola achieved the reouisite 

density of occurrence on a number of widespread moved-earth sites: for example, a considirable 

increase probably associated with the construction of the M42 was reported in 1989 from and 

around gtavel workings in recently colonized north-western Warwickshire (SP29)l and many plants 

were found in 1990 around M40 motorway construction works near Warmington (4148). The 

ensuing epidemic of wind-blown shon-lived seeds (Robens i986) apparently travelled far and wide 

to produce in 1991 many of the 69 reported new records from less favoured habitats. Colonization 

was probably assisted by several comparatively dry years. 

If the experience of the 1930s is repeated, many of the new colonies should persist. 

R.eferences 

Cadbury, D.A., Hawkes, J.G. & Readett, R.C. (1971). A computer-mapped Flora of Warwickshire. 

[,ondon. 

Finer, Alastair (1918). An Atlas rf the Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe. London. 

Hanf, Manin (1983). The Arable Weeds of Europe. Hadleigh (Ludwigshafen). 

Perring, F.F{. & Walters, S.M. eds. (1962). Atlas of the British Flora. L


AN UNKNOWN SORAUS IN LANCASTER 

During 1990, whilst botanizing the City of Lancaster, we encountered a difficulrto-idenify Sorhus 

which was planted as a street tree and also at a recreation ground. These were all young trees, approx. 

- l2ft tall, all had reached flowerinq size and had set fruit. 

The young ffees have upright curuing branches and the leaf shape is as illustrated: single 

toothed, typically 10-l2cm long with a maximum width of 3.5-4.0cm. Most leaves had eleven veins 

on each side of the midrib. The upper side of the leaf is green and the underside felted white; fruits 

red, few if any lenticels, 12-l4mm x 9-lOmm; calyx persistent. 

We have failed to identify this species from the literature available to us. It is possible that they 

are cultivars and. therefore. honicultural-trade reselections. 

We would be interested to hear from other members who may find this same .lorrn.r, and 

whether they know its identity? 

LEN & PAT LIVERMORE. 8 Durham Avenue. LANCASTER LAl 4ED 

.,adm 

WI 

MORE ON GIANT HOGWEEDS 

ffi 

I 

W 

Mr J. Fenton (BSBI News 58) is right. The plant he saw at Tromsp is different from the giant 

hogweed he is used to seeing in Britain (Heracleum mantegazzianum). It differs notably in characters 

of the fruits which are so important in the classification of the Umbelliferae (see fig. below), 

and also in orher details. 

ii' .., 

i ,t'lll rrlt' 

6idl) i{lll I 

-* a b 

l-rutts ol a1 H. munteguz:ittnum.l:1 H. "lLtt'iniuturn". O Lid 196.1, del. D. Tantlc Lid. 

The naming of the "Troms6palme" is very difficult. It is definitely not H. sibiricum [,. The other 

name mentioned by Fenton, H. Iaciniatum Horn. is the one used in recent Floras (e.g. Lid 1963) but 

it should be abandoned as it is illegitimate (a later homonym of H. lacinintum Desf.), and based on 

a plant grown in the Botanical Garden in Copenhagen, not likely to be identical with the plant from 

Tromso. Brummit has in Flora Europaea (1968: 366) tried to introduce the name H. persicumDesf . 

for it, but this is also incorrect (Ovstedal 1987:25-26. 

At present there appears to be no valid name available for it. However, it may well prove to be 

identical with one of the many giant hogweeds described from the Soviet Union panicularly as it is 

likely to have come from that country, as part of the ffade along the Polar coasts. 

Unfonunately the exact origin of the Troms6 taxon is uncertain and this funher complicates the 

work to find its nrooer name. 

t7

Recordcrs and Recording 

References 

Lid, J. 1963. Norsk og svenskflora. Oslo 

Ovstedal, D.O. 1987. Er Troms6palma sitt namn Heracleum persicum Desf . Polarflokken ll(1): 

25-26. 

Tutin, T.G. et al. (Eds.) 1968. F lora Europaea 2. Cambridge 

PER MAGNUS J@RGENSEN, Botanical lnstitute, University of llergen, All6gaten 41, N-5007 

BERGEN, Norway 

PEDICELLATE LOWER FLOWERS IN RELATION TO OROBANCHE MARITIMA 

Views on the status of the taxon originally described as Orobanche maritima Pugsley have been 

expressed in several recent issues of BSBI Neps. David Hambler (Hambler 1990) suggested that the 

presence of pedicellate flowers in the lower ponion of the inflorescence in plants from coastal 

populations otherwise identifiable as O. maritima, might serve as a useful diagnostic character for 

separating this plant (by inference from O. minor Sm.) and establishing it as a distinct species. He 

quoted two such examples which otherwise conformed to Pugsley's O. maritima. 

This seemed to be an interesting possibility and following a request for funher examples, I 

checked Orobanche species in several herbaria, but found only a single specimen having pedicellate 

lower flowers (187'7,W.M. Rogers, LANC). This was collected as O. amethystea Thuill. at Christow 

(v.c. 3; apparently parasitising Medicago lupulina L. However four other specimens on the 

sheet collected from that locality, either at the same time or later, did not possess this feature. 

During 1991 I examined at least fifty Orobanche populations, but other than in rnembers of the 

Section Trionychon Wallr. (e.g. O. ramosa L.), where pedicellate lower flowers are normal, I failed 

to find evidence of this state except in two instances. These were single plants in each of two geographically 

separate populations of O. minor (at Bolton v.c. 59, and Castleford, v.c. 63)l both possessed 

lower flowers with prominent pedicels. The two plants were virtually identical, but differed 

markedly from the remaining more or less typical members of each population (c.200 and 8 plants 

respeclively), by being relatively robust, having denser-flowered inflorescences and suberect corollas 

with only vestigial lips. Additionally, the vivid orange-coloured stigma lobes were prominently 

exserted. and the whole plant had an otherwise deep purple coloration. Both populations 

parasitised Trifoliwn pratense L., although that at Bolton has been tentatively referred to var. compositarum 

Pugsley (Rumsey & Jury 1991), but it is not obviously so. 

Pedicellate lower flowers can thercfore occur in populations which do not morphologically or 

geographically conform to Pugsley's O.maritima. Additionally, by occurring only in plants possessing 

the other exceptional characters described, it would appear likely that such variation, including 

pedicellate flowers, could have resulted from panicular genetic combinations or mutations or from 

physiological stress. The presence of pedicels would therefore seem unlikely to provide evidence for 

a normally suppressed character relevant at species level. Nevenheless, the continued recording of 

this character might yet be instructive for this or other reasons. 

References 

Hambler. D. ( 1990). Orobanche mttritima: An overlooked feature. BSBI N ews 55: 22'23 

Rumsey, F.J. & Jury, S.L. ( 1991 ). An account of Orobanche L. in Bntain and Ireland. Watxtnia l8'. 

257 -295. 

MICHAEL J.Y. FOLEY, 87 Ribchester Road, Clayton le-Dale, BLACKBURN, Lancs. BBI gHT 

ALTITUDINAL RANGES 

I was interested in Graeme Kay's note (BSBI News 59: 9,1992) on Spergularia marina growing at 

440m (1440ft) in Cheshire, partly because this greatly exceeds the altitudinal limit (l00ft in 

Co. Clare) given in rhe 'standard work' on the subject - A. Wilson's The Altitudinal Range of British 

Plants. 2nd edition. 1956. 

But on a more general note I feel that this subject is one that would be ideally suited to incorporation 

in the BSB/ Database (Lricester). The Database (see BSB/ News 59: 43-44, 1992) now 

contains all the taxa that will shortly appenr in D.H. Kent's list of vasculzr plants of the British Isles, 

and the addition of funher sons of data is therefore a relatively simple job. In fact altitudinal data 

l8

Recordcrs and Rccording 

were one of those categories specifically mentioned in the article cited above as being desirable, and 

it was also noted that there would be a need for "the necessal-y people to assemble the data". The 

inputting and some of the editing would be done at Leicester, in collaboration with the compiler. 

The BSBI Database Advisory Subcommittee would of course need to approve the project. 

I would be very glad to hear from anyone interested in a project of this son. 

CLIVE STACE, Depanment of Botany, University of Leicester, LEICESTER LE1 7RH 

NATIVE OR INTRODUCED? AND HOW MUCH DOES IT MATTER? 

In August 1991 a Forestry Commission worker found a little pink flower in a damp ride like none 

he had ever seen before. He called the attention of the Forest Ranger to it, and a day or two later the 

Ranger, the local NCC officer and the BSBI v.c. Recorder (me) met on the site, kept confidential 

for obvious reasons, and found themselves in two minds about whether they were witnessing the 

recrudescence of a Red Data Book species. Fonunately (?) one of the eight specimens had already 

been damaged by treading, and we were able to collect it and submit it to Chris Preston for an 

opinion. The verdict was that we had found a not specially rare bird-seed alien, *Lythrurn junceum, 

growing in what for it was perhaps a rather unusually appropriate habitat, in a damp wood among 

what was predominantly Juncus bufonius. Nobody I have spoken to in the BSBI so far seems particulzuly 

excited about this as a botanical event. It is the first record for v.c. 55, but being an alien 

species does not I think qualify for a mention inWatsonia, Plant Records. 

However, I have not been able to get the incident out of my mind, and I am now delighted to 

find that Lythrum junceum gets full treatment as a species with an asterisk (introduced) in Clive 

Stace's New Flora, the frrst British Flora to ffeat it so. Looking back over the twenty years since the 

publication of Flora of Rutland, I now find myself recalling several other botanical incidents which 

either parallel this or contrast with it. 

1. The Eye Brook Reservoir was built and filled just before the second world war (1938)1 Limosella 

aquatica has only been seen there once, when the water level was exceptionally low 

during the 1976 drought, but Rurnex palustris has been seen between the 'tide marks'most years 

since 1961. 

2. Rutland Water was filled in the late 1970s; Limosella aquatica and Rumex palustris both appeared 

in small quantity in intensely competitive situations in 1990, whereas Rumer maritrmus, 

of which there have never been more than half a dozen plants at EBR in'a drought year, began 

to spread at RW in the 19tl0s and by 1990 there were tens of thousands of plants in five tetrads 

(and two hectads). 

3. Draba muralis was first collected from limestone walls in Glaston village in Rutland in 1933; it 

was next observed there in 1965, and after that was recorded annually until the wall constituting 

its main stronghold was destroyed and rebuilt in 1969; it was rediscovered on a wa1l nearby in 

1973, and occasional plants were seen for several years after that; none have been seen since 

1984. During the whole of this period, *Sedum dasyphyllum has flourished on the same walls 

unchecked and has now reappeared on the rebuilt wall. 

1. Thlaspi perfoliatum was first observed in a Rutland railway guds yard in 1965; the yard was 

closed in ),962 and ten years later had been almost wholly taken over by light industry; when 

last seen a few years ago the Pennycress had spread along the railway bank a hundred yards or 

more beyond the limits of the former yard and was no longer to be seen anywhere in the yard 

itself. In the map illustrating the contribution on the Scarce Species Project in a recent circular 

to v.c. Recorders,T. perfoliatum distribution is shown with blobs for'native'records and crosses 

for'introduced' ones; at the time Tim Rich was considering the Rutland record, I suggested 

to him that there was no very good reason why the Rutland population, in good limestone 

country should not be a residual population of local ancestry, reappearing after escaping notice 

since long before the railways were built. It seems to me now that an admitted balance of 

probabilities was not enough to justify such an uncompromising application of the cross symbol 

for an 'introduction'. 

5. In 19ti2, *Satifraga rosacea subsp. sponnhennica was found well established on an old brick 

culven carrying a farm track over a stream halfway between two Rutland villages and a mile 

from either. It flourished and was admired locally for several years, and then the brickwork was 

l9


repointed and the Saxifrage disappeared; nobody ever knew whether the'farmer' or the County 

Council was responsible. 

It appears to me that there is analogous matter in each of these six cases, involving four 'NATIVE' 

and three 'INTRODUCED' species. In each case the HABITAT is man made. and. even in the case 

of the railway and the culven. made within the last 150 years. In no case is it suggested that man 

chose to plant the species where it was subsequently found or deliberately encouraged its spread 

after discovery. Nor can it be said that once there any one of the species was necessarily doomed 

through an inevitable inability to propagate itself. Admittedly, the Lythrum did seem very small and 

delicate, but not much more so than the Thlaspi or the Limoselia. Nationally, the Lythrum, the 

Sedum and the Saxifrage are introduced species. tocally in Rutland they need a different categorisation 

to define their status. They and the'native' examples are all equally'INTRUSIVES' which may 

in due time settle and become 'CONSTITUENTS' 

in the communities in which they find themselves, 

or may fail to do so, and so prove at least to have been only'CASUALS'. Whether each is a 

'NATIVE' 'INTRODUCION' 

or an is virtually irrelevant, and all should equally receive the attention 

of the v.c. recorder, and the local Flora writer. I hope the planners of the new Alla.r and the 

Scarce Plants Projectwill recognise the merits of my argument. I'm sure Clive will. 

GUY MESSENGER, 5 Wheatiey Avenue, UPPINGHAM, Rutland, lricestershire LE15 9SN 

LEMNA MINUTA AND AZOLLA FILICULOIDES IN CANALS 

Barbara Last and Jack Oliver (BSBI News 56 & 58) both comment on the spread of Lemna minuta 

Kunth (L. minuscula Hefter nom. illeg.)) (Least Duckweed) on the Kennet and Avon Canal and 

speculate on its apparent competitive abilities with AzollaJiliculoides Lam. (Water Fern) and Lemna 

minor L. (Common Duckweed). 

The spread of the plant is of increasing concem. Like so many other invasive aquatic aliens it 

has become more of a problem than a botanical curiosity to those charged with the management of 

open waters. A blanketing growth over a large area leads to deoxygenation and fish-kills in hot 

weather as well as shading out more desirable submerged species. Slow-moving canals are panicularly 

susceptible to invasion. There have been reports of Lemna minuta from as far afield as the 

Grantham Canal in the East. the Montgomery Canal in the West and the Forth and Clyde Canal in 

the North. Control of the plant on the 12 mile summit pound of the Kennet and Avon Canal has 

become a priority for British Waterways over the last 2 years. 

Linle is yet known of the plant's biology and attempts to control it with herbicide and mechanical 

removal have only been partially successful. It has overwintered well so far and there is an 

assured starter population for each spring. Its competitive abilities have yet to be proved however 

and the reported ousting of Azolla filicubides may well be illusory. Azolla is notorious for its 

sudden disappearances and reappearances over several years. There are suggestions that its disappearances 

may be due to intolerance of temperature extremes and reappearances to mass spore 

germination. 

British Waterways are currently co-funding research with the SERC into the biology and spread 

of both specie s (see note by Rachel Janes on page 48). In the meantime we will continue to try and 

control their spread. 

JONATHAN BRIGCS, Environmental and Scientific Services, British Waterways, Llanthony 

Warehouse, Cloucester Docks, GLOUCESTER GLI 2EJ 

PSEUDOFUMARIA LUTEA 

My note on the sudden spread of Pseud.ofurnaria lutea (L.) Borkh. (Yellow Corydalis) in West 

l-ondon (BSBI News 59 : 15, 1991) has resulted in some interesting correspondence. My old friend 

Humphrey Bowen points out that the seeds of Yellow Corydalis have a large aril, and are, therefore, 

attractive to, and distributed by, ants. It seems probable that ants were usually numerous in the hot 

summer of 1990 or before. Ant transponation also seems to be the answer to the presence of plants 

high on walls, railway bridges and other brickwork. Dr Adelaide Stork confirms similar happenings 

in her Lausanne garden where in 1990, her flower beds were 'invaded' by germinating seeds which 

in 1991 had become a major weed problem. Finally, M.E. Braithwaite informs me that he omitted 

20

Rccordgrs and Rccording 

the species from The Botanist in Berwickshire (1990) as he did not think that it occurred away from 

garden walls. Last year, however, he was interested to note several dispersed populations. 

DUGGIE H. KENT,75 Adelaide Road, West Ealing, LONDON W13 9ED 

BSBI T-SHIRTS 

Diana Griffith (BSBI News 52: 29) asks when are BSBI T-shins going to be available? Margaret 

Perring already stocks BSBI ties, and has a lovely knitted bluebell jumper (see BSBI News 37: I 6). I 

would be happv to arrange for a batch ofT-shins to be printed, but first we must have a design! 

These are a few obvious suggestions. We could have botanicai jokes such as "Why did the Typha 

latifulia'! Because it saw the Primula veris", or "Say it with flowers - give a trifid", or for the Pteridologists, 

"With ferns like these, who needs anemones?". Our referees could have their favourite 

genera emblazoned across their chests - Dave Simpson could have the chat-up-line " Elodea" , but I 

can't see David McClintock wearing "Heather"l I already have one, "The Barbarean", to which John 

Bailey added "should be crucified", and another showing the Subularia drawing from my Crucifer 

Handbook. Paul Smith has one with "Botanists do it on their hands and knee.s" cleverly printed on 

the back, and several Welsh members have one with the BSBI bluebell logo and "BSlil Wales" in 

glorious technicolor across the front, drawn by Carl Ellis. 

Ideas or votes to me please, and I will try to get quotes for the next BSBI News. 

TIM C.G. RICH,24 Lombardy Drive, PETERBOROUCH PE1 3FT 

SCARCE PLANTS PROJECT 

MAP FOR GAGEA LUTEA 

Could I point out that the map relating to the species account for Gagea lutea (BSBI News 59:34 

(1991)) was NOT up-to-date. The species account was written at the request of the Scarce Plants 

Coordinator, but because of the shortage of time before publication, the accompanying map was 

insened unseen, apparently from currently held Biological Record Centre records. These, of course, 

are not yet fully up-to-date. Presumably the same has also

Scarce Plants hoject 

SCARCE PLANTS PROJECT. A REVIEW 

After 18 months of this project it might be wonh reviewing the position. As everybody probably 

recalls, the project was set up by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) then the Nature 

Conservancy Council and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (lTE) to review the status of the 

Scarce Species in Britai n i.e. those species that were thought to occur in over 1 5 1 0-km squares, and 

are therefbre too rare to be included in the Red Data Book but under 100 I0-km squiLres. The information 

is needed by JNCC and the other successor bodies of NCC for all aspecrs of conserva 

tion, from assessing the value of a proposed SSSI to defending existing SSSI's from threats. The 

position of the RDB species has been updated by Lynne Farrell and her leam, by quinquennial 

reviews, publications and a comprehensive summary of all parts of England and Wales. A joint 

pro.ject by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, along the same 

lines, is underway now in Scotland. 

But apzrt from a f-ew species, information on these Scarce Species is substantially that of the 

original Atlas, i.e. as at 1960, supplemented with an uneven spread of records submitted later. 

Records are also available from valuable results of surveys such as Arable Weeds, Limestone Pavement 

and the Breadalbane Survey, and ofcourse the Monitoring Scheme. 

It wa'^ always apparent that rvhilst JNCC and BRC have a certain amount of records, the BSBI 

and, in pirticular, the v.c. recorders would have much recent information that rnight be made available. 

It also seemed sensible to ask individual members to confribute because here is a Droiect where 

the data gained are going to be of value sraight away in the form of lists and maps ro bi issued ro 

conservation agency staff. An atlas of scarce species showing up-to-date maps. ecological information 

and current status will be prepared ftrr publication by JNCC. 

I apologize for labouring these points that have all been raised before but I thought it worthwhile 

at the beginning of the last summer of the project. The vast majority of the v.c. recorders have 

responded very well to yet another call on their voluntary time and the more I understand these calls 

the more appreciative I am. Quite a few members have adopted panicular species where, in return 

for prinrouts of the known records, they use their knowledge to update these, to weed-out some of 

the doubtful records and, hopefully, to wrile text for the Allas. 

But there is still plenty to do. Almost every species I look at (and there are 320+) have some 

gaps where I am sure there should be recent records. This project has iargely kept me in Dorset 

during the last year, but more often than not, a record of a scarce species made on an outing turns 

out to be at least an update of a record twenty years old or more. 

So please f,rnd the list of scarce species in BSBI News 57, April 1991, mark these for your area 

or vice-county and use this summer to really make an effon to look for these species. Whatever the 

decisions on a New Atlas of all the British Flora, such a project will not be published for at least [3 

years. We have the bones to assess the status of the Scarce species now so please make a particular 

effort for this one season. As usual Alison or I will be pleased to answer any pafiicular problem. 

DAVID PEARMAN 

FOCUS ON SCARCE PLANTS 

In this issue we look at two upland species, Care,r rupestris and Sesleria caerulea. Compared with 

species featured in previous issues, we have much better post-1970 data. Caret rupestris is one of 

the many sedges on which Dick David has gathered valuable records in recent years. The Limestone 

Pavement Survey undertaken by S. Ward during the early 1970's provides much of the data for 

Sesleria caerulea. 

Provisional maps and text appear as examples of species accounts for the proposed Atla.r of Scarce 

Plarrrs. Records recently received at BRC will not be shown on the maps. 

ALISON STEWART 

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In Britain Carex rupestris forms extensive but very local colonies on the mica-schists of the Grampians 

and Cairngorms and on the limestones of Skye, Kishom and Sutherland. This sedge is aptly 

named for it is most often found, frequently with Dryas, on steep cliffs to which its conglomerate 

tufts are anchored by the deep penetration of their rhizome into cracks in the rock; but it may also 

colonise damp moraines. In the far north it descends to sea level. 

In some stations it is apparently very shy-flowering but in others it sets abundant seed. In any 

case the tufts are evidently long-lived. 

An :rctic-alpine, Carex rupestris is found all along the arctic coasts of Europe (including 

Spitzbergen and Novaja Zemlja , Asia and America from Kamchatka to Alaska; descends the chain 

of the Rockies as far south as Colorado; and occurs on suitable soils in all the higher mountains, 

Pyrenees, Alps, Caucasus, Urals and Himalayas. 

Because of its special habitat this sedge is hardly at risk. 

R W David 

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Sesleria caerulea occurs on the carboniferous iimestone ofLancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria, and 

on the magnesium limestone of Nonhumberland and Durham. Also found in a few sites on micaschists 

in the Grampians and the Breadalbane. It grows in a number of habitats including limestone 

grassland and heath, limestone pavement, and light woodland. It can become locally dominant on 

upland grassland, cliffs and screes due to its ability to withstand drought. 

Seeds germinate free ly, but lack competitive ability on more fertile soils. 

Sesleria caerulea sensu stricto is only found in Europe, occurring in lceland, the Alps, Carpathians, 

Pyrenees, and isolated lowland sites. 

The soecies is not threatened in its Northem stronghold. This account is based on Dixon (1982), 

which provides a detailed account of the ecology of thd species. 

Reference 

DixonJ.M. (1982).Sesleriaalbicans Kit.exSchultes(BiologicalFloraof theBritishlslesno. 151). 

J ournal of Ecology 70: 667 -684. 

