Miscellaneous, 309 



ward growth of the spike terminated, it having reached exactly 24 feet. 

 Some time before this, the scape began to throw out its lateral 

 branches ; these extend 6 inches to 2 feet from the main stem, to 

 the number of forty-six, and branch out from all sides in graceful 

 curves in the form of a candelabrum, which, indeed, the whole plant 

 much resembles ; at the extremities of these laterals are seated three 

 to seven bunches of from twelve to fifty flowers, the total number of 

 flowers being about 3500. The first bud expanded on the 8th of 

 September, since which a great number have rapidly opened. It is 

 scarcely correct to make use of the term opened ; for the corolla does 

 not expand. The stamens and style being protruded from among the 

 upper points of the petals, and having a bright yellow colour, give a 

 somewhat gay and light appearance to the plant, the petals them- 

 selves being of a yellowish- green hue. Some few months before the 

 scape made its appearance, the leaves began to wither ; and as the 

 flower-spike rapidly increased, in the same ratio the leaves decayed 

 and shrivelled, the juices they contained having evidently been stored 

 up for the express purpose of supplying the nourishment required 

 by the flower ; and only by this means could the large amount of 

 vegetable matter contained in the flower-scape have been collected in 

 so short a time, as the roots of the plant are very inconsiderable. 

 The whole plant dies immediately it has perfected its flowers, so that 

 it can only flower "once" in its lifetime, be this ten or a hundred 

 years. 



Believe me, Gentlemen, 



Yours sincerely, 



W. SOWERBY. 



On a variety of Chorda filum. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



The base and apex of Chorda Mtum (Sea-traces) are usually attenu- 

 ated and acute. Mrs. Gray observed, in the specimens growing in 

 Swanage Bay, that some individual fronds of a group from the same 

 root had the apex largely dilated into a broad, ovate, hollow club, 

 with a few minute, compressed, transparent spines near the more or 

 less blunt top of the club. This club, which is often 4 or 5 inches 

 long and an inch in diameter, is formed by a dilatation of the frond ; 

 and, like the usual state of the frond, it easily divides across and 

 separates into a spiral band, as the common form of the frond is 

 represented as becoming unrolled in fig. 3 of pi. 107 of Dr. Harvey's 

 * Phycologia Britanniea,' and as described and figured by Dr. Gre- 

 ville, ■ Algae Britannicee,' p. 48. t. 7. f. 2. 



I do not recollect having observed this variety noticed in any 

 work on British Algse, which is the more remarkable, as the club, 

 bobbing up and down on the surface of the sea like an angler's 

 float, makes a very conspicuous object in the smooth water of that 

 beautiful bay. I find it is noticed in Lyngbye's work on the Algae 

 of Denmark as " Chorda filum (3. infiata fronde simplicissima majori 

 apice inflata" p. 73 (1810), found in the "Sinu Otheniensi ;" and 

 he states that it is also described as a Ceramium by Roth, 1797; see 

 Cat. Bot. i. 174. 



