BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS 51 



tentacles of Octopus are arranged more or less alternately, and when 

 the tentacles are stretched, though to a comparatively small extent, 

 it is at times difficult to determine whether there are one or two 

 rows, and the alternate suckers then approach so near to the 

 middle line as to appear to constitute but one row ; this is especially 

 the case with those suckers that are more distant from the base and 

 nearer to the extremity of the tentacle. The following are some 

 recent records of the capture of Eledone within the area of the Firth 

 of Forth : 



Trawling Station I. (East of Inchkeith), September 2ist. 



,, III. ,, 22nd. 



,, ,, II. October 22nd. 



VIII. (N.E. of the Bass), 25th. 



,, ,, VII. (between Fidra and Bass), ,, 26th. 



,, V. (West of May Island), November i ith. 



One, or at most two, specimens only were taken at one time. In 

 the "Invertebrate Fauna of the Firth of Forth," by Leslie and 

 Herdman, p. 104, the only record of the occurrence of Eledone in 

 the Firth is that by Dr. M'Bain, who obtained the species in 

 Kirkcaldy Bay in 1855. THOMAS SCOTT, Leith. 



BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS. 



Ranunculus Flammula, L. ; var. petiolaris, Lange ined. Mar- 

 shall in "Journ. Bot.," 1888, 230. 



R. petiolaris, Marshall, "Journ. Bot." 1892, t. 328, p. 289. 



Mr. S. M. Macvicar of Invermoidart has kindly sent specimens 

 of the above plant from Loch Bealachna Gavishe, alt. 607 ft, 

 Moidart, Inverness-shire, 2ist November 1892. He also has 

 gathered it in another station. The specimens he sends show that 

 the plant produces roots, and root-leaves at the upper nodes, which, 

 falling to the ground by the decay of the flowering stem, become 

 new plants. The atumnal root-leaves are 3 to 5 inches long, 

 terete for two-thirds of their length, the apex produced into a slightly 

 flattened, spathulate, concave end, with whitish membraneous basal 

 sheaths. For a short distance above the sheaths the leaf-petioles 

 are slightly doubly channelled, shading almost imperceptibly into 

 the terete portion. The new plant is produced by the side of the 

 old flowering-stem (most of the roots of which are decayed, or decay- 

 ing), with the habit of growth of Triglochin, and also reminding one 

 of some of our native orchids. 



I have no specimens at hand of the type to compare ; but from 

 recollection I believe the growth to be different in that. 