A Stewart 

24

Notes and Anicles 

NOTES AND ARTICLES 

LATIN AND VERNACULAR NAMES PLEASE 

Like Keith Hyatt (BSB1 Nelrs 59: 45) and Gordon Knight (BSB/ News 58: 19) I too would like to 

see the Latin name and vemacular name at 'the start of a paper'. Could this also be appiied to Watsonia, 

or is that going too far? 

My botanical Latin was late in developing, but is improving steadily. However, I find I don't 

read some anicles as I am unsure of the plant under discussion. Surely the BSBI wishes to encourage 

us 'enthusiastic amateurs' to broaden our knowledge? Often I find I have little enough time to 

read, and to have to break off to look up a plant is frustrating, so I pass on to something I am more 

familiar with. This doesn't improve my Latin or my botany! 

KATE BILLMORE, 3 Greenhill, Haxey, DONCASTER DN9 2JE 

lBoth Latin and vemacular names will be given from the next issue. Ed.l 

CYNTHIA EVELYN LONGFIELD (1896.199I). A TRIBUTB 

Cynthia Longfield died at her home, Park House, Castlemary, Cloyne, Co. Cork on 27 June, 1991 

aged 94. She had been a Life Member of the BSBI since 1932 and was the last of the l,ongfield 

family in East Cork (another branch had resided near Mallow, Co. Cork). The family home was the 

extensive demesne at Castlemary but a second home was maintained in Belgravia, London, where 

Cynthia was bom on 16 August, 1896. Cynthia Evelyn was the youngest of the three daughters of 

Alice (nde Mason) and Montifon Longfield. Her father, as well as being a manager and farmer of 

his estates, was a serving officer in the Life Guards hence the home in London. 

Cynthia was never subject to formal schooling, but instead she received her education at home 

from a succession of govemesses. She was a self-taught naturalist and during the months spent in 

the Irish countryside she foraged in hedges and woodland seeking caterpillars to rear. Although she 

took "a keen interest in botany" her concern was centred on birds and insects. In l,ondon, living near 

the Natural History Museum, she could compare her specimens with those in the museum's collection 

and had identifications confirmed. In this way knowledge was built up and progression was 

made to a high standard. Cynthia became well known in insect circles and this resulted in her acceptance 

as an amateur entomologist on the St George Expedition to the Pacifib Islands in 1924. She 

collected butterflies but concentrated on the Odonata (dragonflies and damsel flies). Following the 

expedition, she was recognised as a fully-trained field entomologist. Cynthia Longfield became an 

unsalaried Associate of the British Museum (Natural History) and, as a serious scientist, she was 

allowed to work full-time amonsst the collections. Durine World War II she was the local Fire 

officer in the Brompton area ani as officer-in-command'she direcred the Fire Brigade's full resources 

to the Museum, and was thus instrumental in saving the collections during tlie Blitz. From 

1948 to 1957 she was an Honorary Associate of the Museum. 

Later expeditions were made to the Mato Grosso of South America (1927), to SE Asia, Sri 

Lanka and other areas (1929), Canada (1929),Kenya, Uganda and the Congo (1934), and South 

Africa (1937). She anended many scientific meetings concemed with her subject. For a period she 

served as President of the l,ondon Natural History Society and on the Council of the Entomological 

Society. ln 1937 she published The Dragonflies of the British Isles, and there followed numerous 

papers on the Odonata over the years. She also did much field work with Colonel Niall MacNeill, 

who was at one stage head of Ordnance Survey of Ireland. She helped him with Odonata determinations 

and he too became an exDert. 

Cynthia Longfield had 'ample means' - a fully staffed house in London and a personal income 

on which to live and fund her travels. The income derived from the considerable family wealth. It is 

reponed that in 1850, Cynthia's grandfather owned "5,5fi) acres of land, more than 300 houses in 

the immediate vicinity of Castlemary, quarries, police barracks ...stretches of quays, Roman Catholic 

chapels, the Coastguard Station and Lighthouse at Ballycotton ...propeny in the city of Cork 

...the entire estate was recorded as being of 10,813 acres". Due to revision oflaws relating to land in 

Ireland, planter land was acquired for Lccal lan

Notes and Aniclcs 

'retired' 

In 1956 Cynthia tnngfield 

from her desk at the Natural History Museum and retumed 

to her home in Ireland. From that time until her death she lived at Park House on the Castlemary 

demesne. She continued to travel, to Holland (1958), Greece (1961), Malta (1967), Moscow (1968), 

and Canberra (1972). ln 1983 she was instrumental in the formation of the British Dragonfly Society. 

At about this time she donated many Odonata specimens to the Zoologicai section of the 

National Museum of Ireland and her entomological books to the Royal lrish Academy. Also 

throughout her navels, Cynthia collected plants and specimens for the Roy;Ll Botanic Gardens, Kew, 

the Natural History Museum and Tresco Gardens in Scilly. 

Cynthia l,ongfield is remembered by the present writer for her suppon for the meeting arranged 

in 1963 to inaugurate a branch of the BSBI in Ireland. At the meeting held in the Botany Department 

of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, when some voices pressed for two branches in Ireland, 

she spoke up and insisted that "this meeting elect one committee for the whole island". Her 

voice prevailed. In subsequent years she attended some field meetings of the BSBI's Irish Regional 

Branch. At these, when specimens had been examined and pressed in the late evening Cynthia, 

sitting quietly in a corner, would relate episodes from her travels. Her account of an encounter with 

a hippopotamus in Uganda and the capture of the rare Waiker's Swallow-tail bunerfly on an island 

in the Pacific remain in my memory. 

[Most of the above has been extracted from Madam Dragonfly - the life and times of Cynthia 

tongfield, written by Cynrhia's grand-niece, Jane Hayter-Hames and published by The Pentland 

Press, Durham in 19911. 

MAURA J.P. SCANNELL. DUBLIN 4 

HENRY AND OTHER BOGGARTS (OT HEINZ MEANZ ELVZ) 

Christopher Perraton's note about common names (BSB/ News 58: 9) has set me off on a wild 

goosefoot chase. (Unlike their omithological counterparts, such chases can have a successful outcome!) 

Mike D'Oyly and Malcolm Degg (BSBI News 59: 3 and 39) are surely right in implying that 

the best book about English folk names of plants is the late Ceoffrey Grigson's The Englishman's 

Flora, frst published in 1955. Unfortunately both the poorly-bound Paladin paperback edition 

(1975) and the beautifully produced facsimile edition published by Phoenix House in 1987 are now 

out of print, though the latter was (incredibly) remaindered and so may still be available somewnere. 

Grigson gives Boggart-flower and Boggart-posy as Yorkshire names for Dog's Mercury, 

Mercurialis perennis. He also gives Boggart as a Warwickshire name for Common Duckweed, 

Lemna minor, and says: "In Cheshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire children 

were scared away from dangerous ponds by talk ofJenny Green-teeth, a pond boggart or elf, whose 

presence under the surface was shown by the green water-carpet of the Duckweed." The Oxford 

English Dictionary (2nd ed., 1989, Vol. 2, p.359) gives boggard or boggart as "A word in populiu 

use in Westmoreland [slc], Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and the nonh midlands, and of occa 

sional appearance in literature since c 1570." It means "A spectre, goblin or bogy; in dialectal use, 

esp. a local goblin or sprite supposed to'haunf a particular gloomy spot, or scene ofviolence." The 

word is, it seems, unconnected with the obsolete boggard, meaning a privy, but related to bogle or 

boggle (the earliest of such goblin names, "being common in Scottish literature since 1500") and 

bogy or bogey (apparently a 19th-century nursery word). "The derivation of the whole group is 

uncertain," says the OED (VoI.2,p.360), explaining that "the primitive may be bogge", perhaps a 

variant of bug with its pre entomological meaning of a ghost, bugbear or hobgoblin, which may be 

from the Welsh bwg, listed in 1707 by Edward Lhwyd (or Lhuyd), after whom Lloydia serotina is 

named, as "Bug, A gftosr". Roald Dahl (1981) may have known this when he made George (of 

marvellous mdcl-'icine-fame; tell his Crandma that th; attic was "full of bugs and bogles". Bugbear, 

too, originally meant "A sort of hobgoblin (presumably in the shape of a bear) supposed to devour 

naughty children" (OED, Vol. 2, p.627). 

So why should Mercuriulis perennis be a goblin's plant? The clue may be in its generic name. 

Cato and Pliny describe the virtues of a plant, herba Mercurialis, most probably M. annua, called 

after the Roman god Mercury, who was later sometimes identified with Robin Goodfellow (Shakesoeare's 

Puck). Herb-Robert, Geranium robertianum, which also has several 'Robin' names (see 

Grigson), was another goblin's plant: its German name, Ruprechtskraut, shows that it is the plant 

of Knecht Ruprecht, a 'house goblin' who accompanies Santa Claus, carrying a stick for naughty 

26


children. One of the piano pieces in Roben Schumann's Jugend-Album, with "each phrase staning 

with a low, menacing rumble, rising on a crescendo and ending with two banging chords" (D.E. 

Coombe, pers. comm.), is entitled "Knecht Ruprecht". 

Jakob Grimm (1785-1863, of the fairy-tales) tells us that elves and goblins are often called 

Heinz or Heinrich and explains the German name for Chenopodium bonus-henricus, Guter Heinrich 

('Good Henry'), as showing its relationship to these sprites. "The healing powers of the plant 

have been attributed to such demoniac beings" (Aellen, 1979). Several other plants have 'Heinrich' 

names, e.g. Blauer Heinrich ('Blue Henry') for Echium\)ulgare, Eiserner Heinrich ('Iron Henry') 

for Verhena fficinalis and Stinkender Heinrich ('Stinking Henry') for Scrophularia nodosa', and 

local names for Chenopodium bonus-henricas include Schmotzeheiner or Schmotzehoele ('Diny 

Harry' or'Diny Hal') in the Schwiibische Alb - "since it favours growing on dung!" - and Schmal'ziger 

Heinl ('Greasy Harry') in Oberbayern - because of the "rather greasy, fatty leaves of the 

plant". Hegi (undated) says that the name Guter Heinrich "indicates that the plant grows near 

human habitations", since Heinrich means 'king of the home (or household)', just as Wegerich 

(Plantago) means'king of the road: but could not Heinrich be another'house goblin'like Knecht 

Ruprecht? Gilben-Carter (1964) has another explanation: "'Heinrich'of German mythology was 

troubled with skin disease, and perhaps the plant was used for cutaneous disorders." 

I may seem to have strayed a long way from Dog's Mercury; but, just as Annual Mercury, 

Mercurialis annua, was formerly French Mercurie, so Chenopodium bonus-henricas, growing in 

similar places and once used similarly as a purgative, was English Mercurie (Gerarde, 1597). 

Grigson gives Mercurv as a northern English name for it and the corruptions Margery from Lincolnshire 

and Marcaram fiom Yorkshire, as well as Smear Docken and Smiddy Leaves fiom 

Scotland (referring again to the plant's greasiness). He also gives Biiser Heinrich ('Bad Henry' or 

'Naughty 

Henry') as one of the German names for Mercurialis perennis, a derogatory one, like 

Dog's Mercury, the old herbalists' Cynocrambe (Greek for 'Dog-cabbage') 

and other names such 

as Adder's Meat from Henfordshire (see Grigson). because it was "not vsed in Phisicke" (Gerarde, 

1597) and is in fact highly poisonous. (Aellen gives this German name for Orobanche spp. instead.) 

By contrast, Chenopodlum bonus-henricus was "called . . . in English, Good Henry, and Algood" 

(Lyte, 1578). Gerarde (1597) gives these names too and adds that "in Cambridgeshire it is called 

()ood king Harry [sicl", but John Ray (1660), who was no royalist, has only "Common or English 

Mercury or All-good" in his catalogue of planrs growing around Cambridge. 

By the 19th century the version Good King Henry was firmly established in Bntish Floras, 

though other'book names', used with or instead of it, were Mercury Goosefoot, Perennial Goosefoot 

and Wild Spinach. Good Henry, like the French Bon Henri, seems to have been also originally 

a 'book name', being simply a ranslation of the pre-Linnaean Latin Bonus Henricus. itself 

probably adopted from the genuine folk name in German. Having no goblins of their own called 

Henry, our ancestors looked for someone else of that name. So *'hichKing Henry or Harry? Probably 

Henry VIII, as it seems too far-fetched to regard this as yet another attempt to sanctify a plant 

which had pagan associations - like 'christening' 

the Cuckoo Flower, Cardamine pratensis, as 

Lady's Smock (see Grigson) - by dedicating it to the saintly King Henry VI. And it is cenainly pure 

tantasy to see Fat Hen, a name used for various members of the Chenopodiaceae including 

C. bonus-lrcnriclrJ, as a disrespectful ref-erence to that ponly monarch, Henry VIII! 

I am very grateful to Dr David Coombe for translating the German of Hegi and Aellen for me 

and for providing information about Knecht Ruprecht. 

References 

Aellen, Paul ( 1979). Chenopodiaceae. ln: IlLnstrierte Floravon Mitteleuropa, by Gustav Hegi, Band 

III, Teil 2, 2nd fully rev. ed. Paul Parey, Berlin and Hamburg. (pp. 602-603, in translation). 

Cato, M. Porcius (ob. B.C. 149). De re rustica, 158. (OnAgriculture, pp. 150-153. I-oeb Classical 

Library. Heinemann, London, and Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Mass., 1934, repr. 

1967). 

Dahl, Roald (1981). George's MnryelkttLs Medicine. Jonathan Cape, London. 

Gerarde, John (1597). l'he Herball or Generall Hisnrie of Plantes. John Nonon, London. 

(pp.2s9-264). 

Gilbert-Caner, H. (1964). Clossary- of the British Flora.3rd ed. Cambridge University hess, Cambridge. 

(p. l4). 

Grigson, Geoffrey (1955). ?'he Englishrnan's F/ora. Phoenix House, London. 

27


Hegi, Gustav (undated: 1912). lllustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa, lil Band. J. F. Lehmann. 

Munich. (p.219, in translation). 

I huyd, Edwirrd (710i). Archaeobgia Britannica . . . Vol. I. Glossography. Oxford. (p.214). 

Lyte, Henry (1578). A Nievve Herball, or Historie of Plantes. tondon (printed in Antwcrp). 

(p.561). 

Plinius Secundus, C. (ob. A.D.79). HistoriaNaruralis,25, 18 (sections 38-42). (Natural Historv. 

Vol. Vil, pp. 164-167. Loeb Classical Library. Heinemann, London, and Harvard Universiiy 

Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1956, repr. 1966). 

Ray, John (1'66O). Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nnscentium. Cambridee and London. 

(p.23). 

ISBNs 

To answer Christopher Penaton's second question, about a consistent pattern in ISBNs, it must first 

be admitted that their rules (Standard Book Numbering Agency, 1985) allow either hyphens or 

spaces between the four sections of a number (though in fact all the hve examples he quotes have 

hyphens); but the ingenuity of the system lies precisely in the variation in length betwein the firsr 

three sections, well illustrated by his examples l, 3 and 5. (Peter Marren's book's ISBN i.s wrongly 

presented: it should t:e 0-71,53-9436-3.) The four sections are called Group Identifier, Publisher 

Prefix. Tirle Numbcr and Check Digit. The Group Identifiers for the UK and orher major English-language 

countries (e.g. Australia and the USA) are 0 and 1, for several German-speaking 

counfries 3, for Denmark 87, for Argentina 950 and for Cyprus 9963. Thus more of ttre ten dlgiti 

remain available in the numbers for books published in counfries that produce more books. ihe 

same principle applies to the Publisher Prefixes: 40 major English-language publishers (staning 

with Collins, 0-00) can have numbers for 1,000,000 titles, while minor publishers with six disiti 

{e.g. rhe BSBI.0-901t58) are given numbers foronly 100 rirles. 

^ 

Th9 Check Digit at the end allows a computer to check that ISBNS are correcily listed, almost 

infallibly, by multiplying the first digir by ten. the second by nine, and so on ro rh; ninth by two, 

then adding up the products, together with the Check Digit, and dividing rhe resulr by 1 1. If there is 

no remainder, the ISBN is accepted as correct. This requires I I possible Check Digits, so X is used 

for 10 (as in example 5). 

The system works even if the hyphens or spaces are omitted (as is done in European bar codes, 

where.the ISBN is preceded by the code for books, 978, and so has a different Check Digitt, because 

higher initial digits are used lbr longer numbers in the Group Identifier and Publishei Prefix 

(as in the examples given above), so that every l0-figure number ii unique. The ISBN for the book 

listed below is 0-949999-06-7, showing that the Agency has allocated ro itself the last six-figure 

Publisher Prefix (9500000 being the first seven-figure one) and by 1985 had used only seven rif its 

100 ISBNs (staning with 00 in the third section); six of these have been for the first six editions of 

this work. 

Malcolm Degg's "ISBN with 9 digits" (586 08209 3) is in fact an SBN: the sysrem was invenred 

in Britain and, when it became international, a zero was added at the beginning of all SBNs to make 

thern ISBNs. 

Reference 

Standard Book Numbering Agencv (1985). /SBN International Standard Book Numbering. 6th 

(rev.) ed. London. 

PHILIP OSWALD, 33 Panton Street, CAMBRIDGE CB2 IHL 

GRASS HAIRCUTS 

Youthful revelations by some BSBI members appeared in the May & December 1991 numbers of 

Plunt-Lore noks & news, edited by Roy Vickery, who gives his permission to reprinr exracts: 

Anthony Galton's description of stripping off all the spikelets from the flower spike of a grass, 

twisting the rough bristly central stem in someone's hair followed by a painful pull - 

'Chinese 

then called a 

haircut' - brought memories to Ray Woods and to David Allen. Ray, now an A.R.O. with 

the Countryside Council for Wales and a member of the The BSBI Committee for Wales, recalls 

2ti

Notes and Aniclcs 

that in nonh Derbyshire in the 1950s, the flowers would be stripped off the stalk of Alopecurus 

pratensis,leaving only the floret stalks on the stem; this, quietly twiddled into the hair of the chiid 

sitting in the desk in front - then a swift yank, would speedily remove all the hair attached. "Very 

painful!" Noting that it doesn't work with Phleum, Ray teils us that this was his first introduction to 

variability in grasses. 

For David Allen, ex-President and BSBI Historian, the note obviously brings back vividly 

painful memories from his Warwickshire preparatory school in the early Fonies. David describes 

the Alopecurus pratensis flowering just in time for use as an "instrument of torture" at the start of 

the summer terrn, lo be "deployed on heads intently watching cricket".... 

MARY BRIGGS. Hon. General Secretary 

TWO CORRECTIONS TO JOHN AKEROYD'S REVIEW OF CRUCIFERS OF 

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

I would like to make two corrections to the review of Crucifers of Greot Britain and lrelandby 

John Akeroyd (Watsonia l9: 48-49). 

First, the BSBI did not commission the Crucifer Handbook, and they took few risks to publish 

it. When I first proposed the Handbook in 1983, BSBI Publications Committee decided, quite 

rightly, that it would be unwise to risk a large capital outlay for illustrations on an unknown 2Z-year 

old. It was only after Pat Donovan, Graham Easy and Trevor Evans, and later Hilli Thompson, had 

agreed to do the drawings on a volunta.ry basis that I got backing from Publications Committee, and 

they retained the right not to publish it if it was beiow standard. The only risk that the Society took 

was in funding the production of camera-ready copy (after Anhur Chater had seen the draft manuscript) 

and then paying for the printing. The success ofthe Handbook is largely a tribute to the risks 

the artists took in doing the work, and I am more grateful to them than I can say. 

Second. Akeroyd overlooked a third account of a critical genus by other specialists - that of 

Erophila contributed by Filfilan and Elkington (and acknowledged as such on pages iii, 42 and 

2-56). I am also enormously grateful to these authors, and to Kery Dalby and Bengt Jonsell, for their 

assistance. 

Finally, I enjoyed John's definition of "convention" as his revision of Flora Europaea. D'are I 

suggest the opposite, thar Flora Europaea ed. 2 will depart from the convention established by the 

Crucifer Handbook? 

TIM RICH, 24 tombardy Drive, PETERBOROUGH PE1 3TF 

SESELI I NTRIC ATU M BOlss 

When Boissier made his remarkably productive joumey across the Spanish sierras in 1838 the most 

intriguing umbellifer species that he named was S. intricatum, which he discovered on the Sierra de 

Gador. He gave a full and accurate description in his ElenchLts, p. 48, but was unable to repon on 

the fruit, which had not yet developed at rhe time of his visit. 

It is impossible to say how many botanists have followed up Boissier's sighting in the intervening 

years, though, tojudge by the number of sheets in collections they have been exceedingly few. 

Flora Europaea II, -136, gives a perfunctory and less accurate paragraph, still stating 'fruit unknown'. 

In her treatise on Sese/i species in Spun (ktzaroa 3: 163-188 (1981)), Pardo repons her 

inability to locate the plant despite several visits to the siena. 

Such a species is bound to be irresistible to the enthusiast and, after doing some research, 

Manin and Sabina Gardner crossed the siena in October 1990. eastwards from the village of Castala. 

After 3-l wet and bumpy kilometres they reached a secondzLry peak known as Dos Hermanos and 

decided to turn back. However, on looking around the immediate vicinity, they found a few small 

plants of the Sese/i, easily recognised by its stiff habit. The plants were well over, brown, and had 

disoersed all their fruit. 

So, on 18th August, 1991, they returned to the spot, accompanied by C.G. Hanson and myself. 

There was more activity on the sierra in Boissief s time than at present, I should think, with shepherding 

and lead mining much in evidence. All that we saw were two pastoral buildings and three 

people, plus a radio transmitter s-ite. We were glad to find the little group of .!e.reli plants still inract, 

29

'I 

\ **" 't(. 

ir"1l 

-,& 

\ \i 

\ \\ 

I 

. tr',,, 

n\ 

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/L 

Seseli intricatum Boiss., del. C. Hogg O 1992 

nlr1, \ 

\i1\ 

I irl 

p) 

l0cm. - 

1.. 

I

Norcs and Anicles 

still in flower but already with well-developed fruit. Our search for more yielded a splendid colony 

of c.600 plants, up to 90cm tall and obviously on good ground in a quite prominent rib ofrocks. It 

is a rare experience to stand beside such a colony of so obscure a species in such a rcmote spot. The 

illustration (page 30) shows a relatively young plant, the fully mature individuals may raise six or 

more stems from an intricate, twiggy, glaucous base. 

Those who have vainly sought S. intricatum attribute its supposed downfall or extinction to 

affbrestation or lead-mining. We saw no active mining (but beware of deep pits!), and no young 

trees close to the colony. Ciearly, though, the distribution, status and vulnerability of this singular 

plant need to be estabiished, and measures for its conservation put into effect, before threats become 

calamities. 

MERVYN SOUTHAM, T2 Fareham Road, GOSPORT PO13 OAG 

THE PENNINE BRIDLEWAY. SSSI'S AT RISK 

In October l99l the Countryside Commission published detailed proposals for a new National Trail 

in Nonhem England and these have been submitted to the Secretary of State for approval. 

