1882-83.] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club. 81 



VIII.— NOTE ON THE CONTINUED FLOWERING OF THE 

 MALE FLOWERS OF ANACHARIS ALSINASTRUM. 



By Mr AV. TAIT KINNEAR. 



{Read Dec. 22, 1882.) 



Perhaps the members of the Field Chib are aware that the male 

 flowers of this common and noxious weed were only noticed for 

 the first time in Great Britain in the autumn of 1880. They were 

 found by a well-known Edinburgh botanist, Mr D. Douglas, on one 

 of the ponds on the Braid Hills, frequently used for skating pur- 

 poses in winter-time, and were figured in ' Science Gossip.' The 

 object of this note is not to describe the flower, as that has been 

 done already, but to state that I have noticed that the plants have 

 produced male flowers ever since. When Mr Douglas was work- 

 ing up the subject, I frequently visited the spot with him, and 

 gathered numerous specimens. Last year (1881) my friend could 

 not go out, owing to extreme ill-health, in order to notice the 

 flowering, so that I did it myself. I had a pressing request from 

 Mr Bennet of Croydon to get specimens, but when I went to get 

 them, rain had so increased the depth of the water that the plants 

 themselves, let alone their flowers, were invisible. On Saturday, 

 September 9, 1882, I again repaired to see if the flowers would 

 again be found, and there they were, floating among Potamogetons 

 and Bur-reeds, with their yellow pollen strewed over the water. 

 The fact, then, is established, that this extremely rare flower, as 

 yet only chronicled from the one spot in Britain, has flowered for 

 three consecutive seasons, 1880-81-82 ; and there is no reason for 

 thinking that when the male flower was found in 1880, that this 

 was the first time they had flowered. It is, I think, very probable, 

 from the fact that they have been noticed for three seasons run- 

 ning, that they must have been flowering a considerable time pre- 

 viously. Any enterprising young member of the Club could, I 

 think, write a good paper on the variations of the pistil in the 

 female flower, as numerous different forms occur. 



At this meeting a series of Sponge-spicules were shown under 

 the microscope by the Secretary. 



