igoi, 143 



NOTES. 



PRACTICAL MICROSCOPY. 



A new series of articles, dealing with the practical side of Microscopy, 

 together with notes and queries, correspondence, and description of 

 new apparatus, are appearing each month in Knowledge, under the editor- 

 ship of M. I. Cross (the joint-author of the well-known handbook 

 " Modern Microscopy.") 



BOTANY. 



A New Variety of Polystichum angulare. 



In visiting the garden of my friend, the Rev. Humphry Davy, last 

 autumn, I noticed among his collection of native ferns one which was 

 new to me, and which I believed to be unknown elsewhere. It was a 

 variety of Polystichum angulare whose peculiarity was that the stipes and the 

 rachis, not alone of the frond, but those of the pinnae, and even of the pin- 

 nules, took a sinuous course, winding, as a river, with numerous short bends, 

 winds through a plain. With the permission of Mr. Davy I submitted a 

 frond to the Secretary of the British Pterodological Society, and suggested 

 smuosum as a suitable name, in case the variety should be accepted. Soon 

 after, on November 24, I heard from the President of the Society, Charles 

 T. Druery, and on December 1 Mr. Druery wrote as follows :—'• Many 

 thanks for the fronds of P.a. sinuosum, a name which we may now safely 

 adopt, as the flat character undoubtedly discriminates it from Mr. G. B. 

 Wollaston's form. It is very curious and interesting." The fern which 

 has thus been definitely added to the list of varieties, was found by Mr 

 Davy in the Dargle some twenty years ago. It has been constant ever 

 since. An offshoot, given me by Mr. Davy last year, shows clearly and 

 throughout the marked sinuous formation. 



H. KlNGSMIU, MoORK. 

 Kildare-place, Dublin. 



Habenaria intacta in Clare. 



During the month of June Mr. P. PL Grierson has forwarded me fresh 

 specimens of Habenaria intacta from two new stations in Co. Clare — the 

 first one mile E.S.E. of Lehinch, the other a mile nearer Ennistymon. 

 Besides showing a southward extension of the range of this rare plant, 

 these stations offer another point of interest. Both are situated on the 

 Coal-measures, some six or eight miles from the nearest limestone, 

 whereas all previously recorded stations are on the limestone, and 

 generally from ground where the bare rock lies on or near the surface. 



R. 1,1,0yd Prasgejr. 