Among the sensitive sections ofthe linear route vulnerable to disturbance and trampling is Tam 

Moor, by Sunbiggin Tam nean Onon in the old county of Westmorland. In the Nature Conservation 

Review its unique ecology and rare vegetation warranted designation as a Grade 1 conservation 

area. There has been little material change since then to warrant a modification ofthat assessment. 

The Countryside Commission concedes that walkers and mountain-bikers will far outnumber 

the horse-riders for whom the 'Pennine Bridleway' ostensibly is intended and, undoubtedly, their 

propensity to wander will be impossible to control on this open and unfenced moorland. 

During a consultation period of over twelve-months, English Nature have been unsuccessful in 

negotiating an alternative route to avoid this Grade I site and have sent formal objections to the 

Secretary of State. Cumbria Wildlife Trust, who only recently leamed of the detailed proposals, 

have also sent strong objections. 

English Nature and the RSPB are lhe only two organisations representing conservadon interests 

who were consulted by the Counryside Commission. On the other hand, thiny-two user-organisations 

have submitted written comments presumably of a supportive nature. 

The discrepancy in numbers, together with the limited consultations regarding the environmental 

impact of such a Trail suggest an unfair bias, detrimental to conservation interests. BSBI 

members may believe it necessary to redress the balance. If in their view, the conservation of a 

distinctive Grade I habitat should take precedence over damaging leisure activities which could be 

re-located, it would be helpful to send written objections to the Secretary of State for the Environment 

without delay. 

PAULINE M. ATKINS, Golbreck, Brough Sowerby, KIRKBY STEPHEN, Cumbria CA17 4EG 

CUTTING ROADSIDE VERGES 

I thoroughly agree with Keith Hyatt (BSBI News 59: 44) about cutting roadside verges late, so 

allowing most plants to seed, except on comers, bends and junctions where shon vegetation is 

needed for safety reasons. Such uncut verges are atrractive to butterflies. But there is a snag! Councils 

usually are nol prepared to remove the cut herbage, which, after 3 or more months' growth, can 

be quite considerable. If left on the verge, the vegetation will stan to deteriorate and many of the 

artractive flowers will disappear. Local volunteers or a willing conservation-minded farmer may be 

persuaded to do this not very easy task. But if not. how can one get over this problem? 

EDGAR MILNE-REDHEAD, Manins, Great Horkeslev, COLCIIESTER, Essex CO6 4AH 

DOROTHEA EASTWOOD (1912-1961) - A MEMOIR 

"l rnay wish to be remembered. but don't expect it" she once wrote. But Dorothea Eastwood should 

nor be forgotten, just over 30 years since her too early death, of cancer. Nothing appeared in print 

about her then and it is high time that this remarkable woman had her praises sung. For she was a 

-ll


gifted painter. poetess, writer, botanophil (as she called herself) and a warm percipient personality, 

with a good sense of humour. 

She was born in Vancouver on l7 March l9l2 Constance Butler (and a gt gt gt-niece of Elizabeth 

Fry) but after 19 ye;Lrs changed to Dorothea, Doro as her friends called her. ln 1934 she married 

John Eastwood, OBE, KC, MP, 25 years her senior, who died in 1952, a most happy marriage. 

Their son Hugo was bom in 1935. 

Irler first book, River Diary tn 1950, was warmly welcomed by the reviewers, based on the 

fishing hut they had by the River Usk. Mirror of Flowers followed in 1953, and enchanted and 

enchanting disquisition on wild flowers, as I wrote in a review of it. Then in 1956 came Valley rf 

Springs with more on the fishing hut but, as before, with constant mention of wild flowers. One of 

her paintings is on the dust jacket. Finally in 1958 The Story of our Gardens was published, an 

excellent original account. 

Since at least the early days of the war, she was contributing poems to Country Life,Time and 

Tide, New English Weekly, Daily Telegraph Anthology of Country LiJb, Cornhill and Poetr-r 

Quarterly. A book of 40 of more than 200 of them was published privately, posthumously, in 1963 

by her cousin Hugh, all moving and intensely felt, some almost mystic. It included black and white 

reproductions of her paintings, two of them Foetid Iris and Meadow Cranesbill. 

One of her poems is to lris sr1*losa: 

Through the precarious sunlight of December, 

Unsheathing, unsheathing. 

Drawing your blade of petals from the silk-edged scabbard, 

Cleaving the cold sea-cleamess of day 

With your delicate nakedness. 

Then suddenly, exquisite conjuror, 

There's a noiseless unfurling, 

A loosening and streaming of banners of blue; 

And behold!, Your blade of petals flares and fallsi 

Now swords your unnoticed leaves! 

and many others have perceptive allusions to flowers and animals. 

Her painting, poetry and prose each merit a separate appreciation; here most will be devoted to 

her life-long passion for wild flowers. She *'rote of a suddenly increased andjoyful vision on seeing 

Water Buttercups when she was 5 or 6. Then came four years back in Vancouver (where she also 

noted flowers) and very soon after her penrup enthusiasm was let loose on British ones. She entered 

in her Fitch's Illustrations to 'Bentham and Hooker' when and where she saw them, colouring in 

many of them. Her first enu--v is dated l6 Jan. 1923, when she was 10, and on 27 March she found, 

on her own, her first rare plant, Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem (Gagea luteu). She was 16 when she ltrst 

met the redoubtable Dr Druce, and later had contacts with such knowledgeable people as Lady 

Davy, Mrs Foggitt, Mrs Richards, Miss Vachell and professionals at the Museums, such as Mr 

Alston. Mr Nelmes and Mr Wade. 

lt is surprising that such an active plant lover with a total inability to remember Latin names (or 

so she claimed, in her typical deprecatory way), who said she could never master the umbellifers, 

did not belong to the Wild Flower Society. Her cousin Alethea was a long-standing member, with 

whom she often stayed at Newtimber in Sussex and on Scottish holidays; and she cenainly knew its 

Wild Flower Magazine 

The stories she relates with verve and kindly mockery of her searches fbr flowers ire richlv 

entertaining, for example of her visit to the Tower of London in July l94ti, and of her determined 

and, on 15 April 1949 successful attempts to see rhe Purple Saxifrage (Suxilraga oppositiJitLiu) in 

the Brecon Beacons. On 20 February 1950 she set herself to list in six months the wild tlowers 

within three miles of the Cavalry Club. The adventures this Ied to are told with zest in 34 pages of 

the Mirror, for example in Battersea Park, or during a garden pany at Buckingham Palace in May. 

Here she listed half a dozen waterside plants, almost the first to be noted from there. "To pull thc 

tinkling bell in the wall beside the wrought-iron gate of the Chelsea Physic Garden" was one of her 

chief London pleasures, but she was allowed to count only l,esser Duckweed from there. The Natural 

H'istory Museum helped her name the waterweeds fished out of Kensington Gardens, another 

well told tale. In the end her total was an astonishine I54. 

-12

Notes md Articles 

In the Mirror she shows what a great deal she had learnt of old botanical books (another of her 

interests.;, of old botanists, of the meanings of English and Weish names and much else, delightfully 

readable and informative. It is the same with her history of gardens. Why have none of her books 

been reprinted? 

She noted that she had seen 374 flowers rn 1923, when she was 11,656 by the next year, and 

119 by '1925, evidence of immense keenness. Her vigorous hunts were halted for a while after her 

marriage, but the burnin,q passion was rekindled in 1948 and went on for the rest of her life. There 

are 1315 species in the Fitch Illustrations, some of them from lreland and Channel Islands, which 

she never visited. Dorothea noted date and place for no fewer than 993 of them, colouring in 343. In 

fact she saw over 1000, for Bentham was a lumpcr, and at least ten others are alluded to in her 

writings. One of these, the Himalayan Balsam, she drew, and its depiction is in the "Mirror" along 

with two others of her drawings of plants. In 194tt she started colouring in the drawings in Stella 

Ross-Craig'." Drau,ings oJ British Plunts and kept this up for the rest of her life, some l4 parts. 

These, and the Fitch lllustrations, are in the possession ofher son. 

She is mentioned as having contributed ro the Hand List of the Plants of the London Area in 

1951, and to rhe Historical Flora of Middlesex of 1975. Having joined the Botanical Society of the 

British Isles in 1949, she wrote a hilarious five pages in the "Mirror" of one of their field meetings 

{iom Czrlisle, and four pages on another from Monmouth in June 1951 in the "Valley of Springs", 

both, as usual, with her witty tongue in cheek. 

I did meet her once or twice, but did not then realise that she was much more than a charming 

woman with a like-minded interest. She endeared hereself to all she met, not the least her cousin, 

Hugh, the present Duke of Grafton, to whom I am indebted for much help, as I am to her younger 

sister, Mrs Charles Ashton, to her, and my, cousin Lady Alethea Eliot (n6e Buxton) and above all to 

her son, Hugo. 

DAVID McCLINTOCK, Bracken Hill, Platt, SEVENOAKS, Kent TN15 8JH 

THE BLUEBELL LOGO 

The December issue of BSBI News 59: 4 (1991), informs members that the bluebell logo of the 

Society had been redrawn, redesigned and published on the cover of the Year Book for 1992.'fhe 

earlier drawing, much enlarged and almost actual size, was noticed previously on the cover of 

Botanicul Books from Oundle, Autumn 1991. Unfonunately both the earlier and the redrawn logo 

show incorrect morphology of the bluebell flower. In the original drawing,the lowest flower is 

depicted as a campanulate form, a 5-merous perianth with 5 patent tips. The Year Book, a better 

drawing - also shows a 5-merous perianth with the tips now pointed and reflexed, an indication that 

there was an attempt at improvement. 

Classification in the higher plants is based on gross morphology. The Liliaceae is characterised 

as having actinomorphic flowers of uniform floral structure, with 'perianth segments 6', united at the 

base. The logo does not reflect the structure of the bluebell flower - the symbol of the Society. Even 

a logo should be correct. Nehemiah Grew, physician and author of the celebratedThe Anatont.r of 

PLants with an idea of a Philosophicul History of plantr..... (1682) stated: 

"...So that for the Use here intended. those Prooerties are the fitest to be 

insisted upon, which are the most Conspicuous. and in those Parts, where 

the Irarner may the most readily and without any difficulty take notice 

of them: as in the Flower and Leaf." 

MAURA SCANNELL. Dublin 4 

lThis unfonunate error has now been corrected. Ed. I 

BSBI & CONSERVATION : TO BE OR NOT TO BE 

The Irish antithesis (BSBI News 59: 51) is only partially valid. Of course the experts must do their 

own thing and not allow their expenise to be wasted. But to imply (perhaps unintentionally) that 

members of conservation bodies are a set of ignoramuses emotionally motivated by a slogan is to 

disregard entirely the considerable number of expen botanists, including BSBI members, who have 

been and are currentlv engaged actively in conservation work. Obviously lobbying, campaigning, 

-f -1

Notcs and Anicles 

publicity, education and reserve acquisition and management must principally be the province of the 

'big battalions'. But big is not necessarily beautiful. It does not tale more than a handful of determined 

and dedicated conservatiorlists, even without resources, to achieve an urgent and on-the-spot 

rescue of a habitat (see ref. below). 

It doesn't matter if we are small, as long as we are reputable and not freaks. In fact, as imponant 

as the number of people protesting against an unsatisfactory development is the number of 

organisations doing so. So our expenise can be utilized as suggested by Dr Phillips and Mrs Briggs, 

our man-power as far as there are willing conservationist members, and our cash resources as far as 

the Treasurer oermits. 

For recording, surveying and even monitoring are in these changed times not enough. The 

bulldozer moves in before a survey is even contemplated. After that, there is nothing to record. 

Reference 

Gravestock, I.F. (1986). Nature Conservation in the Bristol Region. Proceedings ofthe Bristol 

N aturalists' S ociery 46: 26-32. 

I.F. GRAVESTOCK, 8 Cranleigh Gardens, Stoke Bishop, BRISTOL B59 IHD 

BOTTOMISTS STRIKE AGAIN! 

The Hon. Gen. Secretary's note ("Botanists sit on a rarc orchid") in BSBI News 59 reminds me..... 

In 1954 John Raven, in a sort of stag pany before his wedding, assembled his father (the 

Canon), Dr Dick Burges and myself for a botanical tour of the west of lreland. The highlight of the 

trip was to be the finding of Inula salicina on the shores of Lough Derg. I don't believe that any of 

us had seen the plant before, and I for one envisaged something two feet tall with a large yellow 

sunflower on top. In an hour's search nothing of the kind had appeared, when the Canon gave a 

great cry "l've got it!". The scattered searchers rushed towards where the Canon was sitting on the 

ground. The doctor (a large man) -qot there first, plumped himself down and cried "where is it?" An 

agonised shriek came from the Canon: "You're sitting on it!" And indeed he was; but the four 

miserable little stems were only six inches tall and flowerless. We found no more, but managed, 

with great care, to straighten the doctor s victlms. 

DICK DAVID, 50 Highsen, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1NZ 

ALIENS AND ADVENTIVES 

ALIENS AND ADVENTIVES NEWS: PLANT RECORDS 

Thank you again for all communications good, bad, extraordinary and invariably enjoyable. Oh, but 

what a fascinating habitat we are for unusual specimens. I still receive leners without s.a.e.'s and I 

have even received an s.a.e. without a letter. I still gasp at people's automatic expectations and 

presumptions which are more alien to my nature than the Man Orchid on the Moon. And I still 

smile at he and she who would cross words or cross swords or just be cross for its own delight. 

Except that anything "crossed" could result in sterility...D 

Your mail is always welcome, but please don't lose touch with my introductory anicles in 858/ 

News 57, otherwise we risk misunderstandings and we yield less than maximum benefit from our 

correspondence. And when rhat unforgettable day befalls when the 'thing' greets your eager eye - 

yes, it's new to Britain, and it's new to planet Earth and it's incredible, spectacular and profusely 

abundant - why, it would be so nice to find a seed packet snugly enclosed with the record! Anyway, 

talking of records... 

R.P. Bowman kindly sent me the fbllowing fiom v.c. I l: 

Bupleurum rotundifolium, three plants on grassy foorpath at base of manure heap on edge of field, 

Weckock Farm, Lovedean, 1987. Not refound (site sprayed) in 1991. May I incidentally thank 

those who responded to my brief article on this species (BSBI News 58) which drew attention to 

34

Alrens and Adventives 

its use in wrcaths. It is cultivated in Holland and imported for the purpose. It is not the only 

funereal Umbellifer we may encounter; Ammi visrnga tumed up in similar circumstances a year 

later! 

Silene armeria, on disturbed waste ground outside a housing estate at Swaythling, Southampton, 

1988, det. S.M. Walters. In my own experience, seeds of this can lie dormant for many years, 

germinating readily as soon as lhe soil is disturbed. 

Silene coeli-rosa, on bare shingle near car park, South Hayling Island, 1989, det. E.J. Clement. 

Cotula coronopifolia, on sandy shingle at driftline at Tipner, Portsmouth Harbour, 1991. Another 

annual species capable of long seed dormancy, but it is exposed mud which stimulates growth 

in this casel many botanic gardens have witnessed such behaviour. 

Nepeta mussinil, on dry west bank of A32 just SE of the creek near Town Quay, Fareham, 1991, 

det. E.J. Clement. 

Alliumampeloprasam, fourteen plants on roadside at Green Lane, Clanfield, 1991, det. E.J. Clement 

as A. babingtonii. The bulbils of this make a mean weed on my roof garden. 

Ambrosia artemisiifitlia, garden weed, possibly brought in with mushroom composr, ar Garstons 

Closc, Titchfield, 1991. 

Chorispora tenella, sma\l group of plants on newly built bank of soil sown with ryegrass, at edge of 

saltmarsh, Langstone, 1991, det. T.C.G. Rich. 

R. Kelsey wrote to me from v.c. 23 with the following: 

Dipsacus laciniatus, several plants growing beside the track at Charlbury railway station, 1989 and 

1990, det. J. Killick & E.J. Clement as rather atypical. How magnificent - oh for a seed packetl 

Mrs A.C. Gregory from Stoughton, lricester (v.c. 55) observed Scorpiurus muricatus under a bird 

table in 1991. It is one of our less common bird-seed aliens and an attractive curiosity to cultivate. 

J.R. Palmer's regular contribution from v.c. 16 neverceases to amaze (and amuse), especially when 

a list of over 200 observations is accompanied by a letter apologising for a decline in botanical 

activity. Great stuff, John, and I must come down and see all your Kentish Cotoneasters in flower 

before too iong. Herewith a gentle selection from thc list: 

Phacelia campanulata, in plantation of small trees E of Swanley, 1990, det E.J. Clement. 

Nerine bowdenii, on bank between road and footpath at Farningham, 1990 (? status). 

Clrcnopodium hirr:inum, rubbish tip, Stone, 1990, det E.J. Clement. 

Elodea canadensis x E. nuttallii?, described as leaves opposite in threes, but very strongly recurved, 

from Littlebrook Marshes, 1990. E.J. Clement also thinks it could be this; if so it must have 

been introduced as such, since hybridization is not possible in British rivers. Do we have yet 

another waterweed taxon which could be widesoread? 

Narcissus x hawert, quite well naturalised in small grassy copse by car park, South Darenth, 199i. 

H y o scy amus nig e r, field weed, Sutton-at-Hone, 1 99 1. 

Campanula planifulia,on a wall by footpath, Bronley, 1991. 

Rosa glauca (the purple-leaved rose), seedling in Dickerson's Wood, Bromley, 1991. I have also 

seen this self-sown in London. 

Osmaronia cerasiformis, Chislehurst Common, first found 1988; one colony now has twenty plants, 

1991. Londoners may be interested toconsult a hne suckering thicket of this unusual North 

American species planted by the south boundary ofDulwich Park. A deciduous rosaceous shrub 

to 2m, its tiny, white and surprisingly fragrant flowers are produced in pendulous racemes 

together with new leaves from late February through March. Some works describe it under the 

genus Oemleria. 

Echinops sphaer

Aliens and Adventives 

Cotoneaster pannostts, seedlings seen in central Dartford, 1991. 

Berberis darwinii, B. julianae and B. thunbergii, all producing numerous seedlings at car park, 

l-owfield Street, Dartford, 1991. To date, I have seen only the last of these species do likewise 

in London localities. 

I'll just round off with a single observation of my own, the first of 1992, namely an abundance of 

Cotoneaster bacillaris seedlings seif-sown in Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith, London, v.c.21, 

their leaves only partially deciduous during the mild January. 

BRIAN WURZELL, 47 Rostrevor Avenue, Tottenham, LONDON N15 6LA 

SPRING FLOWERTNG CROCUSES 

Spring-flowering crocuses abound in every London borough. Even amidst our greyest residential 

quarters, few are the streets which fail to wam the chill of an early month with at least several 

colourful clumps in somebody's front yard. Better still, most of our broader grassy verges, public 

gardens and municipal parks regularly greet the eye with hundreds, even thousands of similarly 

colourful clumps. Many are not only planted but also escaped, self-sown or naturalised. But what do 

we call them? 

For over twenty years, they totally confused me! So abundant they were, so hardy and so enjoyable 

at every tum - and yet every one was unnameable? Until the early eighties, had our literature 

ever done fulljustice to their identification even as garden plants in this country, let alone as aliens? 

Enlightenment came slowly... gradually. Bowles (1924) gives a fascinating historical background on 

the intricacies of Crocus nomenclature, but proves not so very helpful when it comes to identifying 

fresh material. In April 1961, I visited that famous meadow at Warley Place, Essex, to gaze, dazed 

and amazed, at a purple panorama beyond imagination. This was my dramatic introduction to 

unquestionable Crocus vernw. (I've heard that a similar colony thrives at Inkpen, Berks.). Yet this 

fond memory sorely misled me, for even by April 1981, I was still somehow not reconciling such a 

uniform small-flowered rural population with the many-and-variously-coloured large-flowered 

forms ubiquitous both in and out of urban cultivation. Surely they could not all be the same? But it 

seems they are. C. vernus sensu lato apparently comprises a confusing cluster of ecotypes, genotypes 

and all sorts of types, and, pending more detailed research, I guess we have to be broadminded 

enough to accept them within the one species. Rix and Phillips (1981) illustrate five forms 

of which the cultivars 'Remembrance' (rich dark purple), 'King of the Whites' (pure white), and 

'Pickwick' (very pale lilac with pattern of dark lines on back) are certainly the commonest in London. 

The original wild subspecies (the Warley plant) is illustrated on a separate plate. All flower 

from late February to early April in an average season. So the mystery of the purple crocuses is... 

solved? 

Secondly, there was the mystery of the big bright yellow ones. Again they were common 

everywhere; again they were enigmatic. Almost as an anticlimax to decades of taxonomic frustration, 

I leamed at last that they are simply called'Golden Yellow'. And that's official. Some people 

call them 'Dutch Yellow' or 'Yellow Giant' instead. Mathew (1982) also confirms that they are 

Crocus flavw x C. angustifuilas which is a much more satisfying epithet to have waited all this 

time for. They do vary, both in size and in the intensity of yellow pigment, although, with each 

plant being sterile, there is nothing like the same range of forms as is found in C. venxas. Stace 

(1991) describes C.flavus but refers to C. flavus x C. angustifolirs and acknowledges its widespread 

occurrence. To date, all the piants I've seen naturalised in l-ondon fit this hybrid. Its normal flowering 

time is from late February to early April, but during a frost-free winter it may begin in January. 

Crocus tommasinianus also took ages to learn. For years there were these 'slender pale mauve 

ones all over the place', and for years there were also these illustrations in nursery catalogues which 

looked kind of like... but nothing was ever certain. So I entered a well-known supermarket and 

bought a packet of bulbs with a pretty picture on it (to such depths must the scientific researcher 

plunge?). These bulbs knew exactly when and how to behave in my garden, and thus I eventually 

made personal acquaintance with the species. Elsewhere, I have since notedflowers of C. tommasinianus 

ranging from deep violet to snow white, although always with a clear white perianth tube. I 

have also been impressed by naturalised colonies of fair size, especially along shady, lightly wooded 

parkland verges where the soil is not heavily compacted. Again, weather permitting, the plants are 

at their best betwee n early February and mid-March. 

36


Crocus tommasinianus x C. vernus exists. This hybrid may be new to BSBI literature, but it is 

recorded by Mathew (1982), is a known constituent of commercial bulb mixtures, and is part of my 

own experience while exploring urban cemeteries. Though C. tommasinianru typically commences 

flowering two to three weeks earlier than C. vernus, there is enough overlap for cross-pollination to 

occur, so spontaneous introgression will occasionally be observed. Hybrids have a perianth intermediate 

in size, slightly broader than normal C. tommasinianas, slightly paler than normal C. vernus, 

and with a delicately blue-lilac tube. Whether they have any degree of fenility or not has yet to 

be ascertained. 

