iS6 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



species, I thought his views would be interesting to British 

 botanists. He writes : " The English Crattzgi which you have sent 

 me show how inconstant is the number of the styles in the White- 

 thorn. We cannot, in my opinion, make use, with any result, either 

 of the number of the styles or of the stones for distinguishing 

 C. Oxyacantha and C. monogyna. The only tolerably certain 

 character is given in the nervation of the leaves, as was pointed out 

 by Boreau in ' Flore des Centre de la France,' vol. ii. p. 234 (1857), 

 and specially clearly by Willkomm in ' Forstliche Flora,' pp. 611, 

 612. C. Oxyacantha (pxyacanthoides, Thuill.) has the lower leaf- 

 nerves curved inwards. C. monogyna has them curved outwards. 

 C. monogyna, besides, has generally, but not always, and especially 

 in the south of Europe, strongly divided leaves." Some of my 

 specimens from Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, and 

 Northamptonshire, which had the incurved veins characteristic of 

 true (Boreau's) C. Oxyacantha, had hairy calyx tubes. These Herr 

 Freyn has named " C. Oxyacantha, L., var. eriocalyx, Freyn, inedit., 

 a typo calyce dense villoso, pedicellis plus minus villosulis differt." 

 According to our British definitions, these plants, from their hairy 

 calyx tube, would have probably been grouped under C. monogyna, 

 but in some specimens collected by me the flowers on the same 

 branch varied with one or two styles. I think the definition given 

 by Herr Freyn will assist us in grouping the forms of the White- 

 thorn in a more satisfactory manner than has hitherto been the 

 case. In some examples from the Midlands, I find that the 

 vegetative shoots on a branch bearing leaves with convergent 

 nerves have also leaves with somewhat divergent nerves. This may 

 be a hybrid plant, or it may show that the character based upon the 

 nerves is not so precise as one is led to suppose. On this point 

 further information is required ; but, without knowing the character 

 given above, I had marked this identical specimen " C. Oxyacantha 

 approaching monogyna" A specimen collected by my friend Miss 

 C. E. Palmer, and distributed, through the Bot. Exch. Club, from 

 Warwickshire, Herr Freyn also names var. eriocalyx. All my 

 Scottish specimens belong to C. monogyna. There appears to be 

 good ground for believing that this is a distinct species from C. 

 Oxyacantha, and I should not be surprised if it may eventually be 

 shown that the C. Oxyacantha in the Linnean Herbarium is also 

 monogyna, as this appears to be the more frequent form in the north 

 of Europe. G. CLARIDGE DRUCE. 



An Early Scottish Locality for Sparganium affine, Schizl. (S. 

 natans, Linn.}. Mr. Clarke, in his interesting " First Records of 

 British Flowering Plants," mentions as the earliest printed reference 

 for the above species the third edition of Babington's " Manual " 

 of 1851. The following letter to Sir James Smith will show that 

 it had attracted attention in Scotland some time previously, and, 



