the cork groundsels
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The Cork GroundselsAuthor(s): R. A. PhillipsSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan., 1898), p. 22Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25521360 .
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22 The frish Naturalist. [January,
The Cork Grouncdsels.
Having been for some years past miuch interested in the history of the
presumed hybrid Senecio, whiclh occurs in this district, I was pleased to
see the note in last month's iAish NatuiraZist, by AMr. F. W. Burbidge,
especially his opinion, after seeing the plant in situ, that it " has resulted
from the hybridising of S. squaliduis with S. vulgaris," a point on which
doubt has been cast by English as well as Irish botanists. First, I believe, collected and distributed by Isaac Carroll, who ap
parently had no doubt about its being a hybrid, it was recorded by Moore
and More in the Cybele Hiberniica as " may be a hybrid " but subsequently,
in " Additions to the Flora of Ireland," More states that " the supposed
hybrid . . . proves to be the rare variety of S. vulgaris with ligulate
florets, which has also been found in Donegal."
Specimens distributed through the Bot. Exch. Club from I875 to i88o
have been variously referred to in Reports of that Club as S. vulgaris var.
kzibernica, S. veraZisis, and S. crzssifolizns, chiefly on the authority of Syme,
who seems to have doubted its hybrid origin. Dr. Focke in his work on
hybrids has accepted it as S. vu4garis x S. sqtaliduts.
How so many ilames came to be applied is not easy to see, but they
may be due to the fact that S. vzdgazris var. radiathts and the hybrid, which
in some states closely resemble one another, both occur in Cork, the
latter being confined to places wlhere S. squl/idus is abundant, while the
former is plentiful and widely distributed throughout the county, occurring on all the railways, miany roadsides, waste places, &c., reaching
south to Skibbereen and Baltimore, and on all sides far beyond the range
of S. squ2aZidzus. The hybrid is a variable plant, the commoner form being
weak, with slender, rather succulenlt stenms and branches, the rarer one
is upright, has a more fibrous stem, fleshly leaves and flowers approaching
those of S. squaliduis in appearance.
The variety radiatuzs is usually found in cotilpany with the type of S.
vulgaris, but in some places, as at Passage, is almost the only form to be
seen. Information as to the occurreince or absence of these intermediate
forms in the south of Europe and other places where S. squalidus and S.
vulgaris grow together would be miost interesting and desirable.
As an instance of an exotic establishing itself in a conmparatively short
time, few plants will bear comparison with the spread of S. squaliduis, which is now the most abundant and brightest looking weed around
Cork and several of the neighbouring towns. It is in full bloom in May
with another burst in autumn, and individuals may be found flowering
at all seasons. Its leaves are usually pinnatifid with irregular linear seg
ments, but a form occurs at Cork and Queenstown in which they are
lanceolate, entire or slightly serrate.
Cork. R. A. PHILLIPS,
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