Much greater taxonomic difficulties attend the variable C. chrysanthus, the even more variable 

C. biflorus and the whoie profusion of anificial hybrids which have arisen between them. The 

colour differences between the species are a partial guide to their identification (Stace 1991). Various 

representative forms are grown in l-ondon; they all naturalise rnd they ail flower between late 

February and mid-March, coinciding with the other taxa already mentioned. In the wild (South 

Europe and Turkey), C. chrysanthus and C. biJlorus have different ecological preferences. They 

rarely grow together and spontaneous hybrids are uncommon (Mathew 1982). However the creation 

of hybrids in cultivation is well documented (Bowles 1924) and well illustrated (Rix & Phillips 

1981); it centres upon the co-ordinated efforts of E.A. Bowles at Myddelton House, Enfield, 

Middlesex, and John Hoog at Zwanenburg Nurseries, Haarlem, Holland. Myddelton House is now 

the headquaners of the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and the famous garden is in process of 

being restored to the honicultural haven cherished by its past owner. But only three miles southwards, 

by the old Church Lane in Tottenham, there lies a wide grassy strip where many of these 

same 'Bowles' crocuses (and others) have become sufficiently established to merit analysis rn BSBI 

News. 

On Febru:ry 21st 1992, I revisited this remarkable site, together with Laura Andrew, natural 

history illustrator, and with David Bevan, conservation officer for the L,ondon Borough of Haringey. 

The annual panorama ofcrocuses was again impressive, although not quite as spectacular as 

when I first stared in stark bewilderment over fifteen years ago. They all look wild now. We don't 

know who planted the original bulbs, but we can begin to deduce what they are made of. 

C. chrysanthus itself is represented by its pure yellow form, by two of the forms with dark 

linear 'bird's-wing' markings below ('Saturnus' and,/or 'Gypsy Girl' - are these hybrids?) and, most 

numerously, by a pale cream form (probably'Cream Beauty' which might also be a hybrid). The last 

is our commonest member of the chrysanthus or chrysanthus/biflorus group to be found as an 

escape in the London area generaily. 

The most obvious example of C. chrysanthu^s x C. biflorus, however, combines delicate shades 

of yeliow from the former species with delicate shades of lilac fiom the latter. This rather dusky 

combination actually makes it one of the least showy forms present at Church Lane. It occurs as 

isolated individuals throughout the population, and it approximates to the Bowles plant called 

'Advance'. 

Pure white flowered members of the group ('Snow Bunting'?) may be albinos either of 

the hybrid or of either of the parents; we cannot decide which. Several dwarf purple and yellow 

bicoloured ones may also be of the same parentage. 

Two very different forms of C.. hiflorus are evident and locally numerous. One has segments 

white above and conspicuously 'bird's-wing' pencilled in dark purple below; this is the subspecies 

biflorus, a relatively tall plant (to 20crn) with long tubes and leaves. The shorter, more compact one 

has broader and unilirrmly pale lilac segments and would fit e ither subspecies adamii or'Blue Pearl' 

(syn. 

'Blue Giant'). 

In all, m

Aliens and Adventrves 

heart-warming and historic landmark within Tottenham's own rgreyest residential quarters'. Next 

year, we shall endeavour to study it further. 

It is not only noteworthy but quite extraordinary to consider that, here in London, nearly all the 

crocuses I've discussed are capable of thriving and actually regenerating on urban earth which is so 

shoe-caked, dog-fouled and litter-strewn that even Loliutn perenne may find itseif (literally) hardpressed 

to survive. So tender and ephemeral do these crocuses appear to be, so exotic and vulnerable, 

yet they hold their ground, year after year, exactly where most British weeds stand not a 

chance. Such success is made possible only by winter development, spring climax and summer 

dormancy. This rhythm protects each plant from facing the funher stresses of heat, drought and 

competitive herbage. All the fenile species can reproduce both sexually and vegetatively in trodden 

ryegrass lawns, while C. tommasinianzs seedlings are liable to become panicularly invasive in 

disturbed soil. Sterile 'Giant Yellows' reproduce just vegetatively in the same conditions. However, 

studies at Church Lane in late Spring, 1991, revealed that members of the chrysanthuslbiflorus 

group produce thousands of tiny seedlings amidst vigorous carpets of Loliwn and Poa. There was 

no precise way to identify either parents or progeny. And only a few of the latter mature in siru. 

By and large, Crocus fruits are scantily described; some authors don't mention them at all. 

Admittedly, their study is physically, even psychologically, rather effort-demanding. In mid-May, 

when ali other vegetation is iuxuriating rapidly, one first has to remember where the crocus flowers 

had been two months earlier. One then has to assume a relatively autumnal state of mind, kneel 

down in the developing grass, scrabble about for withering russet-brown foliage, and pick up the 

crisp little torpedo-shaped seed capsules which are formed almost or quite at ground level. When 

ripe, these capsules open into three lobes which spread horizontally, then arch downwards, each to 

reveal two rows ofrather large seeds. Covered with a sticky sweet mucus, these seeds are no sooner 

dropped than carried away by ants eager for their own refreshment. Thus dispersed, they will, early 

the following year, germinate either with or soon after the re-awakening of their parents. And the 

whole cycle happens annually, ifnot abundantly, on those open city expanses conventionally disparaged 

as'green desert'. 

Of course, although I have monitored these plants more closely in London than elsewhere, most 

of them are grown and naturalised throughout the U.K. In rural areas their flowering seasons will be 

correspondingly later. But in all areas they may hopefully be appreciated as much for their botany 

and biology as for their beaury. For in some respects they have been surprisingly neglected. They 

also make the most suoerb herbarium sDecimens. 

Again , I'd like to extend speciaf thanks to rhe Hiringey Parks and Conservation staff who 

legitimatised our gathering of those plants which Laura Andrew has so skilfully drawn for the front 

cover. It has given us a great deal of pleasure to introduce the new year with this lovely genus. 

References 

Bowles, E.A. (1924). A Handbook of Crocus and Colchicurn for Gardeners. Reprinted by Waterstone, 

London (1985). 

Mathew, B. (1982). The Crocus, Batsford, l,ondon. 

Rix, M. & Phillips, R. (1981). The Bulb Book,Pan, London. 

Stace, C.A. (1991). New Flora of the British Isles, Cambridge. 

BRIAN WURZELL, 47 Rostrevor Avenue, Tonenham, London N15 6LA 

EHRHARTA ERECTA Lam. IN EAST SUFFOLK 

On 29th August 1991, while on holiday staying with my parents in Woolverstone, East Suffolk (v.c. 

25), I found some plants of the grass Ehrharta erecta in the garden of the next door house. The 

plants were growing at the base of the east-facing side of the house in the crack between the wall 

and the tarmac, which completely surrounds the house, along a length of about a metre. The only 

associated species was Hordeum murinumL. 

Specimens were collected and sent to Eric Clement, who kindly confirmed the identification. 

Vouchers have been deposited in BM and in Herb. E. & M. Hyde. Mrs Hilli Thompson also generously 

agreed to draw the specres. 

The following description has been adapted from Launert (1971). 

A variable perennial, which because of the slight rootstock may appear annual. Culms 

40-100cm tall, geniculately ascending. Ligule 4-7mm, obtuse or truncate, often lacerate. Leaf 

38

A 

rll 

tn 

[, 

Lr;ri ii .Li!i 

^'f 

II 

!t 

\{ 

Y 

/.^^,' 

r.l 

\r 

fanrt 

N 

\ \ii \ 

Alicns and Adventives 

c q 

q 

0 

\ 

Ehrharta erectaLam., del. Hilli Thompson @ ),992


laminae 4-20 x 0.2-1,.tcm, glabrous or very rarely scattered pilose, very narrowly lanceolate to 

linear, auricled at the base, the auricles with a dark-brown margin and scattered bristles. Panicle 

6-20cm long, branches distant, unequal. Spikelets 4-5.75mm long (but see below), light green. 

Glumes unequal, the lower 3-3.6mm, the upper 3.5-4.5mm long. Florets 3, the lower 2 reduced 

to empty lemmas which are com-rgated to a varying degree to completely smooth. Fertile 

lemma (the third) c.5.5mm long, 5-nerved. 

E.erectahasageneralappearanceof aMelicaoraPoa.The plantsfoundatWoolverstonehadthe 

second lemma markedly corrugated and the spikelets were slightly smaller than the norm 

(2.8-3.8mm). 

E. erecta is native to South Africa, extending northwards through East Africa to India. It is also 

naturalised in southern Europe, Australia and North America. Eric Clement adds that T.B. Ryves 

has recorded it fiom Britain as a shoddy alien but can trace no other records. This is the first Suffolk 

record. 

How this plant arrived here is a mystery. At the time it was found, the house itself had been 

empty for many months, its garden neglected, apart from lawn-mowing and hedge-cutting. For this 

reason and because of its position in a crack, it seems unlikely that the grass was planted deliberately. 

On the other hand, the species is included in Volume II of the European Garden F bra and in 

the Supplement to RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Although the grass appears to have little decorative 

appeal, horticultural origin is just possible. Eric Clement notes that Cambridge Botanic Garden 

were growing it in 19t11 (Yeo & King 1981) but he knows of no nursery catalogue offering it. 

A funher possibiiity is that the grass was somehow accidentally introduced by the Hyde family 

from southem Africa. I have seen E. erecta in the Vumba mountains of Eastem Zimbabwe. where it 

is a native plant, but have never deliberately taken to Britain any material, either living or dried. The 

two houses are some 25 metres apart, which makes accidental introduction by the Hydes even less 

likely. A search was made of both gardens, but no further plants came to light. 

I am very grateful to Eric Clement and Mrs Enid Hyde for their help in writing this note and to 

Mrs Hilli Thompson for the drawing which accompanies it (see page 39). 

References 

Launert, E. (1971). Ehrharta.In: FloraZambesiaca, Vol. 10, Pt 1, ed. A. Fernandes, E. Launen & 

H. Wild, pp. 39-41. Crown Agents, London. 

Yeo, P.F. & King, C.J. (1981). Catabgue of plants in the Cambridge University Botanic Carden. 

Cambridge Botanic Garden. 

MARK HYDE,29 Harry Pichanick Drive, Alexandra Park, HARARE, Zimbabwe 

BUPLEURUM ROTUNDIFOLIUM AS A CUT FLOWER 

You don't have to be dead to have a vase of Bupleurum rotundifolium (BSBI News 58: 39) - my wife 

had hers in the summer of 1990! 

I ordered my seed in December 1989 from the 1990 edition of Thompson & Morgan's seed 

catalogue. Bupleurum rotundifoliwn - as the cv. 'Green Gold' - was listed (and illustrated) with a 

description which included the following: 

"... It is a beauty of the border in sun or fairly shaded areas where its fashionable form and 

colouring are magnificent and it quickly yields abundant material for cutting and arranging." 

Who could resist a description like that? And it proved to be justified. 

I failed to save seed at the end of 1990 but it self-sowed (though not sufficiently to put it back 

on the British list!) and I had enough plants for cutting and seed saving in 199 I . 

As the species was new to me I took a specimen for my herbarium and also sent one, under the 

cv. name, to Eric Clement. His comment was: "... it looks like the normal wild form to me - rather 

than a cv." 

Incidentaly, Bupleururn rotundifoliurn is regularly on sale at the flower stall outside Charing 

Cross Station. On one occasion I also noticed bunches of an Amaranthus so. similarlv on sale it 

looked very much like A. rerrtf!erus. Whar will be the next unlikely find? 

DAVID NICOLLE, 15 Parkhurst Road, BEXLEY, Kent Dn 5 IAX 

10


AN OVERLOOKED ASH 

One tree not mentioned in Professor Stace's excellent New Flora is the Narrow-leaved Ash, Frarinus 

angustifolia Vahl. It looks very like our native ash, except that the buds are dark brown rather 

than black, and the leaflets are more coarsely toothed, so the number of teeth is about equal to the 

number of lateral veins. Like Alnus incana and A. cordifulia, F. angustifolia is quite hardy, and is a 

fashionable ffee for new plantings in public parks. I have seen it near Poole, Dorset (v.c. 9) and at 

Reading, Berks. (v.c. 22), but it is probably much more widely distributed. Most trees are less than 

20 years old. 

HUMPHRY BOWEN, West Down, West Street, Winterborne Kingston, BLANDFORD, Dorser 

DT11 9AT 

CABBAGE PATCH X 

TAKING STOCK OF MALCOLMIAR.BT. 

The discovery of three st

ttl 

#H 


,WF 

f,.\ar \ 

@,,ffi "V MMt, 

,JY 

"@ 

/R 

Fig. 1. Matcolmla species recorded from Britain and lreland. A-F, M. maritima. G-L, M. chia. 

V-Sl pf . africana. T-2, M . crenulata. Scale bars are given for the whole plants,. and for the details 

offlowers,-stamens and gynoecium, petals and fruits. The persistent styles offruits are enlarged, but 

not to scale. Del. G. EasY @ 1992.


none have been seen in the limited herbarium materia.l available. It is native in the Eastem Mediterranean 

but is widely introduced elsewhere, and appeius to be the only species grown in gardens. 

This is the species most likely to be encountered, and it is occasionally recorded in England 

and rarely in Scotland, Wales and Ireland as a non-persistent casual of waste ground, paths, tips, etc. 

We have seen records or specimens from the following vice-counties: 1,3,4,5,6, 8, 9, 10, I 1, 13, 

1s, 16, r7 , 18, 20, 21, 22,23,25, 27, 

'72,75,76,77,79,80,82, 

28,29, 33, 34,35, 4r, 45, 46, 48, 50, 54, 55, 59, 62,66,70, 

83,85,95,96,99,112, H38, S. No doubt it is under-recorded, being 

ignored as an obvious garden escape. 

3. Malcolmia chia DC. (Wilckia chia (L.) Druce). 

At first sight this species is not obviously different from M. maritima other than in its small 

size, but it has petals 6-10 mm, and fruits with pedicels 4-10 mm and a shon (0.5-2(-2.5) mm) 

persistent style. It is related to M. maritima, M. graeca and M. flexuosa; intermediates with the laner 

are frequent. It occurs as a native in the Balkans (where Ball (1964) describes it from generally near 

the coast), Turkey (where Davis (1965) gives its habitats as rocky slopes, usually away from the 

sea), Cyprus and W Syria. 

No specimens have been traced for the one record from VC 83, Edinburgh, J. Fraser, 1909 

(BEC Rep. for 1909 2; 412), and it may be an error for small M . maritima. 

4. Malcolmiaafricana (L.) R. Br. (Wilckiaafricana (L.) F. von Muell.). 

This species has petals (5-)8-10(-12) mm, and fiuits with very short pedicels 0.5-2 mm and 

spreading hairs. Dvortik (1970) placed M. africana and aliied species into a separate genvs Fedtschenkoa 

Rgl. There is as much to be said for this reatment as against it. and, if followed, 

M . africana would be called Fedtschenkoa africana (L.) Dvorak. 

Probably native in S. Europe, NW Africa and SW Asia but widely casual elsewhere where it 

occurs as a weed on roadsides, waste places, etc. Interestingly, the majoriry of the records are from 

c.1 900- 1 930. 

VC 17. Wandswonh Steamboat Pier, A. Irvine, undated but probably collected between 1851 

and 1859 (K; see a|so Phytolgist 3: 330-350). Weed in newly sown grass, Kew Gardens, C. E. 

Hubbard 281611932 (K). 

VC 20. Ware. gravel, G. C. Druce, ti/1U97 (OXF), 6/1912 (BM) and 1919 (E). Ware, A. W. 

Graveson, 23 17 I 1916 (HTN). 

VC 24. Slough (Druce 1926). 

VC 25. Oulton Broad, Mrs F. Baker, 1902 (K). 

VC 30. Cinder track, Eastwoods Brickworks, Arlesey, J. E. Linle, 15/511911 and27l4l19l4 

(BM, E, K, LIV, NMW, OXF; see also BEC Rep.for 1911:73). 

VC 34. Casual on made ground, St. Phillips, Bristol. J. W. White, 611902; A fine plant on 

Ponishead railway sidings, Miss I. M. Roper, 6/1907; Ponishead railway sidings, Miss Hill, 1909 

(White 1912). Ponishead South, C. I. Sandwith, 1914 (Sandwith 1933). 

VC 41. Splott, R. L. Smith & A. E. Wade,201511927 (NMW; see also BEC Rep.for 1938 12: 

75). 

VC 54. Grimsby Docks, A. Smith, c. 1900, det. at Kew (LCN, Gibbons 1975; 296). Boston 

Dock, G. C. Druce, 1913 (OXFI. 

VC 61. Hull Docks, C. Waterfall, 1902 (Wilson 1938). Waste ground, West Dock Reservation, 

Hull, C. Waterfall, 41111903 (BM). 

VC 63. Kirkstall, Yorks, E. C. Horrell, 1916 (OXF; see also BEC Rep.for 1917:95). 

VC 64. Lane dividing Hambleton Station and Scalm Park Farm, "on bare spots where manure 

has evidently lain in winter", herb. F. A. [res, 3/8/1903 18M1. 

VC 69. Askam Pier, G. Wilson, 241611951 (CLE), and same locality, P. Burton, 1990 (LANC). 

VC 83. teith Docks, A. C. Christie,30/6/1Utt5, 131611895 and 15/6/1898 (E); J. Fraser, 

301611903 (E: Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. 13:106-113), and311111907 (SLBI); W. E. Evans, 21n11903 

(E). Leith, J. Fraser, l4l111906 (E). Slateford, J. Fraser,9/1906 and 1616 1905 (E); W. E. Evans, 

311511906 (E). Slateford, rubbish heap, R. S. Adamson,251611907 (BM). 

VC 95. Shingle on R. Spey, Dailuaine, J. W. H. Trail,8/ltl99 (Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. 13: 104; 

oddly, this and other crucifer records were not included in Webster (1978), although other taxa cited 

in Trail's paper were). 

VC H8. Limerick, casual (Praeger 1909). 

+)


Malcolmia ramosissima (Des| Thell. (M. parviflora DC., Wilckia paniflora (DC.) Druce) is obviously 

different from the other species in having petals 4-8 mm, stellate hairs and fruits 15-35 mm 

with long (2-7 mm) pedicels, but both records Faced are errors. The record for VC 20, Pye Corner, 

1964 (Dony 1967) is an error for dwarfed M. maritima (HTN), and the record for VC 41, Splott, R. 

L. Smith, 20/3/1927 (BEC Rep.for 1927 8:301) is an error (Ellis 1983) for M. africana. It occurs 

as a native around the Mediterranean to Ponueal. 

There is also a record for Malcolmia littorea R.Br. from VC 17, Wandsworth, A. kvine, Phytoiogist 

(n.s.) 3: 334 ( 1859), but the record is given with a query. Malcolmia africana, M . littorea and 

M. maritima were repofted to be "exceedingly common, appearing every year in great force", and 

M. Iittorea should have been easily distinguished from the other species by the dense, white tomentum. 

No specimens of M.littorea from this site have been traced and it is assumed to be an error 

(l-esiie 1987), though for what remains unclear. 

Acknowledgments 

We wish to thank Frank Brightman, John Edmondson, Gwynn Ellis, Mike Foley, Serena Marner, 

Chris Preston and Brian Sawford for their help, the Keepers of BM, CGE, CLE, E, HTN, K, LIV, 

NMW, OXF and SLBI for access to or loan of specimens, and especially Graham Easy for his 

excellent detailed illustrations. 

References 

Ball, P.W. (1961). A review of Malcolmia maritima and allied species. Feddes Repenorium 68 

l 79- l 86. 

Ball, P.W. (1964). Malcolmia R. Br., in Tutin, T.G. et al., eds., Flora Europaea l:277-278. Cambndge. 

Davis, P.H., ed. (1965). Flora ofTurkey and the East Aegean Islands. Edinburgh. 

Dony, J.G. (1967). Flora of Herrfordshire. Hitchin. 

Druce, G.C. (1926). The flora of Buckinghamshire. Arbroath. 

Dvorak, F. (1970). Study of the characters of the genus MalcolmiaR.Br. Feddes RepertoriumSl: 

381 -416. 

Ellis, R.C. (1983). Flowering Plants of Wales. National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. 

Gibbons, E.J. (1975). The flora of Lincolnshire. Lincoln. 

lrslie, A.C. (1987). Flora of Surrey. Checklist and Supplemenr. Guildford. 

Praeger, R.L. (1909). A tourist's Flora of the West of lreland Dublin. 

Rich, T.C.G. (1991). Crucifers of Great Britain and Ireland. BSBI Handbook no. 6. l,ondon. 

Rich, T.C.G, & Halliday, G. (1991). Carlisle's collection of Cumbrian casual crucifers. BSBI News 

58:37-38. 

Sandwith, C.I. ( 1933). The adventive flora of the Port of Bristol. Report of the Botanical Exchange 

Clu,b of the British lsles for 1932 l0:314-363. 

Stork, A.L. (1972). Studies in the Aegean Flora XX. Biosystematics of the Malcolmia maritima 

complex. OperaBotanica 33: 1-11U. 

White, J.W. (1912). The flora of Bristol. Bistol,. 

Wilson, A.K. (1938). The adventive Jlora of the East Riding of Yorkshire. Occasional paper of the 

Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists Club. Hull. 

Webster, M.McC. (1978). Flora of Moray, Nairn and East Inverness. Aberdeen. 

nM C G RICH & M.C. FOSTER,24 Lombnrdy Drive, PETERBOROUGH PEI 3FT 

ANTHEMIS AUSTRIACA Jacq. AGAIN 

With reference to the note by John Palmer on this species (BSBI News 59), I was sent a specimen by 

Mrs H. Lynes in iune 1991 that she had found at Tenterden in Kent. A few days later I was in the 

area myself and had a look at the site, disturbed ground around a new shopping centre, that showed 

signs as though some seed had been sown to'green' the area up. The 'jizz' was completely wrong for 

Anthemis arvensis L. to which the plant was provisionally placed (it keys out here in C.T.W. and the 

key in B.lB/ News 50). By consulting Flora Europaea vol. 4, the plant was correctly named as 

A. austriaca and I am yet again grateful to Eric Clement for confirming my identification. 

A month later on some land leased to the Kent Trust for Nature Conservation I discovered a 

bank covered with Agrostemma githago,Centaurea cyanus and yet more Anthemis austriuca.* On 

44


inquiry I was told that the Trust had purchased and sown 'native' wild flower seed to cover up some 

bare ground! So it looks as though the source of Anthemis austriaca could be from these native wild 

flower seed mixtures and members should check carefully any mayweeds found in areas managed 

by local authorities or the so-called conservation bodies. 

xThis lease has now come to an end, the site is now a temporary depot in connection with the 

widening of the motorway near Maidstone, and soil from the site including the seasons ripe seeds 

have now been distributed along a $ear length of rhe M20. 

