HARDWICKE'S SCIEN C E-ROSSIP. 



113 



ca'ed, and I have not heard that it has been found 

 since. In tlie " Tourist's Flora " of Joseph Woods, 

 published in 1850, it is thus described : " Root 

 leaves lanceolate mucrouate ciliate, stem leaves 

 linear, stem hollow, flowerinp: from base, and 

 forming a thyrsoid raceme. Mountains of Nice, 

 D. C. ; not noticed by Duby or Bertoloni." The 

 plant is about four inches in height, with a dense 

 ovoid raceme covering the whole plant from the 

 bottom. In the drawing it is represented as closely 

 branched, and of a bright red colour. It would 

 give me much pleasure to have additional par- 

 ticulars, should this meet the eye of any reader 

 possessing further information regarding it. — 

 T. B. W. 



ValePxIANA pyrenaica. — Whatever may be ad- 

 vanced in behalf of Astrantia iiiajor, few botanists 

 will be disposed to accept the claims of Valeriana 

 pijrenaica to British citizenship. To use Dr. 

 Hooker's words, " it has no pretensions to be con- 

 sidered indigenous." As to the other plants men- 

 tioned by Mr. Harrison in the same conjunction, 

 JJelleborus viridis is of course always open to a 

 certain amount of doubt. Of Epilobium angus- 

 tifolium there are two forms. The first, or typical 

 state, niacrocarpum, is undoubtedly native, and 

 much more common than was supposed by our 

 earlier botanists. It is recorded for all Mr. 

 Watson's provinces. The second, hrachycarpurn , 

 with "buds very oblique, and capsules 1 — Iv^ inch," 

 is " only known in cultivation, and as a garden 

 escape." It would be interesting to know to which 

 form Mr. Harrison's plant belongs. Brachycarpnm 

 is not recorded in "Comp. Cyb. Brit.," any more than 

 Valeriana pyrenaica, for province 8, which includes 

 Derbyshire, though it is given for Yorkshire. If 

 the suggestions of Mr. Robinson, in his interesting 

 works on gardening, are at all generally carried out, 

 there is likely to be a great increase in the number 

 of false records, both of British and exotic plants 

 in wild seeming localities. — R. A. Pryor. 



The British Isoetes.— Seeing "T.B.W.'s" notice 

 respecting the genus fsoefes, a few remarks on the 

 British species may not be out of place. There are, 

 I believe, three species of Isoetes that may be 

 called British. Two of these, viz. Isoetes lucustris 

 and Isoetes echinospora, inhabit Britain proper ; the 

 third, Isoetes hystrix, has only been observed in one 

 of the Channel Islands, viz. Guernsey, on I'Ancresse 

 Common. I see that " T. B. W." does not mention 

 ecJdnospora in his article. The two first are very 

 limited in their distribution in Britain, when com- 

 pared witli other aquatic plants. They are both 

 found in lakes in the vicinity of Llanberis, North 

 Wales, where echinospora was first discovered by 

 Mr. W. Wilson, and afterwards by Mr. C. C. 

 Babingtou J and specimens were sent to M. Gay, 

 of Paris, who determined them to be Isoetes echino- 



spora. It was also found in Scotland by Mr. Ba 

 bington and Dr. Balfour. The habitat is different ; 

 echinospora is never found except the bed of the lake 

 is composed of peat. The two may be distinguished 

 when growing together by the lighter green colour 

 of the leaves of echinospora. Isoetes hystrix was 

 discovered in 18G0 by Mr. G. Wolsey, of Guernsey, 

 who found it on I'Ancresse Common. Specimens 

 were sent to Mr. Babington, who named it hystrix, 

 and the name was confirmed by M. Durieu de 

 Miiisonneuve and M. J. Gay, who are the best 

 authorities on the genus. '" T. B. W." mentions that 

 it may be another species, but I think there is no 

 doubt that the Guernsey plant is hystrix. — 

 Thomas Bates Blow, Welwyn, Herts. ' 



Botanical Locality Record Club. — Dr. F. 

 Arnold Lees, F.L.S., and Mr, Thomas B. Blow, are 

 now forming a club with the above title. The club 

 proposes, by means of corresponding members, to 

 collect and record the localities of the rarer British 

 plants, which lists of records will be published and 

 distributed to members at the end of each year. 

 By the working of such a club a correct knowledge 

 of the distribution of British plants will be arrived 

 at. It will also aid in ascertaining whether certain 

 species which are thought to be extinct are really 

 so. One hundred members in England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland are wanted to commence. All who 

 wish to become members, and are willing to aid in 

 the formation of such an association, are requested 

 to address Thomas B. Blow, Welwyn, Herts, who 

 will supply full particulars. 



GEOLOGY. 



The Pleistocene Age. — A capital article, from 

 the pen of Mr. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., appears in 

 the April number of the Popular Science Review. 

 It is entitled the "Physical Geography of the 

 Mediterranean during the Pleistocene Age," and 

 deals with the distribution of sea and land during 

 that important and geologically recent period. 

 Our geological readers are strongly advised to get 

 it and study it for themselves. 



The Tree-Ferns or the Coal-Measures.— 

 Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S., has recently read a 

 paper on the above subject, before the Geological 

 Society, showing the relation of the carboniferous 

 species to other living and fossil forms. After 

 referring to the remarkably uniform character of the 

 order of Ferns throughout their whole history on 

 the globe, the author pointed out that there existed 

 in the Coal-measures two very distinct kinds of 

 fern-stems, each represented by several species. 

 Both of these were very different from the Chele- 

 pteris group already described by the author in the 

 Journal of the Society. The first group had a stem- 

 structure like that of living tree-ferns. In them 



