372 JOTTINGS FROM A BOTANICAL NOTE-BOOK. 



Oil tliis discussion: — "The Swedish Turnip, not wild in Britain, is 

 surely a distinct species from this and the following," — namely, from 

 Rapa and canipeslris. ..." Most botanists, both British and foreign, 

 have found a difficulty in distinguishing this plant (eampestris) from 

 B. Napus, and the confusion of their synonyms is inextricable. B. 

 eampestris is perhaps the most certainly wild of all our three species 

 now described." 



Perhaps Smith himself has contributed to the subsequent confusion 

 by describing the leaves of his eampestris as being " all somewhat 

 glaucous." He describes the situations of growth of his eampestris 

 on the authority of Eay and Edward Porster, not as an eye-witness 

 himself ; and there is thus a ground for doubt whether he had ever 

 seen the very earliest or lowest leaves of it in a fresh condition, so as 

 to judge of their tint correctly. At any rate, in describing eampestris 

 as the " most certainly wild," and in omitting the Swede as " not wild 

 in Britain," Smith showed that he held i\QNavew and i\\^ Swede io be 

 species apart. In the third edition of ' English Botany ' they are 

 treated as one and the same, which I maintain to be a mistake. 



JOTTINGS EKOM A BOTANICAL NOTE-BOOK. 

 By a. Ernst, Esq. 



1. PiLEA MOLLIS, Wedd. Mon. Urt. 251; De Cand. Prodr. xvi. p. 1, 

 151. n. 121. — Generally a dioicious plant ; but I have lately found three 

 monoecious specimens, with capitate male flowers in the upper axils, 

 and ramified female cymes in the lower axils, so that the genus Pilea 

 may be added to those mentioned by Dr. Masters in his ' Vegetable 

 Teratology,' p. 194. 



2. Fertilization of Cattleya Mossi^. — This beautiful orchid is 

 one of the most common plants in our flora, but I never had been able 

 to discover what insects take an active part in its fertilization. In the 

 month of May last I was so fortunate as to see that a species of 

 Euglossa, a hymenopterous insect, is at least one of the principal ferti- 

 lizers. I caught about a dozen, ten of which bore the pollinia of 

 this our "May-flower" on the upper part of the thorax. 



3. Flacouutia sapiba, Roxb. (?) in Cauacas. — In two or 

 three gardens in Caracas a species of Flacourtia is cultivated which I 