ERIC G. PHILP, Maidstone Museum, St Faiths Street, MAIDSTONE. Kent ME14 lLH 

CONSERVATION NEWS 

CONSERVATION OF RARE PLANTS IN SCOTLAND: 

A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE NATURE CONSERVANCY COUNCIL FOR 

SCOTLAND / SCOTTISH NATURAL HERITAGE AND THE ROYAL BOTANIC 

GARDEN EDINBURGH 

With the recent division of the Nature Conservancy Council into three country conservation 

agencies (English Nature, Countryside Council for Wales and Nature Conservancy Council for 

Scotland) each agency is now responsible for co-ordinating its own rare plant conservation programme. 

In this respect the Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden 

Edinburgh have collaborated in ajoint project concerning Scottish rare plants. 

The main aims of the project are to increase our knowledge of the status and behaviour of rare 

plant populations and to collate existing information. Positive conservation measures will include 

seed collection for long tenn storage, experimental habitat restoration and, where appropriate, 

translocation trials. It is hoped that these positive measures will develop into a recovery programme 

whereby some rare plant populations will be enhanced. 

The Royal Botanic Garden offers excellent facilities for education and it is planned to display a 

range of Scottish rare plants with educational labels, within the RBG, and hopefully to run a horticultural 

day school on aspects of riLre plant 

'fhc 

conservation. 

project uill rely on liaison and co-operalion lrom many conservation organisations. research 

bodies and private individuals. I would be most grateful to hear from anybody who is either 

currently working on or who is interested in a p:fticular rare species. 

PHIL LUSBY, Project Officer, Conservation of Rare Plants in Scotland, Royal Botanic Garden, 

lnverleith Row. EDINBURGH Ett.l 5LR 

CYPRIPI.:DIUM CONSERVATION - I99I REPORT 

The perfirrmance ofthe nativc plant was less successful in l99l than in the previous year. This was 

due to a totally unexpccted attack by voles despite reguliLr checks and the removal of a voles nest 

fiom the cage earlier in the season. Several tall shoots were bitten through at ground level when the 

plant was in bud. The cut shoots wcre kept alive in water and produced two flowers which we were 

able to use for pollination. The rest ofthe plant produced three flowers which were pollinated. 

The first of the laboratory raised plants grown at Kew by the Sainsbury Orchid Conservation 

Proiect have now been succcssfully retumed to the wild site where there are also some naturally 

occurring seedlings, and all are progressing. However, it will be several years before any of the 

seedlings can be expectcd to flower as they are at a very early stage. 

The committee once again urges people NOT to visit the site, which is very fragile, or to pass 

on the location to others. The number of visitors showed a slight decline again in 1991 and we thank 

membcrs of the puhlic lirr thcir coopcration. 

MARGARET LINDOP. E.N. Cvpripedizm Committee, 36 Woodland Hill, Whitkirk, LEEDS 

I,S I5 7DG 

45

Nodces (BSBI) 

NOTTCES (BSBI) 

CHANGES TO DATES OF FIELD MEETINGS IN 1992 YEAR BOOK 

CRYMLYN FEN. GLAMORGAN (v.c.41) 

The date of this meeting was given correctly in the Calendar - July 19 - but incorrectly in the Field 

Meeting Programme - July 12. 

STONEWORT MEETING, WICKHAM FEN 

For personal reasons, the date of this meeting has had to be changed from July l8th to August lst. 

The leader Nick Stewart is getting married on the 18th! 

EDITOR 

A.G. KENNETH BEQUEST 

Archie Kenneth of Stronachullin, Argyll, died on 27 July,1989. He was v.c. Recorder for Kintyre 

and had been a member of the BSBI for over 30 years. His contributions to Scottish botany and his 

endearing character are well recorded in the obituaries written for Watsonia by Allan Stirling and 

Peter Sell (1990). 

Archie Kenneth bequeathed to the BSBI all his botanical correspondence and any sets or nrns 

of botanical journals which his trustees should see fit to release. After discussion with the Kenneth 

family it was agreed that all Archie's botanical joumals would be released and, in addition, all his 

herbarium specimens. It was also agreed that the correspondence and herbarium specimens would 

be housed at the Royal Botanic Cardens, Edinburgh, where staffare currently cataloguing the latter. 

In addition, Archie's family have donated his botanical books for use by members of the Society 

in Scotland. We are grateful to the Scottish Wildlife Trust who agreed to house the books 

along with the main collection of botanical journals, in their library at Cramond House, Edinburgh, 

where they are now available for use by BSBI members. Each bears a stamp acknowledging the 

bequest. 

The Kenneth family's bequest to the Sociely is most welcome and will ensure that Archie's 

many imponant and enthusiastic contributions to Scottish botany will be safeguarded for the future. 

References 

Stirling, A. McG. 1990. ArchibaldGraham Kenneth (1915-1989). WatsonialS(2):242-244. 

Sell, P.D. 1990. A.G. Kenneth - An appreciation. Watsonia l8(2):244. 

MARION G.B. HUGHES & BERNARD H. TIIOMPSON. Ballvmeanoch Conage, Kilmichael 

Glassary, LOCHGILPHEAD, Argyll PA31 8QE 

IRISH BOTANICAL NEWS 

The second issue of lrisrtr Botanical New.s has been recently published. It is sent free to ail members 

living in Ireland or vice-county recorders for lreland not resident in the country. If anyone thinks 

they qualify for a free copy and haven't received one could you get in touch with me immediately. 

Other members can obtain a copy by sending f 1.50 to cover printing and postage costs to me at the 

address below. I still have a small numberof copies of the first issue (gratis). 

BRIAN S. RUSHTON, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, 

COLERAINE. N. Ireland BT52 I SA 

46

Notices (Others) 

NOTTCES (OTHERS) 

FUTURE MEETINGS OF THE BRITISH BRYOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

29 July - 12 August. Summer Field Meeting, Lochinver and the Uists. 

29 July - 5 August. l-ochinver. Full details from the local secretary: Gordon Rothero, Sronlonag, 

Glenmassan, By Dunoon, Argyll PA23 SRA, tel. 0369 6281 

5 - 12 August. The Uists. Full details from the local secretary: Dr Peter Pitkin, Nature Conservancy 

Council for Scotland, 2/5 Anderson Place, Edinburgh EH6 5NP, tel. O3l 554 9197 

26 - 27 September. AGM and Symposium Meeting, East Sussex. Full details from the local secretary: 

Dr David Streeter, Sussex House, Falmer, Brighton, Sussex BN1 9RH, tel 0273 678212. 

As always, BSBI members will be most welcome at these meetings. 

PHILIP LIGHTOWLERS, 8 Almark Road, LONDON E5 ORL 

FLORA BRITANNICA 

Flora Britannicc is a major project to produce a cultural flora for modern Britain. A survey of those 

plants which are still important to us at the end of the 20th Century. 

The aim is two-fold: to encourage a wide-ranging popular research programme at local level, 

and to produce a comprehensive but accessible book incorporating the results - a definitive contemporary 

Flora. 

The author is Richard Mabey, the freelance writer and broadcaster and the project is being 

coordinated by the environment and ans charity, Common Ground, as pan of their l,ocal Distinctiveness 

Project 

Flora Britannica will record popular plant names that are still current; games that children 

have made up for the new arrivals in our flora; which species are woven, carved or dyed with; and 

the places where colonies of plants still shape the local landscape and where the congregations made 

famous by poets and painters survive. It wiil include material about meadows, churchyards, woods, 

hedges, walls and landmark trees; weeds, fruits and poisons; edible wild species; and rituals, symbols 

and oiace-names associated with olants and trees. 

The-first stage will be the disrribution among interested people at a local level a 32-page 

document, The Handbook, which will guide and inspire them to send in information about species 

in their area. 

Flora Britannica will be based on the responses, and on large-scale grassroots involvement of 

both individuals and institutions (from conservation charities and natural history societies to 

schools). 

The results will be gathered and processed over a period of 18 months. Field work will be 

carried out on particularly interesting research leads. 

The Book will be extensively illustrated. It will cover the full native and naturalised flora 

(including trees and ferns, and excluding only lower plants such as fungi and lichens) of England, 

Scotland and Wales. 

The achievement will be to initiate local floral audits done by people all over the country and 

to incorporate the results into a guide to plants which is up-to-date, culturally far-ranging, elegantly 

written and of immense imponance. 

The Handbook will be written by Richard Mabey, ,{5 in size and illustrated throughout in colour. 

Copies will be available free in the March issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine and after the 25th 

March 1992 for f I (cheques made payable to BBC Magazines) from: The Flora Britannica Handbook, 

BBC Suppon Services, PO Box 7, l.ondon W3 6XJ. 

Flora Britannicc is supported by Common Ground, BBC Wildlife Magazine, the Countryside 

Commission, English Nature and Sinclair-Stevenson Publishers. 

JOHN NEWTON, Common Ground,45 Shelton Street, Covent Carden, LONDON WC2H 9HJ 

47

Notices (Oriers) 

!f ary member is interested in receiving a free copy of The Handbook, please send a s.a.e to me at 

the National Museum of Wales. Ed.l 

FIRST WORLD CONFERENCE 

PHYTOSOCIOLOGY AND NEGLECTED TERRESTRIAL SYSTEMS 

(PANTS): CALL FOR PAPERS 

The 1st World Conference of PANTS is set to take place at St Helens, Lancs., during 1992 on dates 

to be announced. 

Evidence that the remarkable endemic flora of St Helens has been vinually eliminated by the 

vegetation of the rest of the world, stems largely from the work of the Dutch school (see below). 

The conference is expected to attract the attention of palynologists, palaeobotanists and plant 

geographers from the international community, and the conference plans to utilise multiple venues. 

Work on the centre at the old bottle works near Lyons Yard is well in hand. The commercial sector 

will be well represented and revolutionary core-sampling techniques in structureless sediments are 

expected to profile continuously the hitherto unrecognised raised beach at Burghy Banks. 

Had it not been for Sykora (in di Castri, Hansen, and Debussche 1990) the imponance of St 

Helens would have gone unnoticed. The following extract is from Sykora, p. 47: 

"ln some countries the flora is susceotible to such an extent that the native soecies have been 

totally ousted by invading species over extensive areas. within a few decades. The flora of 

extensive pans of Chile, for instance, l;Lrgely consists of introduced species. In New Zealand 

two thirds of the land surface contain a flora very dissimilar from the original flora; the majority 

of introduced species being European pasture plants. The flora contains 1700 (58.67o) alien 

species (Moore 1983). Half of the Hawaiian plant species,90alo of which are endemic, is endangered 

by exotics. In this way many species disappeared from St. Helens (Creat Britain)." 

References 

Moore, D.M. 1983. Human impact on island vegetation. In: Holzner, W., Werger, M.J.A., Ikusima, 

I. (eds.) Man's impact onvegetation. Junk, The Hague, pp. 237-246. 

Sykora, K.V. 1990. History of the impact of man on the distribution of plant species. In: di Castri, 

F., Hansen, A.J., Debussche, M. (eds.) Biological invasions in Europe and the Mediterranean 

Basin. Kluwer. pp. 37-50. 

P.F. WHITEHEAD, Moor kys, Linle Comberton, PERSHORE, Worcestershire WRl0 3EH 

REQUESTS 

RESEARCH INTOTEMNA MINUTA AND AZOLLA FILICULOIDES 

Considering the interest in Lemna minuta Kunth (L. minuscula Hener) (Least Duckweed) and 

Azollafiliculoides Lam. (Water Fern) as alien invaders of Britain (BSBI News 46, 56, 58), members 

may be interested to know of my research into the biology and spread of these two species as weeds. 

I am working at Liverpool University on a PhD projectjointly funded by the Science and Engineering 

Research Council and British Waterways, who are especially concerned with the weed problems 

which these plants are causing on the Kennet and Avon Canal. I would appreciate any further records 

of these plants from anywhere in the U.K., especially if they are causing weed problems, and 

any comments on their occurrence and persistence would be useful. 

RACHEL JANES, Depanment of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Nicholson Building, 

Universitv of Livemool. P.O. Box 147. LIVERPOOL L69 3BX 

48

Requests 

AGROSTIS CANINAL. 

I am working on some biological aspects of Agrostis canina (Velvet Bent) in Italy and would welcome 

some seeds from Britain and Ireland for my research. If you are able to help, please send the 

seed samples together with details of locality etc. to the address below. All help will be very much 

appreclareo. 

FRANCO MIGLIETTA, I.A.T.A. Istituto di Analisi Ambientale e Telerilev.unento aDDlicari ail' 

agricoltura, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18 - 50144 FIRENZE, Italy 

BOOK NOTES 

Reviews of the following books will be included in the August 1992 issue of Watsonia vol. l9(2): 

Wild Plants of Glasgow. Conservation in the Ciry and Country-side. J.H. Dickson. Pp. 208: 29 

colour photos & 22 colour plates. Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen. 1991. Price f1.1.95 

(ISBN 0-08-041200-9). 

The Wild Flowers of Luton. J.G. & C.M. Dony; edited by C. Boon. Pp. 64; full-spread colour map 

between pp. 32 & 33. i.G. Dony, Luton. 1991 (no ISBN). Price f3.50 incl. posrage from P. 

Ellison, 90 Beverley Road, Ruislip, Middx., HA4 9AS. 

Wild Orchids of Dorset. M.N. Jenkinson. Pp. 120; 65 coiour plates, numerous distribution maps and 

figures. Orchid Sundries, Ltd., Stour Provosr. Price f17.95 h/b (ISBN 1-873035-01-2); f13.95 

p/b (ISBN 1-87303s-02-0). 

Atlas Florae Europaeae,vol.9. Paeonlaceae to Capparaceae.Edited, by J. Jalas & J. Suominen. 

Pp. 110; 155 distribution maps. Committee for Mapping the Floraof Europe & Societas Biologica 

Fennica Vanamo, Helsinki. 1991. Price FIM 350 approx. (ISBN 951-9108-08-4). 

The Chelsea Gardener: Philip Miller 169l-1771. H. te Rougetel. Pp.2l2; ill. Natural History 

Museum Publications, I-ondon. 1990. Price f 14.95 (SBN 0-565-01101-4). 

Shamrock. E.C. Nelson. Pp. xiv + 2OO: 76 figures, 5 col. plates. Boethius Press, Aberystwyth & 

Kilkenny. 1990. Price f26W (ISBN 0-86314-200-l), f12 p/b (ISBN 0-86314-199-4). 

The Burren: a companion to the wildflowers of an lrish limestone wilderness. E.C. Nelson; illuslra1ed 

by Wendy Walsh. Pp. [viii] + 344; numerous col. plates. Boethius Press, Aberystwyth & 

Kilkenny, and the Conservancy of the Burren, Ballyvaghan. 1991. Hardback ISBN 

0-86314-213 3, paperback ISBN 0-86314-214-1). Available from An Bothain, Pier Rgad, 

Ballyvaghan, Co. Clare, Ireland. 

The Northwest European pollenflora, vol. 6. Edited by W. Punt & S. Blackmore. Pp. [vJ + 27-5; 

103 b/w plates. Elsevier, Amsterdam. 1991. Price D.fl.240 (ISBN 0-444-tt9i64-1). 

New Flora of the British Isles. C. Stace. Pp. xxx + 1228, with numerous text figurcs and 2 maps on 

end-papers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1991. Price 124.95, soft plastic cover 

(rsBN 0-521-42793-2). 

Pleistocene palaeoecology of central Norfulk. R.G. West. Pp. ix + 1101- 44 figures. Cambridge 

University Press, Cambridge, 1991. Price f40 (ISBN 0-521-40368-5). 

The following publications have been received recently. Those that will not be reviewed in Watsonia 

are marked with an asterisk; the notes are by J.E. 

*Atlas corologic de lafloravascular dels paisos Catalans, vol. 2, edited by O. de Bolos & A.M. 

Romo. Unpaginated, with 306 maps and accompanying text. Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona. 

1991. Price not stated (ISBN 84-1283-175-2). [Distribution maps on a l0km, U.T.M. 

grid, covering the Catalan part of mainland Spain and the Balearic islands.l 

Also from Catalonia, *Vegetacio de Catalunya; Descoberta vol. 1, by J. Nuet i Badin, J.M. Panareda 

i Clopes and Angel M. Romo i Diez. Pp. 153; ill. Eumo Editorial, Vic. 1991. Price not stated 

(ISBN 84-7602-'153-2). fPocket-book sized volume giving a succinct summary of the main 

categories of vegetation in Catalonia; nicely printed.l 

*Phytogeography and vegetation ecology ofCuba. A. Borhidi. Pp. 860 + [16], with 380 figures and 

16 colour plates. Akademiai Kiado, Budapest. 1991. Price Ft. 1,030 (ISBN 963-05-5295-7). 

[This book is the culmination of over 25 years' study of the Cuban flora, and encompasses 

vegetation mapping, phytosociology, 

studies of geogaphical distribution and endemism. A 

49

Book Notes 

critical Flora is also in preparation. This book fills a major gap in the botanical literature for the 

Caribbean, and while not the kind of tome one would take on holiday, it paints a very attractive 

picture of the Cuban flora.l 

xA world of ferns. J. Camus, A. C. Jermy & B. A. Thomas. Pp. 112; fully illustrated with colour 

photographs. Natural History Museum Publications, London. 1991. Price t10.95 (ISBN 

0-565-01120-0). [Attractively presented account of the ferns and fern-allies, featuring their 

biology, global ecology and economic value, including gardening.l 

Practical Taronontic Computing. R. J. Pankhurst. Pp. xii + 202. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

1991. H,ce f21.95 (ISBN 0-521-41760-0). 

Legumes of West Asia. A check-list. J.M. Lock & K. Simpson. Pp. xi + 263. Royal Botanic Gardens, 

Kew. 1991. Price f l5 (ISBN 0-94793-29-X). 

*lntroduction to the principles of plant t(aonomy,2nd edition, by V.V. Sivarajan; this edition edited 

by N.K.B. Robson. Pp. xiv + 292. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1991. Price f,40 h/b 

(ISBN 0-521-35587-7); f15.95 p/b (ISBN 0-521-35679-2). [Few modern textbooks cover plant 

taxonomic principles: this is a worthy example of the genre. Witten by an author who has 

scanned a wide range of literature, and meticulously edited by Norman Robson, the book offers 

a thoughtful commentary on current taxonomic theories. The paperback version is inexpenslve.l 

*Proceedings of the 7th international pall,rutlogical congre.t.t. Truswell, E.M. & Owen, J.A.K. 

(eds.). Pp. viii + 391; illustrated. Reprinted fron Review of Palaeobotuny and Palynology vols. 

& & 65, Elsevier, Amsterdam. 1990. (ISBN 0-444-88624-9). [A collection of scholarly papers 

delivered in Brisbane in 1988.1 

*Vegetation of New Zeuland, by P. WrLrdle. Pp. xx + 6'72; 1ll. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

1991. Price f105 (ISBN 0-521-25873-l). [Comprehensive treatment of the terrestrial 

vegetation of New Zealand and its outlying islands, compiLrable with that of N.C.W. Beadle for 

Australia, and the first to be published since Cockayne's classic work of 1928.1 

The History of British Pteridology l89l-1991, edited by J. Camus. Pp. 127. British Pteridological 

Society, London. 1991 (ISBN 0-9509806-3-3). 

Correction: Manin Sanford's Orchids of Suffolk is priced at f 12, not f 15 as given in Watsonia 19: 

50, 1992. Apologies to Martin for mis-spe lling his name. 

JOHN EDMONDSON, Botany Dept., National Museums & Galleries on Merseysrde, Liverpool 

Museum, William Brown St, Liverpool L3 8EN. 

REPORTS OF FIELD MEETINGS . 1991 

Reports of Field Meetings are edited by, and should be sent to, Dr B.S. Rushton, Dept. of Biological 

and Biomedical Sciences. University of Ulster, Coleraine, Co. lnndonderrv, N. lreland BT52 I SA. 

To save space the map has been omitted this time. 

ENGLAND 

AXBRIDGE, MENDIP HILLS, N. SOMERSET (v.c. 6).9th JUNE 

20 members met to explore the south-facing skrpes of the Mendips above the village of Axbridge in 

Somerset. The Mendip Hills are composed of Carboniferous Limestone overlying Old Red Sandstone. 

Most of the route taken lay within the Crooks Peak, Shute Shelve and Fry's Hill SSSI which 

is species-rich calcareous gtassland with rocky outcrops, ancient woodland and scrub. 

The first stop was a splendid road cutting where a good range of limestone plants could be seen 

in a very small area. Ophrys apifera was frequent here and several had florets with an unusual 

pointed lip. Much emphasis was placed on identification of the grasses during the day and great 

interest was shown in Poa angustifolia growing with Festuca rubra and Bromus erectus. 

On climbing the steep slopes of the tightly grazed common land of Shute Shelve Hill, the sward 

was successfully searched for Trinia glauca, a very local plant near the easterly limit of its range on 

the Mendips. Koeleria macrantha and K. vallesiana were growing here with possible intermediates. 

The group were soon identifying the very f'elted sheath-bases of K. vallesiana and panicularly good 

specimens were found rock orrtcrops where the soll was thin andbare. Erodium maritimum 

T:ng* 

5()

Rcpons of Field Meetings - 199 I 

was also found in this habitat, this hillside being a long standing location for this normally coastal 

plant. 

The pany made its way across allotments where Bromus diandrus and B. x pseudothominii 

(8. hordaceus stbsp. hordaceus x B. lepidus) were growing together in a neglected plot. Here also 

was a tall, multi-stemmed Orobanche minor var. mircr growing from the centre of a htge Medicago 

arabica and Fumaria capreolata was 'ramping' through the allotment hedge. 

Potentilla tabernaemontanl was abundant on the open slopes of Fry's Hill, some plants still 

flowering. On the open stony slopes, several small creamy-white flowered Bedstraws were carefully 

examined in situ and much discussion took place regarding the differences between Galium pumi- 

Lum and G. fleunttii. No positive identification was reached. A small area of limestone heath was 

noted before the party descended from the hill to see a magnilicent display of Lithospermum purpu' 

rocaeruleum with its stunning blue flowers. 

The non botanical interest of the day was a huge Wood-ant's nest in an otherwise empry tin 

shed, and the expensive computer that was left in the car of a BSBI member in the busy car park, 

with the door wide open and was still there at the end of the day! 

Special thanks to Mr and Mrs Scott, for access to Fry's Hill and P.J.O. Trist, Fred Rumsey, Ron 

Payne and Bill Tucker for identification of species. 

ELIZABETH J. McDONNELL 

SUTTON PARK, WARWICKSHIRE (v.c. 3tt). 22nd JUNE 

A small party (six members only) participated in this further visit by the Society to this remarkable 

SSSI now within the bounds of the city of Birmingham but whose origins date from Henry VIII's 

time, when in 1528 Bishop Vesey procured a charter granting the park to the Royal Town in perpetulty. 

The wetland of Longmoor Valley was visited, with its rich variety of bog and marsh plants - 

Dactylorhiza majalis subsp. praetermissa, Pinguicula vulgaris, Potentilla palustris, several Carer 

species and the rare willow Sali-r cordata (see BSBI News 56:25 (1990)) - to name but a few, the 

only regret being that our time there was of necessity so limited. ln other parts of the park Drosera 

rotundifolia was seen and a number of ericaceous species, including Vaccinium o4-coccos, one of 

the 20 or so species found nowhere else in the vice-county but in Sutton Park. 

