REVISION OF I IE BRITISI SPECIES OF SAGINA - BSBI Archive

WIL
,MS J
SAGINA.
i97
c. densa Aschers. in Verhandl. Bot. Ver. Brandenburg. iii. iv.
p. 3~ (Dec. 1862).
Caul~s tenues 'adscendentes perramosi internodius brevibus.
Folia incrassata. Capsula calyce obvie brevior.
D. .~tricta Clavaud in Act, Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, 1881, p. 386.
Caules multum firmiores stricti minus nitidi leviter ramosi , internodiis
abbreviatis. Sepala lanceolata. Capsula calyce obvie
brevi or.
Hab. Inverness-shire; on the top of Ben Nevis (G. Don, 1794).
The example in Sowerby's herbarium (in Herb. Brit.), used for
the figure of S. maritima, has Don's label attached! and it is here
transcribed with the original spelling in ti,e characteristic orthography
of this remarkable botanist :-' S. alpina, this I believe to
be a new species. I found it upon ben Nivis in Lochaber, this
answers to the following description: foliis radicalibus linearibus,
obtusis nitidis £lore apetalo; this differs from the apetala in the
radicaNeaves being broader and obtuse and [?] opening, and it is
a considerable larger plant. I have cultivated this and apetala both
for 2 years, and they remain permanently different. This is a cultivated
speciment, but it is in no way different from the wild spe.
in appairance; found in 1794.' In support of this identification,
Messrs. Groves (Babington's Manual, ed. 9, p. 58) say that' Fries
states that his plant (stricta) sometimes occurs upon mountains in
Norway; and G. Don seems to have found it on Ben Nevis.' D.
Don states that his father, G. Don, found it still there in 1803,
nine years after he first noticed it on the mountain. Smith says
that' G. Don sent the same from the summit of Ben Nevis in 1803.
This example is in Smith's herbarium.
Syn.-S. stricta a alpina Fries, Nov. Fl. Suec. ed. 2, p. 58
(1828); S. maritima var. alpim Syme, Engl. Bot. ii. p. 177 (1864).
E. ciliata Nordst~dt in Hariman Skand. Fl. ed. I I p. 247 (J879).
Griseo-glaucescens, parce glandulosa. Caules decumbentes.
Folia apic':1lata, pilis glanduliferis minutis.
Hab. Cliffs at Boddin Point, 3 miles south of Montrose, on the
coast of Angus.
This is th~ plant mentioned in Bot. Exch. CLub Rep. 1914, p. 130,
found growing on limestone by Mr. R. H. Corstorphine, in June,
IQI4. .Specimens of a frm of S. maritima from Afton bay, Alum