Members might like to know that Part I (The Vascular Plants) of a Natural History of Sutton 

Park, by Dr Peter Coxhead and myself, has been published recently and may be obtained from me 

at a cost of f2.00 plus f0.33p postage from H.H. Fowkes, 2 Middleton Road, Sutton Coldfield, 

West Midlands B74 3EU. 

H.H. FOWKES 

KINVER. STAFFORDSHIRE (v.c. 39). 23rd JUNE 

Under a sky threatening rain, our pany of 15 assembled at the base of Kinver Edge. Bunter sandstone 

dominates this area. We set off westwards along narrow lanes. Under Fagus sylvatica and 

Malus sylvestri.r, a naturalised patch of Convallaria majalis existed in deep shade. The lush verge 

grasses had been cut a few days earlier, but a roadside spinney had specimens of Robinia pseudoacat:ia, 

Quercus ilex and Prunus lnsitanlca. A nearby arable border revealed Urtica urens and Lamium 

amplexicaule. An unlikely site for a large Populus nigra s.s. was seen in the middle of a 

sloping zrable field, where a small spring issued from near the base ofthe tree. 

We now tumed off the road into old woodland that overlies Crey Clay of the Upper Coal 

Measures. Two krfty rrees of Sorbu.r torminalis were shown on the way to a shady wet area supporting 

Carex strigosa, Equisetum teLmuteia and lots of Carex pendula. A little funher, on higher 

gr

Reports of Field Mcctrngs - 1991 

were much in evidence as we made our way to the foot of the Edge. A notable clump of Spiraea 

salicifolia s.s. was in bud near to a flat heathy area with Callunavulgaris, Ornithopus perpusillus, 

Aphanes arvensis and a clump of Carex spicata. 

Scrambling up the steep western scarp ofBunter sandstone passing the caves ofNanny's Rock, 

we reached the summit (i61m), where a splendid view of surrounding countryside presented itself 

in the brief sunshine. A small diversion to see Corynephorus canescens found the inflorescensesjust 

emerging, the glaucous tufts of the species being evident in all stages of development. Wind and 

drizzle set in as we made for the Toposcope; well-trodden ground here supported Sagina apetala 

Tnfohum striatum and Aphanes microcarpa. After a quick inspection of the long abandoned rock 

houses of Holy Austin Rock we descended to the vehicles. 

B.R. FOWLER 

NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE (v.c. 54).29th - 30th ruNE 

Ten members attended the Lincolnshire weekend meeting. Three venues were chosen - Messingham 

Sand Quarries near Scunthorpe, Crowle Waste in the Isle of Axholme and Gibraltar Point near 

Skegness, on the coast - all three sites being reserves of the Lincolnshire Trust for Nature Conservation 

and the latter also a National Nature Reserve. 

After an early wet June, the weekend was hot and sunny. At Messingham over 90OO Dacry 

lorhiza majalis subsp. praeterml.rsa spikes provided a blaze of colour and good stands of Pilularia 

globulifera were seen. Littorella uniflora, Anagallis tenella, Carex rostrata, Descurainia sophia, 

Hypochoeris glabra md Schoenoplecrus lacustris subsp. tabernaemontani were noted as were small 

plants of Gentiana pneumonanthe (the latter'caged'owing to the rabbit problem!). 

At Crowle the highlight was Rhinanthus angustifolius gtowing over lkm of track and spreading 

each year. Andromeda polifolia and Vacciniurn oxycoccos were searched for successfully, the latter 

in full flower and extensive. The first section of the reserve was remarkable for the fine very large 

plants of Eriophorum vaginatum and Molinia caerulea. Carex curta was abundant in both sections. 

Gibraltar Point, on the very sunny S unday, produced its usual range of coastal plants. Parapho- 

Iis incunta was much more plentiful this year and found in more sites than had previously been 

noted. Frankenia laevis had also spread over large areas of the marsh. Both Limonium vulgare and 

L. binervoswn were coming into flower. The shrubby Suaedavera at its northern limit was found in 

several spots and a swarm of seedlings of Glaucium flavum - rare with us - was shown to the group. 

My thanks are due to the Lincolnshire Trust for their hospitality (freshly baked scones and 

coffee) at the Field Centre; also to their warden who accompanied us at Messingham, Mrs V. Wilkin, 

and to fellow BSBI member Mr W.M. Peet, author of the Gibraltar Point booklet and Checklist, 

for his help with the meeting. 

IRENE WESTON 

HENGISTBURY HEAD. DORSET (v.c. I l). 13th JULY 

27 members booked for this Rabas meeting, impressive evidence of how fashionable the study of 

this group has now become. Though a few failed to materialise on the day, doubtless deterred by the 

early heavy rain, the party that assembled by the car park was still larger by two than that at the 

comparable Rubas meeting on Southampton Common in 1989. Though this time there was no Nonh 

of England contingent, the West Country was powerfully represented in its place. 

Miraculously, the rain stopped just before the stan and held off all the rest of the day; but it was 

disappointing even so that the clouds lay so low that it was scarcely possible to discem a yacht, 

much less see across Christchurch Harbour. In compensation. though. the headland was bereft of its 

usual weekend crowds and we had it vrnually to ourselves. 

21 named species wer€ seen and demonstrated, including Hengistbury's two specialitids, Rnbzs 

boudiccae and R. purbeckensis, both of which occur here in some profusion. Others characteristic of 

the Bournemouth area, which many were equally keen to see, included R. bloxamii, R. bouluyi, R. 

curvispinosus, R. melanodermis, R. mucronatiformis and R. pullifolius. R. incurvatas, discovered 

)l

Rcpons of Field Mectings - l99l 

here three years before in its second extant v.c. 11 station, appeared to be spreading, as did'R. 

holmesleiensis', a very distinct undescribed bramble otherwise known only in the New Forest's 

south-west comer. R. pyramidalis, on the other hand, bore no panicles and one or two other recorded 

sDecies could not be relocated. 

At the close of the meeting a group went to inspect Polygorurm maritimum, recently detected 

nearby, while some of the batological 'cognoscenti', not yet suffering from mental overload, drove 

on to see cenain of the other RilbrA' spp. in which the area is soeciallv rich. 

D.E. ALLEN 

NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK BORDERS (v.cc.25-28). l3th-14th JULY 

17 members and guests participated in the meeting which afforded an opponunity to examine four 

contrasting sites. The first morning was spent on Wortham Ling (v.c. 25), an area of acid heathland 

containing isolated patches of alkaline soils. The Ling is common land which has recently been 

designated an SSSI and is managed by the Suffoik Wildlife Trust (SWT). Two basrc areas were 

visited, the first yielding Cirsium acaule, Arabis hirsuta, Ophrys apifera, Thymus pulegioides, 

Avenula pubescens and A. pratensi.s, while the second contained many plants of Filipendula vuLgaris, 

some, in the damper parts, growing mixed with F. ulmaria. Only a few meres from these grew 

Festuca tenuifulia, Nardus stricta and Teesdalia nu"dicaulis. Tbe wet June had favoured several 

annuals, including TrifoliummicranthurnandT. glomeratum,two of 17 additions made to the 295 

species recorded on the Ling during 1989 and 1990. 

After lunch the party moved to Redgrave and Lopham Fen, an extensive area of valley fen 

straddling the River Waveney just east of its source. The Fen is a National Nature Reserve managed 

by the SWT even though most of it lies in Norfolk. A major management problem is maintaining 

the level of the water table which has fallen dramatically in recent years, partly because of shrub 

invasion and also as a result of water extraction by the East Anglian Water Company from a borehole 

adjoining the Fen. However, characteristic i'en plants including Cladium mariscus, Juncus 

subnodttktsus and Potamogehn coloratus were seen while the river contained P. crispus and 

P. pusillus. A few members could recall the Fen in the 1950s when the flora was vastly richer, but 

ws still managed to find, Ana,gallis tenella, Gymnadenia conopsea subsp. densiflora and Carex 

pulicaris surviving in an area where Drosera rotundifolia, D. intermedia and Pinguiculavulgaris 

had flourished less than 20 years ago. Our 3km walk round the Fen had taken us through four 

vice-counties. 

ln the evenine some members attended Thornham Field Cenrre at Thornham Masna where 

laboratory facilitiei were available tbr us to examine finds of the day over coffee. 

On the moming of the l4r we visited Chippenhall Green, near Cratfield (v.c. 25) which is still 

grazed by untethered animals. The Green is imponant for its large population of Orchis morio, 

some fruiting specimens of which were still visible in places. In total we recorded 144 species here 

'frifolium 

including 

micranthum (again), x Festulolium loliaceum (Festuca pratensis x Lolium 

perenne) and GLyceria x pedicellata (G. fluitans x G. plicata). 

The meeting concluded at East and West Harling Heaths (v.c. 2[i) on Sunday afternoon. Here, 

in forest rides, were many Breckland specialities including Veronica spiccta subsp. spicata, reintroduced 

in a controlled planting programme undertaken fiom the Cambridge Botanic Garden in 1989. 

Several flowering plants were seen so the experiment is succeeding, at least in the short term. Additionally 

we f ound Medicago minima, both subspecies of M . sativa and fertile hybrids between them, 

Apera interrupta, Phleum phleoides, Silene conica (in fruit), S. otites and Crassula tillaea, whlle 

commoner species such as Papaver rhoeas, Anthemis arvensis, Crepis capillaris, Malva moschata 

and Scabiosa colurnbaria provided colourful evidence of the beauty and diversity of the Breckland 

flora. 

The leaclers would like to thank the Suffolk Wildlife Trust for granting us permission to visit 

Redgrave and Lopham Fen Reserve and for cheir cooperittion at Wonham Ling. Additionally we 

thank the Director of Thomhanr Field Centre for opening the Centre to us on Saturday evening. 

A. COPPING 

5-1

Repons of Field Meetrngs - 1991 

POVINGTON RANGES, DORSET (v.c. 9). 14th JULY 

The Army ranges at Povington, lying south of Wareham and Wool and east of Lulwonh form a very 

large block (30km,) of unimproved heath and grassland. As only a nalrow band of Teniary clay 

sepilates the chalk of lhe coastal strip from the heath, the calcareous influence is marked, especially 

as chalk waste has been used for railway and road works. Almost all the area traversed on the meeting 

has been in Army control since World War I, although gmzing takes place everywhere other 

than on the heath. The whole area has a rich flora and fauna redolent of pre-war days; indeed the 

species recorded by Professor Good in the 1930s are still largely present. 

Starting near the east of Lulwonh the party made their way to a good bog below Thombarrow. 

Here regular shelling has maintained open pools with Drr.tsera anglica (in one of its nine Dorset 

sites), Pinguicula lusitanica, Schoenus nigricans, etc. Neuby a new railway track has brought in 

Lotus tenuis, Geranium colwnbinum (rare in Dorset), Linutn bienne and swards of Filago vulgaris 

and F. minima. Further east the clayey fields produced Oenanthe pimpinelloides and Carex disticha. 

Lunch was taken above a superb bare heathy bog with Lycopodiella inundata, Carex hostiana, 

more Pinguicula and the rare Water Scorpion. On the clayey bank above, Hypochoeris glahra was 

found in quantity. Funher nonh towards Hurst Mill a fenny area was explored, yielding Veronica 

scutellata on the fringes, and a mass of Carex disticha and Juncus subnodulosus with a few plants 

of Carex lepidocarpa, in the centre. 

From here, via several deep ditches, two good hay meadows were visited, with frequent Sanguisorba 

fficinalis and a mass of other colour before the long walk home. A detour was made to 

Pool Pond where only two of the party followed the leader's example to wade out for Apium inundatum. 

Our thanks are due to the Royal Armoured Corps for consent to enter the ranges, and in particu 

lar to Major Mick Burgess and his staff for enthusiastic organization. 

D. PEARMAN 

CROYDON, SURREY (v.c. 17). 20th JULY 

This was a joint meeting with the London Natural History Society. Two sites were chosen to be 

reasonably near each other and a station from which participants could be picked up by cnr. The 

moming site was Kenley Common, where the richest habitat, a zone of sloping chalk grassland, has 

been rescued from scrub invasion by the good management of the Corporation of London. We were 

shown round by Andrew Scott who pointed out its special features, which include abundant Rhinanthus 

angustifolias and a strong patch of Hypericurn maculatum. The Rhinanthus was apparently 

introduced accidentally from another well-known colony, and now occurs on all mown parts of the 

Common, though abundant only on the calca-reous part. 

After lunch at Selsdon Wood car park (from which some members walked a little way up the 

road to admire Verbascum lyt'hnitisl1, we went to the grounds of Hall Grange, Shirley, by kind 

permission of the Methodist Homes for the Aged. We were conducted round by the Matron Mrs 

Parke, the head giudener Mr Griffiths and Mrs Lucy Rogers who has studied the site at intervals 

since 1983. This was originally the informal garden of The Wildemess, created in 1913 by William 

Wilks, then secretary of the RHS. Since it was described by Deirdre Clenet in the London Naturalist 

64:23-25 (1985), storms have damaged the wooded pans. Wilks worked by planting often native 

species into the existing meadow, and it is now very difficult to know what was introduced by him 

deliberately (Erica vagans) or accidentally (Polygala serpyllifolia along with Calluna vulgaris'!), 

what was part of the original vegetation (Carex otrubae?) and what has come in since by its own 

devices (Dacrylorhiza majalis subsp. praetermissa?, Gymnocarpium dryopterti discovered on a 

rockery probably created for the subsequent owner?). 

It is interesting to compare the results of throwing a party of 19 at two such different sites. At 

Kenley, a large area which has been investigated professionally, only two species, Orobanche minor 

and Hordeum secalinum, could confidently be added to the flora. The second much smaller site has 

been explored only occasionally, and here we added a score of names to the 'wild' flora, including 

another paJch of Hypericwn maculatum in a more typical site on clay. 

R.M. BURTON 

54

Repons of Field Mmtings - 1991 

FELMERSHAM GRAVEL PITS, BEDFORDSHIRE (v.c. 30).27th JULY 

Superb weather greeted the members who ventured into deepest Bedfordshire to visit the Felmersham 

Gravel Pits reserve of the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust. The site, of some 

20ha, was formed during the last war by the extraction of gravel for concrete runway consmlction 

on local aerodromes and is situated near the River Ouse. In addition to the aquatic habitats there are 

also grassland and woodland habitats with characteristic flora. The diversity of the site is clearly 

indicated by the list of 216 plants recorded on the day. With seven sharp-eyed BSBI members and 

three local naturalists, 2[i of these were new site records, including eight new tetrad records and two 

new county records. 

The two most obvious plants seen first were large stands of Schoenoplecas lacustris and, 

abundant over much of the open water, Myriophyllum verticillatum. Along the waters edge were 

plants such as Juncus subnodulosus, Lysimachitt vulgaris, Oenanthe ftstulosa, Rorippa amphibia, 

Scutellaria galericulata and Typha dngustifoLia. In one spot was the only county site, albeit introduced, 

for Menyanthes trifolidta. 

The water was investigated with the late John Dony's drag line, kindiy given to me (CRB) by 

Chris Dony, and it proved its worth. We were able to compare Myriophyllum spicaturn wrth 

M . verticillatum and also retrieve a Potamopeton which proved to be P . berchtoidil, confirmation of 

an old rccord. A main feature of the reserve is tJtricularla australis which is abundant and was in 

flower. The first new county record was Stratiotes aloides, no doubt another introduction, but it 

appeared to be well established. The other new record was a vegetative piece of Myriophyllum, 

found by Graham Kay. Subsequent study suggested M. aquaticum which has been confirmed. 

Away from the aquatic habitat the very showy Lathyrus latifolius was much in evidence and 

also one late flowering spike of Ophrys apifera vztr. trollii. In the wooded area Daphne laureola, 

Epipactis helleborine and Asplenium scolopendrium were good to record. 

A rewtrding day's botany was enjoyed with the added attraction of eleven different species of 

dragonflies and damselflies, 14 different butterflies and eight moths. In addition, interesting bryophytes 

and fungi were also found. 

C.R. BOON & A.R. OUTFN 

IRELAND 

NORTH AND SOUTH TIPPERARY (v.cc. Hl0 & H7). 29th-30th JUNE 

'l-he 

same seven (including the vice-county recorders, the real Lady Ro Fitzgerald and two Welsh 

members) attended on Saturday and Sunday. There was a little confusion, as the meetings on both 

days took place in the administrative South Riding of Tipperary. The recorders amicably agreed to 

adhere to Praeger's ruling that the railway line from Portirloise to Limerick Junction shouid be the 

border! 

On Saturday the Annacany wetlands north of Dundrum were visited. Three sites were invesdgated, 

all within 2km of each other. Each had a different pH and were at different stages of succession. 

Maudemount bog was the largest, and the most treacherous, with floating vegetation made 

more deceptive by a recent lowering of water level. In spite of a couple of mild suicide attempts, all 

safely made the rendezvous for lunch. At least 14 species of Carex were recorded including 

C. diandra, Cladium mariscus was plentiful along with Equisetum variegatum. In the open water 

Potamogeton utloratus and Chara acuLeolata were discovered. Galium uliginosum, Epipactis 

palustris and Du

Reports of Field Meetrngs - 1991 

the north end through a young wood of ash and hazel with Viburnurn opulus and Euonymus europaeus. 

The ground cover included Galium odoratum and Ranunculus auricomus. Ophioglossum 

vulgatum was discovered on the edge of the path and the occasional late flowering Orchis mascula. 

Near the summit Epipactis helleborine and Listera ovata were quite common. Ajuga reptans and 

Poa nemoralis were also seen, as well as Rosa sherardii and forms approaching R. tomentosa. 

Erigeron acer and Carlina vulgaris were found at the quarry. 

During the weekend a variety of vascula, including the usual supermarket bags and a hat, were 

observed in use. One vice-county recorder (from a more northerly county) was seen to be using a 

domestic sieve! Close observation revealed however the transfer of small creatures to glass tubes 

containing a clear liquid. Hydrobeetlemania was diagnosed! The sieve's usefulness however was 

proved, by the production of a specimen of UtricuLaria vulgarist 

ROSALEEN FITZGERALD & D. NASH 

SCOTLAND 

KELSO, ROXBURGHSHIRE (v.c. 80). l5th-16th JUNE 

A group of ten met at Town Yetholm on a cloudy but dry day. The moming was spent at Upper 

Chatto on the Kale Water. Chatto Craigs (305m) has a number of basaltic outcrops on the steep east 

side which looked interesting. Viola lutea and Avenula pratensis occurred rarely in the grassland 

with a small colony of Carex muricata subsp. latnprocarpa on the earthworks of the old Iron Age 

fort at the top. Noteworthy was Stellaria pallida on a number of outcrops. This species has only 

recently been detected in Roxburghshire where it is confined to similar habitats in the east of the 

county. It can easily be overlooked as stunted Stellaria media. Near the farm of Upper Chano, and 

well known to the farmer, was an extensive colony of Sambucus ebulus, easlly the largest in the 

vice-county and first discovered here by Lady Emma Tennant in 1969. 

The afternoon was spent at Hoselaw Loch and Din Moss, the former being a Scottish Wildlife 

Trust reserve. In the marginal birch woodland surrounding the raised bog there was an abundance of 

Dryopteris dilatata with some D. carthusiana and possibly their hybrid, D. x deweveri which, if 

confirmed, would be a new vice-county record. At the west end of the loch the vegetational change 

from eutrophic to oligotrophic conditions was quite dramatic. The former habitat had the following 

noteworthy species: Cicuta virosa, Lycopus europaeus, Ranunculus lingua, R. sceleratus and a large 

colony of Carex riparia known only from one other site in the vice-county. The aquatic flora of the 

loch was very poor but Chris Preston managed to extract Potamogeton crispus and Zannichellia 

palustris from his grab. Din Moss was dominated by Calluna vulgaris but did have Empetrum 

nigrum and Vaccinium orycoccos and a small colony of Sall;r repens at the south-west extremity. As 

a finale, an impressive and conspicuous colony of Trollius europaeus wirh Salix myrsinifoLia nearby 

grew in damp herb-rich grassland near the farm ofGraden. 

On the following day the group of nine split in two, one goup going to the hill country of 

Bowmont Water and the other with Chris Preston to hunt for aquatics in the Tweed and Teviot near 

Kelso and hoping to refind the recently described Ranunculus x kelchoensis (R. Jluitans x R. peltanr.s) 

in its type locaiity after 112 years. (Webster, S.D. 1990. Watsonia l8: 139- 146) 

The first group drove to the farm of Sourhope owned by the Macaulay Landuse Research 

Institute from where they followed up the Sourhope Burn. The intensively grazed slopes did not 

have a great variery of species but Thymns praecox and Helianthemurn nummularium showed the 

basic nature of the Andesite rock. At the Rowhope Bum a discretionary detour was made to avoid a 

large bull which fonunately showed more interest in his harem than the botanists. Cardamine amara 

and Sarifraga granulata ascended to 366m along the Bum. The Schil (605m) was climbed and a 

small colony of Carex bigelowii noted among rocks near the top. On descending the southem 

slopes, a small pale flowered Myosotis occurred in a spring and was soon recognised as 

M. stolonifera, a second vice-county record. Carex laevigata, which has few records, was found 

lower down the slope. However, of particular interest was more Saxifraga granulata flowering in a 

wet flush dominated by Carex disticha with Lychnis flos-cuculi, Myosotis stoktnifera and the hepatic 

Marchantia polymorpha. This is a most unusual habitat for a species ofdry or shaded cpnditions. 

Presumably it is a different ecotype. 

The aquatic party had a very successful time, refinding Ranunculus x kelclnensis at the type 

locality on the Teviot (confirmed by Dr Webster). They also saw much Potamogeton x salicdolius 

56

Repons of Field Meetrngs - 1991 

(P. lucens x P- perJoliatu.r) and a little P. lucens. On the banks of Teviot they found Heraclewn 

,sphond-,-liu"rn x H. mantegazzianum (second vice-county record) and reinstated Acorus calamus to 

the vice-county list. lt was found to border several hundred metres ofTeviot below Roxburgh Castle 

where it has been overlooked for many years presumably because few of the plants are fenile and 

the spadices are hidden by foliage. 

I would like to thank Mrs Olga Stewan for her species lists and the farmers and authorities 

concerned for help with access to the sites. 

R.W.M. CORNER 

GIGHA ISLAND, KINTYRE (v.c. 101). 2tst JUNE 

Gigha lsland, or 'Gods Isle', is famed for its sunny climate but unfortunately it did not live up to its 

reputation when l7 botanists landed for a days tetrad recording. Despite the rain and mist many new 

and interesting plant records were diligently noted on fast disintegrating cards. The wet conditions 

made botanising more adventurous than expected and Olga Stewart demonstrated here dedication to 

the task in hand by even recording Umbilicus rupestris'in passing' as she lost her footing on a steep 

bank. 

The only recent v.c. record for Bromus sterilis was discovered by Allan Stirling and Bernard 

Thompson, and others managed to add a further six species to the island flora. Vulpia bromoides 

was recorded from the most northerly tetrad, whilst a visit to Achamore Bay turned up Carex disticha 

andGlyceria declinata new to the island flora. The coastal glasslands in the south included the 

seed heads of ScilLa vern , whilst Blysmu"s rufir was recorded in the saltmarsh al Ceann an t'Sailean. 

Nearly all eleven island tetrads were visited, at least in pan, which has provided a useful basis 

for developing a Cigha Island checklist, thanks to the determined efforts of the damp, but enthusiastic 

botanists- 

As the ferry lurched out of the harbour, with the pany safely aboard, we were treated to a view 

of lightning splitting the low purple clouds as they rose up over the mainland hills. A suitably 

dramatic end to an eventful day. 

MARION G.B. HI GHES 

MEALL GARBH, GI-EN LYON, MID PERTH (v.c. 88). 7th JULY 

A joinr meeting of the BSBI and thc Perthshire S

Rcpons of Field Mccungs - 1991 

WALES 

LAUGHARNE AND WHITEHILL DOWN, CARMS. (v.c.44).22nd JUNE 

About 20 members assembled in the centre of Laugharne in rather cloudy, humid weather, including 

several leading BSBI members and recorders from v.c.46 (Cards.), v.c. 4l (Glam.) as well as v.c. 

44. 

The leader, a native of Laughzrne, had arranged privileged access within the castle keep (GR 

SN/302.104) which is currently being renovated by Cadw, Welsh Historic Monuments. The atmosphere 

was damp and shady and a number of native and non-native plants were seen. Unfortunately, 

prolific stands of Cicerbita macrophyLla, in flower a matter of days previously, had been mown 

down but Carex pendula, C. divulsa, C. sylvatica and C. flacca had escaped. Species found in the 

nooks and crannies of the stonework included Cochleariu tfficinalis. Umbilicus rupestris, Cheiranthus 

cheiri, Parietaria diffusa and Veronica hederifolia subsp. hederiJolja. Spent annuals growing 

between the cobble-stones were Arabidopsis thaliaru and Arenaria serpylldolia and a few plants of 

the liverwons Marchnntia polymorpha and Lunularia cruciata, were also seen. 

A number ofplanted woody subjects were noted including Coktneaster c.f. bullatus, EuonyTnv5 

japonicus. Sorbns aria, Quercus ilex, Cornus mas, Deutzia probably scabra and Lonicera Ledehourii 

whilst several sDecimens of Lercesteria formosa were self-sown on the walls. 

After leaving the casrle, a b.ief deiour was made along the main street of the town to see the 

population of Orobanthe hederae growing atop an old garden wall (GR SN/301.109) known here 

for about ten years but steadily declining in numbers due to progressive cleaning of the stonework. 

About 20 spent flower spikes were noted. 

The lush hedgebanks of Dylan's Walk (GR SN/304.109) yielded Rubia peregrina, Calumintha 

sylvatica, Origanum vulgare and Viola odorata. Two species particularly frequent in the shady 

banks and cliffs of the Laugharne area were also seen, these being Polypodium cambricum and 

Carex divulsa. 

An overgrown and very rank cultivated area perched on the edge of the cliff (GR SN/305.1 l0), 

threatened by the growth of both Syringa vulgaris and .!asa sernnensis, had several Stachys hyzuntirn 

and Foeniculum vulgare plants amongst the weeds. The prolific growth of Hebe x franr:iscana 

(H. elliptica x H. speciosu) on the cliff above Dylan's Boathouse was noted whilst descending the 

steps to beach level. 

The waik back to the cars at the foot ofthe cliff(GR SN/303.107) afforded the oppoflunity to 

record a number of maritime species like Raphanus maritimus and Plantago maritima at the top of 

the shingle bank. Growing at a somewhat higher level on the cliff were Festuca gigantea, Polystichum 

setiferum, Euphorbia latlryrus and Conium maculaturn whilst woody species included Clematis 

vitalba, festooning several areas of cliff vegetation, Sorbas aria, presumably originating from the 

specimen growing within the castle bounds above and a hybrid Ulnus, galled with the leaf roll 

inducing homopteran aphid, Erbsoma ulmi. 

On returning to the cars a short break was taken for lunch before driving the 3km to Whitehill 

Down (CR SN/293.130). 

The 40ha Whitehill Down is one of three open-fields in the parish of Laugharne and is a rare 

survivor of an enclosure, subject of this ancient farming practice. The open-fields have no intemal 

fences but the land is divided into a series of strips of varying size which are marked by low banks 

and shared out amongsl the 76 burgesses. Each share historically comprised a number of strips in 

each of the open-fields with a balanced distribution of large and small areas on good and poor 

ground. Today adacent strips are often farmed as a single unit enabling a degree of agricultural 

improvement on some pans of the enclosure. In the nineteenth century a rotation between corn and 

paiture *as practiced but at presbnt Whirehill Down is managed excluiively as perrnanenl grasslantl 

for its hay or silage crops followed by aftermath grazing in the autumn and winter. 

The Laugharne open-fields were surveyed by the Wales Field Unit of the (then) Nature Conservancy 

Council in June 1985 and a detailed vegetation analysis was produced to National Vegetation 

Classification specification. Whitehill Down supports a number of different grassland communities 

and variants mostly consisting of unimproved or semi-improved mesotrophic grassland of the 

Cynosurus cristatus - Centaurea nl1;ra meadow and pasture type (MG5) on both dry and damp 

substrates. Ssveral other NVC types also occur including areas of acid grassland, reed-bed. A/nus 

woodland and invasive scrub. 

58

Repons of Field Mccrings - 1991 

Many members of the pany remarked upon the species-richness of the mesotrophic gasslands. 

Particularly notable was the presence of species such as Carum vericillatum, Sanguisorba officina- 

Iis, Carex futstiana, Briza media and orchids. Although most Dactylorchids had been caught by late 

frosts, Dacrl-ktrhiza majalis subsp. praetermissa, D. fuchsii, D. maculata subsp. ericetorum and 

putative D. fuchsii x D. maculata sabsp. ericetorum (D. x transiens) were identified together with 

several plants of Platanthera hifolia and Listera ovata. The season had progressed too fa.r to see 

Orchis morio in flower, although the species grows here in reasonable abundance. Two species of 

Euphrasia were seen to be locallv frequent and were later provisionally determined by George 

Hutchinson as E. urctir:a subsp. barerzlrs and E. anglica, both new records for the site. 

Several areas of Moliniu caerulea dominated, acidic grassland occur on the site and are mostly 

not generally cut for hay. Tussocky swards have developed here with invading scrub of Ulex, Rubus 

and SaLix and by-andJarge they are very species-poor. Careful examination, however, rewarded 

members of the pany with occasional plants of such species as Genista anglica, Senatula tinctoria 

and Scutellaria minor. 

The site slopes down to the estuarine reed-beds of the Afon Taf which largely consist of monospecific 

Phragmites australis although the least marine westem margins have stands of Carex 

riparia. Other species noted included Carex otrubae, C. nigra, Juncus gerardi, Oernnthe lachemlii 

and Eleocharis uniglumis. Although not seen on this occasion, a small stand of the Red Data Book 

grass, Alopecurus bulbosus was recorded near to the edge of the reed-bed by the Wales Field Unit in 

1 985. 

An area of scrubby A/nus woodland occurs towards the south-eastern corner of the site. Care-r 

riparia was present here also, as a constituent of the ground-layer but the discovery of a few scattered 

plants of Lysimachia vulgaris was another new record for the site. 

The flora of the area of shon, wet, low-lying grassland near to, but just above the estuarine 

flats, included Caltha palustris, Lythrum salicaria, Eleocharis uniglumis, Pedicularis palustris, 

Festuca arundinacea and Carex pallescew (another new site record). Several Scarlet Tiger moths 

were also seen here. 

Retuming up-slope towards the road, drier mesotrophic grassland was again encountered and 

additional species seen included Primula veris, Carex caryophyllea, Pimpinella sarifraga and 

Yttlpia bromoides. 

On ;rrival at the cars, the leader invited all members of the party back to his home for tea in 

Laugharne, where his wife had laid out a superb spread of home-maie sandwiches and cakes. All 

present greatly enjoyed the feast in the now, very crowded kitchen. 

Both Mrs Rees and John were very warmly thanked for arranging such an enjoyable and rewarding 

day rounded off by such a welcome and unexpected surprise. I am also most grateful to 

Cadw for allowing access to Laugharne Castle and to Laughame Corporation, particularly Alderman 

Merchant, Portreeve, and Mr Argyle, Recorder, for permission to visit Whitehill Down. 

Thanks also to all expens present for their words of wisdom and finally, I acknowledge the invaluable 

information and data contained within the Wales Field Unit reoort. 

Reference 

Smith, I.R. (1986). A botanical survey of three open-field systems in the Parish of lttugharne. 

Carmarthen. D .t'fed. Wales Field Unit, Nature Conservancy Council internal repon. Bangor. 

R.D. PRYCE 

CAERLLAN, GWENT (v.c. 35). 5th-7th JULY 

(Annual General and Welsh Exhibition Meetings) 

Following dinner, those staying overnight in Caerllan Field Centre, drove the few kms to the Gwenl 

Wildlife Trust Reserve, The Dixton Bank to see the large number of flowering Bee Orchids (Ophrys 

aptfera) and a small number of Pyramidal Orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis) with many other 

calcicoles. The nearby A40 verge provided some aliens including the scarce Narrow-leaved Pepperw 

ort (Lep idium ruderal e). 

Saturday morning began with a quick visit to a marsh at Lower Meend Farm though the Heathspotted 

Orchids (Dacrylorhiza maculata) were largely in fruit. Smooth-stalked Sedge (Carex laevigata) 

was fiequcnt nea-r the Eared Willows (Salix uurita). 

59

Reports of Field Meetings - l99l 

As the cars travelled down Whitebrook Valley, the Large Cuckooflower was sought in vain, as 

the purple sheets thar had edged the brook for hundreds of meres a month earlier had shed their 

pelals. Cardamine raphanifulid comes from mountains in southern Europe. 

Blackcliff, a woodland over Carboniferous limestone, had suffered from the two previous dry 

summers but still managed to provide a range of species including Upright (better known locally as 

Tintem) Spurge (Euphorbia serrulata), Carex strigosa and C.sylvatica two very simikir sedges 

growing in close proximity so they could be examined for differences, Fingered Sedge (Carcr 

digitata), Mountain Mehck (Melica nutans) near its southem limit, Herb Paris (Parls quadrifolial, 

Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) in fnrit, Iris f

Rcpons ol Field Mcedngs - 199I 

non-flowering Cicuta vircsa and Berulo erecta and one pond had a very large stand of Schoenoplectus 

Lacustris subsp. tuhernaefinnta,Li. Submerged plants included Ranunt:ulus d(tLultilis, R. triclnphyllus, 

C hara vulgaris , Callitriche hamulara and Lemna trisulca. 

Four species of Potamogeutn were identified, P. ruttaru, P. obtu"sifoliw, P. berchtoldii and 

P. alpinus (the latter rare in Wales). 

Between ponds we visited two small woods. In one there was Sorbiei torminalis and about eight 

Tilia cordata'showing their uptumed flowers. The secon

Annual Exhibition Mccting, 1991 

R. micrantha; and R. canina x R. obtusifolia (all determined by A.L. Primavesi). The last three of 

these could be new for Caerns. v.c. 49. 

Other records of interest are Marrubiwn vulgare and Polypodium cambricum discovered by 

Iwan Edgar in Ponh Ceirias, near Abersoch. 

A.P. CONOLLY 

CY M B ALARI A MU RALI S forma TO UTO N I I 

In Watsonia 14: 182-3 (1982) David McClintock drew anention to a remarkable variant of Cymbalaria 

muralis Gaenn., Mey. & Scherb. named C. toutonii by Chevalier in 1937. First found at 

Laval, France, it then appeared in 1960 at Aachen. In 1990 McClintock received seed (unavoidably 

not sown) from the Botanic Gardens, Utrecht. In the summer of 1990 an obviously identical plant 

appeared quite spontaneously on d:Lmp brickwork in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. 

Cuttings were rooted before the original plant was destroyed as a'weed'. In 1991 numerous identical 

self-sown seedlings, as exhibited appeared near their (?autogamous) parent. Uniformity of numerous 

progeny was reported both at Laval and Utrecht. 

Chevalier had already suggested that C. toutonii is a mutant, and in 1947 Cufodontis named it 

C. muralis forma toutonii. In all probability it is a double recessive mutant comparable to the wellknown 

variant dodartii of Urtica piluliferd, currently flourishing at Pembroke College, Cambridge. 

D.E. COOMBE 

OPHIOGLOSSUM LUSITANICUM : 3I YEARS IN CULTIVATION 

ln The Wild Flowers of Guernsey (1975) McClintock rightly ascribed the decline of this little fem to 

changed agricultural practices (cessation of grazing and furze-cutting for fuel) rather than to 

over-collecting. By 1960 U/ex (checked by the 1959 drought) had not completely covered the 

southern slopes; by 1979 spiny scrub was almost impenetrable, and the total of fronds in Guernsey 

was about 1,500. 

Yet one plant in 1960 has produced uncounted thousands in moist, frost-free conditions at 

Cambridge. Remarkably, it is fenile throughout the year and was ideal for teaching (unlike 

O. vulgatum).lts greatest enemies apart fiom frost are competition from other plants (even 'weedy' 

mosses and liverwons), slugs and snails, and, in the field, rabbits. 

It recovers rapidly from prolonged desiccation: in 1990 plants became fenile one month after 

six months'drying out; in 1991 some plants desiccated at up to 42'C for l8 months recovered in 

four to eight weeks. 

D.E. COOMBE 

AN UNUSUAL FORM OF CERASTIUM DIFFUSUM PeTs. . CERASTIUM 

TETRANDRUM L. var. PUSILLUM A.J. Wilmott? 

During botanical work on the machair of the Aird A'Bhorrain Peninsular, North Uist (v.c. 110) over 

the last four years, an odd annual Cerastiwn was found repeatedly. The plants were glandular, had 

herbaceous bracts, had tiny, clustered flowers, and apparently did not produce fruiting capsules. 

They occurred in a number of sites, often frequently, and in successive years. They zre most typical 

of dry, frrst year fallow arable fields with Arerutria serpyllifulia, Cerastium diffustun 

(C. tetrandrum) and Viola tricolor. The fields in which it occurs are cultivated using traditional 

methods without herbicides. 

Reference to the Flora of the Outer Hehrides (Pankhurst & Mullin 1991) immediately suggested 

that the plants could be Cerastium tetrandrum vetr. pusillum A.J. Wilmott (Journal of Botany 

79: 102). Comparison with the type specimen in BM showed that the plants were indeed very 

similar, although having more clustered flowers with slightly smaller parts. 

If the plants produce no fruit, then how is this variety maintained? Such plants are certainly not 

'one-offs'. We hope to cultivate plants in 1992 to find out more. 

I. CRAWFORD, T.C.G. RICH & G. HALLIDAY 

62

Annual Exhibition Mce-ting, l99l 

AQUATIC PLANTS DATABASE 

A project to reassess the national distribution ot submerged, floating and emergent aquatic plant 

species is currently being undertaken by the Biological Records Centre. The raditional souces of 

species-related records are being used, but in addition one object of the project is to incorporate 

records from the numerous site surveys which have taken place in recent years. It is imponant to 

ensure that only taxonomically reliable surveys arc incorporated into the darabase; preference is 

then given to detailed surveys containing precisely localised records, particularly from under-recorded 

areas. The potential uses of the database were illustrated by maps showing spread of an alien 

species, decline of native species, colonisation of canals by native species. studies of the flora of 

individual sites and phenological studies of closely related species. 

The work is financed by JNCC, NERC and NRA. 

J.M. CROFT & C.D. PRESTON 

A TAXONOMIC REVISION OF THE GENUS GALANTHUSL. 

Snowdrops have recently been classified in several radically different ways, with as few as ten or as 

rnany as 2)l species. No taxonornic Jgreemenl exists and thc genus awaits a full biosvstematic investigation. 

For this reason, a scientific research programme was initiated as a joint project between the 

Royal Horticultural Scrciety and the University of Reading. 

Until now, this research has concentrated on leaf micromorphology and anatomy, seed morphology 

and palynology- Herbarium studies were also undertaken, over 5(X) herbarium specimens 

have been examined. On a recent visit to St Petersburs and Tbilisi material collected in the Caucasus 

was srudied 

Extensive field studies have been made in Yugoslavia, Greece, The Aegean Islands, Turkey and 

France during Winter-Spring 1991. Collaboration with botanists in Russia and Georgia is underway, 

and plans are well advanced firr a visit to the Caucasus in 1992 and 1993. 

It is planned to use the modenr molecular methods of chloroplast DNA analysis and phytochemistry 

to examine rhe intia and inter specific relatkrnships, and to resolve phylogen;.. 

A.P. DAVIS 

THE /RIS UNGUICULARIS GROUP 

Results were presented of a study on these taxa which recognised two species l.lazica Albov (S.8. 

Black Sea Coast) and I. unguicularis Poiret (Mediterranean), the latter containing three subspecies: 

unquicularis, cretensis and t:arica. The last, subsp. caricn funher divided into three varieties: caric0, 

angustifolia and :;1-riaca 

A.P. DAVIS & S.L. JI IR Y 

SPECIES RECOVERY PROGRAMME 

English Nature's Species Recovery Programme, launchedon 9 April 1991, is apositive programme 

of action aimed at rescuing, reviving and restoring plants and animals threatened with extinction. A 

basic objective is to ensure long-term self-sustained survival of the species selected by encouraging 

rppropriatc hlhitlt manag.erlcnl and monitoring. 

We are working in piumenhip with a wide ranee of hdividuals and orgtrrisadons to achieve the aims of 

rhcDnrlnrrrrnc ' FncJish|JaturehaicorlminuloverIl00.000tot}eproerarn-meinitsfintyear. 

By collah'ruriic r,rrrh otlr partnertrgarrisad()ns. wc ile udl-r"sng ftrnds in thc mosteffecrive way pctssible 

to oromotc sDe{.]c\ c()nseftauon. lo Llate we nave concentrated our Rsonrces on muaoves lor sx sEclcs. 

selected in c

Annual Exhibitron Meetrng, 1991 

ASPECTS OF THE MONMOUTHSHIRE (V.C.35) FLORA 1985.199I 

Dandelions and Hawkweeds were illustrated by coloured 6" x 4" prints with the suggestion that if 

well-photographed, well-pressed, typical, labelled specimens, with close-ups of key pans could be 

made available, at a price, to enthusiasts they would make identification aids in the absence of 

adeouate handbooks. 

bistribution maps, a county coastline map and printed comments illusuated the possible threats 

to coastal plants when the proposed upgading of the sea wall took place. 

Displays of new vice county records and some scarce plants on herbarium sheets completed the 

exhibit. 

T.G. EVANS 

SOME BRITISH OROBANCHE VARIANTS 

Orobanche species occasionally show a tendency towards colour or morphological variation and 

many varieties and forms have been described - particularly by early continental workers. However, 

there is a scarciry of such records in recent British literature. 

ln Britain, even the commonest species is comparatively rare and consequently, photographs 

and detailed field notes are the only responsibie means of building up perrnanent records. This is 

probably one reason why variation in British Orobanche species often goes unrecorded. 

Nevertheiess, their occurrence is more frequent than might be supposed, and by way of 

example, colour photographs were shown of some recently encountered. These included an example 

of O.rapum-genistae f. hypoxantha Beck ftom Caerns. v.c.49, an unidentified form of O.minor 

(occurring at two separate localities in S. Lancs. v.c. 59 and SW Yorks. v.c. 63), and several unusual 

forms of O. reticulata from Mid-W. Yorks. v.c. 64, including one approaching f . kirantha 

Beck, and another apparently undescribed so far. 

A request was made for details of examples of variation in Orobanche - British or otherwise. 

M.J.Y. FOLEY 

CONSERVATION OF MOROCCAN CONIFERS IN THE BRITISH ISLES 

Concerned by the gradual erosion of wild populations of many coniferous species, the Edinburgh 

Conifer Conservation Programme aims to help safeguard many species by establishing breeding 

populations of rare and endangered temperate conifers throughout the British Isles. 

At the present rate of loss of wild habitats it is likely that many of these cultivated trees will 

outlast the species in the wild. In such cases it will be possible to reintroduce these species back into 

the wild from a broad genetic base. 

A series of expeditions has been organised over the next few years to sample seed from across 

the natural distributions. 

During a visit to Morocco we collected seed of four species of Moroccan trees: Abies marocana 

Trabut, Cedrus libani A. Richard in Bory subsp. atlantica (Endl.) Batt. & Trabut, Cupressus atlantica 

Gaussen andTetraclinis articulata (Vahl) Masters. 

It is planned to undenake funher studies on these genera in order to ascertain the correct systematic 

position and nomenclature of these Moroccan taxa. 

M.F. GARDNER, S.L. JURY & MOH REJDALI 

PROBLEMS IN THE DRYOPTERISAFFIN/S GROUP 

Tlte Dryopteris ffinis group is widespread in Europe and Macaronesia. It has a very complicated 

ancestry and is also apomictic. Within the group, however, there are "forms" or "noda" which can 

be distinguished by the experienced botanist. In the range of specimens exhibited two complexes 

- affinis s.s and borreri - emerged as identifiable units. 

The most imponant character in identification is the indusium. Frond shape is a second useful 

character. Scaliness of the stipe and rachis, and the colour of those scales are distinctive. Pinnule 

shape can vary considerably but the degree of toothing and the sharpness of teeth is diagnostic. The 

shape and degree of lobing of the lowermost basal pinnule on the frond is also very important and 

tv+

Annual Exhibition Meeting, l99l 

the lowest pinna should always be collected. The time of unfurling of the leaves in Spring can also 

be significant. 

The British Pteridological Society will be mapping the distribution of the Dryopteris affinis 

group over the next five years. Further particulars can be obtained from Anthony C. Pigon, 43 

Molewood Road, Henford SG14 3AQ. 

M. GIBBY. A.C. JERMY. A.M. PAUL & A.C. PIGOTT 

CYTOLOGICAL CATALOGUE OF THE BRITISH AND IRISH FLORA 

Progress in compiling a cytological catalogue of the British and Irish Flora was reviewed. The 

Valentine card-index has now been computerised using Advanced Revelation software; all taxa 

being listed according to the Kent checklist. The post 1975 literature survey is also progressing well. 

A total of 278 populations of 163 species have now been counted at Leicester. Of these new counts, 

many ire the first European or British counts ard some counts are new to the World. A selection of 

mitotic preparations was displayed, including Euonymus europaeus (2n=32) which represents the 

first count at this ploidy level, previously published counts (from Eastern Europe) have been 2n=64. 

A request was made for assistance with plant collection, chromosome counting and literature 

searches. A series of Short Notes to communicate the results has been started in Watsoniu. 

R.J. GORNALL & J-P. BAILEY 

VEGETATION SURVEY ROUND A LATE MELTING SNOW PATCH IN THE VAL 

D'AOSTA 

The growing season for many alpine flowers is extremely short, and even as late as the first week in 

July there are still many large snow patches at high altitudes in the Aosta valley. In this fieldwork 

project the undergraduates mapped a snow patch as it melted, measured light and temperature in and 

around the snow patch and made a detailed study of the plants that emerged from the snow patch. 

The study gives some idea of the speed with which some plants grow, even when they are still under 

the snow. 

A.M. HALL. H. BARTRAM. P. HOLT & P. WALLIS 

LT.-COL. JOHN CODRYNGTON 1898 - I99I 

"This indefatigable old soldier was shrewed and creative, his memory a marvel. He was the gentle 

water-colourist, the unstoppable traveller, the ingenious garden designer, the eager botanist, the 

undercover-agent, the singer, the leg-puller, the cheerful friend". 

On show were 19 watercolours of plants he painted in 1905-6 when he was 6 and 7, his 

"Flowers of the Field" of 1907 with his annotations, an extract fiom his set of 3U), indexed, "botanical 

maps and directions" referred to in his obituiLry inWatsonia, copies of obituaries in other journals, 

of a letter he wrote from Salzburg when with his regiment to the Wild Flower Magazine in 

September 1922, and a note of the exhibition of some of his very numerous paintings held at the 

Michael Parkin Gallery in January and February 1992. 

D. McCLINTOCK 

MEGA-MUSTARD (S/NAPIS ALBA T..) 

Photographs and specimens of a 220cm tall plant of Sinapis alba which occurred as a casual in a 

garden at Nayland, Sutfolk (v.c. 19) in 1989 were exhibited. The size of the plant was partly attributed 

to home madc conrpostl Seed from the plant grown in the same soil in 1990 produced only 

normal-sized specimens. 

'l-his 

plant was the source of thc nraximum height limit given for Sinapis alba in Crucifurs oJ 

Great Britain untl lreLuntl. 

ts. MILNE-REDHEAD & T.C.G RICT{ 

65


GUERNSEY 1991 

Although the islands of the Guemsey Bailiwick have been well worked for some time, fresh good 

finds continue. The visit of Prof. Stace in May added two important, critical, grasses - guess which! 

Wonh soecial mention are: 

Guemsey - Reseda alba, lst record since 1913. Myosoton aquaticum, the third occunence.Trifolium 

incarnatwn, last record 1963 of this agricultural waif. Potentilla recta, new to Guernsey. 

Pyrus commumr', 2nd record. Senecio viscosht, new to Channel Islands. S. x albescens.2nd 

record. Sisl,rlnchium montanurn, new to Channel Islands. Fe.rtuca rubra x Vulpia bromoides, 

new to Channel Islands. 

Alderney - Cynara scolymus, new to Channel Islands. Onopordum acanthium, lst record for 

Bailiwick for 100 years. 

Sark - Montia perfuliata, 1st record, for the family too. Lythrum salicaria, lst record, apparently a 

garden outcast. Lobelia erinus, lst record. Carex sylvatica 2nd record. Festuca ovlza subsp. 

ovina, new to C.I. (being checked at Leicester). Poa nemoralis, lst record. Bromus madritensis 

var. ciliatus, new var. for C.I. Trisetutn flavescens, I st record. Agrostis canina, 7st record for 

Sark itself. 

Herm - Crassula helmsii. lst record. 

B. OZA\NF. 

VERONICA x LACKSCHEWITZII Keller - AN OVERLOOKED HYBRID? 

The distinction between the closely related species Veronica anagallis-aquatica and C. catenata 

was first brought to the attention of British Botanists by G.C. Druce in 1911. The sterile hybrid 

between them, V. x lackschewitzii Keller, was recognised in Henfordshire by I.A. Williams in 1928, 

although it had been collected much earlier. Although the hybrid has been studied by J.H. Bumett 

and, experimentaily, by N.G. Marchant, many botanists are still unfamiliar with it. The long sterile 

racemes are, however, quite distinctive. The hybrid is found in disturbed sites (e.g. gravel pits) and 

in more stable habitats. In some rivers it can form extensive, vegetatively reproducing clones. Two 

complicating factors are (1) different races of V. anagallis-aquatica, when crossed experimentally, 

have produced sterile plants similar to V. anagallis-aquatica, when crossed experimentally, have 

produced sterile plants similar to V. x lackschewitzii and (2) some populations of the parents are 

highly complex and contain fertile intermediates. 

C.D. PRESTON 

FUMARIA VAILLANTII Lois.IN DUNDEE DOCKS 

Fwnaria vaillantii was found as a casual in two place s in Dundee Docks (v.c. 90) during a Kindrogan 

Field Centre excursion on l9 August 1991. It was growing on a disturbed road verge by a new 

warehouse with Fumariamuralis subsp. borael and F. fficinalJs, and nearby on dumped soil with 

F. offcinalis. 

This may be the second record for Scotland. 

T.C.G. RICH 

THE E RYT H RO N I U M DE NS-CANIS COMPLEX 

The genus Erythronittm (Liliaceae) encompasses between 15 and 25 species, most native to 

N.America.FourtaxaarefoundinEuropeandAsia: E.dens-canisL.,E.caucasicumWoron.,E. 

sibiricum Kryl. & Mey. and E. japonicum Decne. These are treated in various ways taxonomically. 

Provisional tesults were presented from morphological, palynological, biochemical and anatomical 

evidence which shows they ;re wonhy of specific recognition. 

N.A. ROWLAND 

66


PLANT HUNTING IN THE PYRENEES 

The results of a visit to the Pyrenees in May 1991 were reported. The Pyrenean mountain chain is 

particularly well-known for its range of habitats: the cool Atlantic coast to the hot Mediterranean 

shores; the steep, cool and moist northern cliffs to the hot, dry, arid Spanish slopes. The outstanding 

flora of this botanically rich area provided some 180 herbarium specimens for RNG and was recorded 

in over 700 colour slides. Highlights of this visit included Narcissus poeticus, Gentiana 

acaulis, Ramonda myconi and Erythronium dens-canis. 

N.A. ROWLAND & R.D. HYAM 

THE DISTRIBUTION OF CARDAMINE BULBIFERA (L.) CTANTZ IN BRITAIN 

Cardamine bulbifera, Coralroot, is a very local, native plant of woodlands in the Weald, the Chilterns, 

and Staffordshire. It is also introduced and naturalized elsewhere in Britain and lreland. Since 

198[i, we have been investigating the distribution of Cardamine bulbifera in detail to learn more 

about its ecology, reproduction and current status. 

[,ocalities 

Status 

-posr- 1988 

- extinct 

- untraced or 

unchecked 

CURRENT STATUS 

Native 

113 

30 

35 

Introduced 

Maps were shown of the plant with a request for more information about old or untraced localities. 

A.J. SHOWLER & T.C.G. RICH 

UMBELLIFERS - HOME AND AWAY 

The exhibitor once again presented material arising from recent excursions to the mountains of 

Southern Europe in pursuit of rarely-seen species. Seseli intricatum Boiss. and Ferulago granatensis 

Boiss.. from the Snanish sierras. were of oarticular interest. 

The Scarce Piant Project and the revision of the BSBI Umbellifer Handbook led to the inclusion 

of Oenanthe silaifolia Bieb., Oenanthe fluviarilis (Bab.) Coleman and Apium repens (Jacq.) 

Lag. In the case of the Apium, mateial from Britain and the continent was shown, inviting comment 

on the status of Port Meadow collections. 

The collection of European umbellifer fruits was available for inspection, as usual, and there 

was a live exhibit r>f rhree Er1'npium species todemonstrate the wide range of over-wintering habits. 

M. SOUTHAM 

26 

16 

FERNS FROM NEWLAW MOSS V.C.73 

An exhibit of fems from Newlaw Moss, north of Dundrennan, v.c.'73 were shown including Zhelypteris 

thelypteroides known there since 1959. Other fems are various Buckler Fems including the 

hybid Dryopteris x deweveri with both its parents. This year 2 Iarge clumps of Osmunda regalis 

were found; this is rare in the county with only 2 other sites. 

Also shown were plants from v.c.73,Viola reichenbachiana from its only site. A very slender 

form of Crepis paludosa which is common rn wet meadows, with a query whether other people 

have found a similar form. A plant of Vbla wittrockiana with normal largish purple flowers and a 

hybrid flower the size and colouring of V. tricolor on the same plant. 

Paintings of wild flowers seen this year in Ireland and Scotland. 

O. STEWART 

6l 

4

Annual Exhibition Meeting, 1991 

WILD FLOWERS AND FRUITS 

The five smaller paintings of Aquilegia rulgaris (Columbine), Iris sibirica, Trollius europueus 

(Globeflower), Papaver rhoeas (Common Poppy), and Rosa canina (Dog rose), were painted from 

life as oart of a oonfolio for an ar-t course. 

This was the catalyst for my interest in wild flowers, which has since become a passion. I hope 

to combine this, and through botanical an, help to conserve our wildflowers. 

The three larger paintings were done in the autumn, with more care, and with a possible career 

in botanical art in view. They are Castanea sativd (Sweet Chestnut), Spargunium erettunt 

(Branched Bur-reed), and Cirsium vulgare (Spear Thistle). 

J. TYLER 

JUVENILE PLANT.LORE 

The exhibit gave examples of some of the ways in which plants feature in the folklore of children. It 

included plants used as food (Crataegus spp.), in divination (Frailnus ercelsior and Galium aparine), 

and in games and pastimes (.Calystegia spp., Alopecurus pratensis and Plantago Lanceolata). 

The examples shown were taken from material contributed towards A Dir:tbnary of British & 

Irish Plant-lore (see BSBI New.r 56: 30, 1990). Approximately i750 items of information have been 

collected towards this project, but additional information is urgently sought. 

R. VICKERY 

AN ALCHEMILLA NBWLY DISCOVERED IN NORWAY : MIGHT IT BE IN 

BRITAIN? 

In i989, a Norwegian botanist found in W. Norway an Alchemilla he was unable to identify. He 

saw that it resembled the endemic Faeroese - Icelandic species A. faeroen.ris, and it was subsequently 

confirmed as related to that species, but distinct. I was able to visit the locality in May 1991: the 

exhibit showed a pressed specimen, photographs of the habitat, and details of related British and 

Continental species of the Section Splendentes. 

The new species will be published in 1992 by the Swalish Alchemilla-swialist Dr Stefan Ericsson. 

S.M. WALTERS 

PROGRESS ON THE OXFORDSHIRE (V.C.23) COUNTY FLORA 

Progress is reported on a new Flora started in 1970 to ufrate that of Druce (192'7). 

The coverage is now quite thorough, with c.170,fi)0 records,5 species found in all tetrads and lffi species 

recorded in 857o or more. To fill gaps we have utilized reccrrds (2300 so fnr) from the Berks, Bucks zurd Oxon 

Nanrralists' Trust We used Iow tetrad scores, the absencr of 'ubiquitous' 

species and low v:ores on early s*t-son 

ryecies, to target tetrads and species, adding 2.n6*1sr 900 records in 1}) 1. 

In many critical groups we ale short of authenticated roconls and rocor

Adveruscmcnts 

ADVERTISEMENTS 

BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO BULGARIA 

Monday 25 May - Saturday 6 June 1992 

Following the successful tour organised by the British Bulgarian Friendship Society for the BSBI, 

Prof. E.J. Shellard will lead another tour in the Vitosha, Rhodope & Stranja Mountains. There will 

also be visits to the outstanding geological sites at Belogradchik, Karjali and Sliven (Blue Mountalns 

). 

Outline programme, cost and more detailed information will be sent on request. Please write as 

sr)on as poss-ible as the clor^ing date for bookings is 24 April 

ITA PURTON (Secretary), The British-Bulgarian Friendship Society, c/o Finsbury Library, 245 St 

John Sreet, I.ONDON ECIV 4NB (tel.071-837-2304 

BACK NUMBERS OF BSBI PUBLICATIONS 

AreanymembersinterestedinbacknumbersofBSB/News,Watsonia,orBSBIAbstrrcl 

I haveto 

dispose of the mountain of copies whish I have accumulated over the years. 

BSBI News - pans -3 - 9 (1974 75), 17 - 48 (1977-88) 

Watst,niu - Vols ll (1,3,4), l2' l7 (1978'tt9) 

Abstructs - 6 - 20 (1975-90) 

Naturally I should expect postage costs to be refunded or anyone calling on me could collect any 

they wanted. 

CWEN ELWELL, 3 Crove Road, DUNSTABLE. Bedfordshire LU5 48Y (te1.0582 61958 

MEDITERRANEAN PLANTS 

For those contemplating a Mediterranean wild flower holiday or seeking a refresher course, Brian 

Gale and Franklyn Perring are running a non-residential weekend at the k)ndon University Botanic 

Gardens, Ilgham, Surrey and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on July 4 -5 1992. 

Some of the teachin_q will be done with the help of colour slides but most of the time will be 

spent looking at living plants. 

For funher details please contact: 

FRANKI-YN PERRING. 24 Glapthorn Road, OUNDLE, Peterborough PE8 4JQ 

1992 BOTANY TOURS OVERSEAS - LED BY BSBI MEMBERS 

Mount Olympus, Creecc 1l-20 June F.H. & M.E. Perring 

fiunher inlirrnration fiom: Wildlife Travel, RSNC. 120 Wilton Road, LONDON SWIV 1JZ (tel 

071,9-3 l-0601) 

STOP PRESS 

Remember the date when reading'PANTS', page -lt'l. 

69

ContcnLs 

Contents (continued from inside back cover) 

ANNUALEXHIBITIONMEETIN(;, I99I ...,........6I 

British brambles in the North Cotentin. France . 

rNhich Lemna? 

Rorippaislandica (Oederex Murray) Borbds new toWales 

. . . . . 6l 

.....61 

........... 61 

Recent additions to the W. Llevn flora 6l 

Cymbalariamuralis formatoutonii .......62 

Ophioglossumlusitanicum:31 yearsincultivation ..........62 

An unusual formof Cerastiutndiflusum Pers. .. 

Aquaticplantsdatabase 

A taxonomic revision of the genus Galanthus L. . . . . 

......62 

...........61 

. . . . . . . . . 63 

Thelri.tunguicularisgroup. .........63 

Speciesrecoveryprogramme 

Aspects of the Monmouthshire (v.c. 35) flora 1985-1991 

........63 

. . . . . 64 

Some British Orobanche vanants 

64 

ConservationofMoroccan conifers in the British lsles .. .....64 

Problems in the Dryopteris affinis group . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 

Cytological Catalogue of the British and Irish Flora . . . . . . . . . . 65 

Vegetation surveyroundalatemeltingsnowpatch inthe Vald'Aosta 

Lt.-Col. John Codryngton 1898 - 1991 

...........65 

. . . .. 65 

Mega-mustard(SinapisalbaL.) .....65 

Guernsey l99l ......... h6 

VeronicaxlackschewitziiKeller- anoverlookedhybrid? ......66 

Fumariavaillantii Lois.inDundeeDocks . ...........66 

The Erythroniumdens-canis complex 

Plant huntins in the Pvrenees 

....... 66 

The distributionof Cardamine bulbifura (L.) Crantz in Britain . . .. .... .67 

Umbellifers-homeandaway.. 

FernsfromNewlawMossv.c.T3.... 

Wild flowers and fruits 

............67 

......67 

Juvenileplant-lore .........68 

AnAlchemilla newlydiscoveredin Norway:mightitbein Britain? 

Progressonthe Oxfordshire (v.c.23) County Flora .. 

NewtoGreatBritain? AWillowherbandaWillow 

ADVERTISMENTS 

BotanicalexcursiontoBulgria 

............68 

........68 

..........6ti 

...... 69 

...........69 

Backnumbersof BSBIJoumals 

MediterraneanDlants . 

lgg2BotanyToursOverseas -ledbyBSBI Members 

............69 

.....69 

........69 

The Editor Gwynn Ellis can be contacted by phone on 0222-39'7951 ext 218 (NMW) or 

0222-496042 (home). 

Anicles can now be Fax'd to the Editor on 0222-373219 (Croups 2 & 3). 

All text and illustrations appearing in BSBI News and its Supplements are copyright and no 

reproduction in any form may be made without written permission 

from the Editor. 

Offers and special terms apply only to members of the Society and copies are not available on an 

exchange basis. 

BSBI News (ISSN 0309-930X) is published by the Botanical Society of the British Isles. 

Enquiries concerning the Society's activities and membership should be addressed to: 

The Hon. Ceneral Secretary, c/o Dept. of Botany, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, 

London SW7 5BD. 

Camera ready copy produced by Gwynn Ellis and printed by J. & P. Davison, 3 James Place, 

Treforest, Pontypridd, Mid ()lamorgan CF37 2BT (tel. 0443-400585) 

70

Contens 

Contents (continued fiom bar:k cover) 

Grass Haircuts 

Two corrections to John e'l..oyai, i*i. * cr"i6iit ,,7 c,rrot aiiioin ttnt:l Irelaint,l 

S e se I i i ntricatum Boiss 

"i 

The Pennine Bridleway - SSSI'S at risk 

Cutting roadside verges 

Dorothcr Eastwtxrd 11912 l96l;. a memoir 

The bluebell loeo .. 

BSBI & Conservation : to be or not to be 

Bonomists strike asain ! 

ALIEN.s AIiil inVBfrTivBS 

Aliens and Adventives News Plant records 

Spnng fl rrwering \'rocuses 

Ehrharta ere( kJ Lam. in Easr Suffolk 

Bunleurum r(,tundif(,lium ls l cut I'louer 

An overlooked Ash 

CABBAGE PATCH X , futinn r;i r. u oi tiatr,,i^'iaP..st 

Anthtmis austri(t('o Jacq. again . . . . 

CONSERVATION NEWS 

Conservation of rare plants in Scotland: 

CyrripediumC()nser\rti()n l99l repon 

NOTIT'ES IBSBI) 

Changes to dates of field meetines in 1992 Year Book 

Crlmlvn Fcn. Clarnorgan 1v.c. Jl) . .... . 

Stonewort Meeting, Wickham Fen 

A.C. Kenneth bequest 

Irish Botanical News 

NOTICES (OTHERS) . 

Future meetings of the British Bryological Society 

Fionr Brilrtnnicir ..... 

First World Conference: Phvrrstrciokrgy and NeglectedTerrestrial Systems (PANTS) ..... 

REQUESTS 

Research into Lemnu minuta and AzoLla fiLiculoides 

A8r, rStt.t trtninu L. 

BOOK NOTES ... . ..... ... ..... ....... 

REP()RTS OI,'T'ILLD }IEF]TI\(;S - I99I . 

F]NCLA N I) 

Axbridge, Mendip Hills, N. Somerset (v.c. 6) . 

Sutton Park, Wlrwickshirc (\.e ..ll() 

Kinver, Stltfordshirc 1v.t. .ltt1 

Nonh Lincolnshire (v.e . 5-l) . . . 

Hengistbury Head, l)orset 1v-c. I i ) 

Norfolk and Suffblk Borders (v.cc. u i-zsr 

Povington Ranges, Dorset (v.c.9) 

Croydon, Surrev (v.c. 17) 

Fclmersham Cravel 

Pits, Bedlirrdshire (v.c. 3 

IRELAND .... 

North and Southf 

ipperary (v.cc. Hl0 & Ft7) 

SCOI'T,AND . 

Kelso. Roxburghshire (v.c tt( ); 

Gigha Island. Kintyre (v.c. 

ror) . 

Me all Carbh. Clen l.yon. Mid Perth (v.c. 1313) 

WAI-ES 

[,augharne enu wfritetriti ij.r*n. Cur-t. tv c. ++) 

Caerllan, (lwcnt (v.c. -15) 

l'enley, Denbighshirc (v.c. 50) . . . 

(lontinued on pagc 70 

7l 

Iti 

29 

29 

-tt 

_11 

-rl 

-l -l 

3i 

l4 

f+ 

-1+ 

36 

-18 

:10 

.11 

4l 

.+1 

4-) 

,15 

45 

16 

46 

46 

46 

46 

46 

47 

4'7 

41 

4tt 

48 

4tt 

49 

49 

-50 

50 

50 

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5'l 

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60

ADMINISTRATION 

DIARY 

ON REACHING 60 

Contents 

CONTENTS 

EDITORIAL 

Thanks . 

Condolences 

Congratulations 

Latin and E,nglish names 

R.F. May (l9l.l-199 l) 

Another Botanical Pub . . . 

We love Yew . . 

HON. (;ENERAL SECRETARY'S NOTES 

Congratulations 

Arthur Sledge 

Secretary to Executive Committee 

1992 Year Book 

Ireland ....... 

Friends of the Harris Garden 

RECORDERS ANDRECORDING . 

Supplemenl no. 1 to List of Recorders in 1992 Year Book 

Change of Address 

Correction of Address 

Ireland . 

Supplement No. I to Panel of Referees and Specialists in 

White flower forms in the garden 

More on white orchids 

White-flowered Ranunculus u,rir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Different colours in llowers in v.c. I I I . 

Albinoflowersl ..... 

White forms ol'flowers in mid-Kerrv 

White forms of Geranium robertianurn 

Semi-albino Dacrybrhiza majalis 

White-floweredplants hnale 

Allium .tutivum L. 1Carlic.l . . 

Recording islands . 

lnsh mistletoe u fr..Ur.,rIn .eco.dt 

Prickly lettuce (Inctuca serriola) - 

An unknown Sorbus in Lancaster 

More on Giant Hogweeds 

Pedicellate lower f'lowers i"..f uiion to Orobanche maritima 

Altitudinal ranges . 

Native or introduced? and ho* .r.n Oo., itrnutt"il 

Lemna minuta and Azolla Jilir:uloides in canals 

PseuduJumuria Iutert . 

BSBI T-Shins 

SCARCE PLANTS PROJE.T 

Map for Gagea lutea . . . . 

Scarce Planis Project A Review 

Focus on Scarce Plants 

Curet rupesrris t Rock Sedge r 

Sesleriu cueruleu {Blue Moor-gra\s) . . . 

NOTES AND ARTICLES 

Latin and vernacul:u names please 

Cynthia Evelyn Longfield ( lSqfi l99l t a rribute . 

Henry and other boggarts (or Heinz Meanz Elvz) 

ISBN: . 

Continued on inside back covcr 

" popuiu,ion .*pf orion in w-*i.f tfrir. . . . . . . . . . . . : . . 

72 

2 

2 3333333-l 

1 

4 A 

i 

1 

4 

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5 

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5 

5 

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l1 

ll 

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12 

12 

17 

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Itt 

t9 

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2l 

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22 

L) 

.,4 

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