334 SHORT NOTES AND QUEBTES. 



spinil ; thus, in fnct, doing' that with which, as 1 gather from Mr. Tucker's 

 note, Prof. Maxwell rejjroaches his oppotients, viz., representing the re- 

 flected image instead of the object. It is manifestly contrary to reason to 

 employ, when speaking of the movements of a living plant, a terminology 

 diauietrically opposed to that made use of when alluding to those of an 

 animal. Link (Elem. Phil. Bot. ed. 2. ii. 236), Choisy (in DO. Prod. 

 ix. 821), A. de Jussieu (('ours. Elem. 138), Balfour (Class Book of Bot. 

 649), Henfrey (Elem. Course, 619), Payen (Elem. de Bot. 20), and 

 Bentley (Man", of Hot. 107), follow De Candolle; St. Hilaire (Morphol. 

 Ve'g. 103), A. Richard (Elem. de Bot. ed. 7. 90), Duchartre (Elem. de 

 Bot. 127), and Le Maout and Decaisne (Traite Gen. de Bot. 13), u?e 

 the Linnaean nomenclature. Prof. Lindley, in his ' Introduction to 

 Botany' (ed. 4. ii. 378) interpreted the terms dextrormm and shusirors//m 

 in De CandoUe's sense ; but in the glossary appended to the ' Elements 

 of Botany,' he takes the other view of their meaning. Finally, in his 

 elaborate memoir on climbing plants, published in the ninth volume of 

 the ' Journal of the Linnaean Society,' Mr. Darwin, probably owing to 

 the anil)iguity with which these terms are surrounded, avoids both, and 

 speaks of the twining as 'following' or ' moving against ' the sun. — H. 

 F. Hance. 



The Marram or Mat Grass, Punmwa aretiaria, R. et S., is one of 

 the best natural sand-binding plants we have. It is recorded that in the 

 latter part of the last century, a large district on the eastern coast of 

 Scotland was quite destroyed, and in the course of a few years became a 

 complete desert by the advance of the sand from the shore, owing to the 

 wanton destruction of the Marram that grew upon it. On many parts of 

 the coast where this grass abounds, the country people make it into mats 

 or twist it into ropes. On some parts of the Welsh coast the peasants 

 plait it into mats which are used in churches, or into matting for covering 

 rooms. Johnson relates, in his ' Mercurius Botanicus ' (1641) that, in 

 his time the manufacture of ropes, mats and similar articles from the 

 Marram was the only handicraft known to the inhabitants of the village 

 of New Ang-lesea. — J. K. Jackson. 



Lycopodium clavatgm. — One would scarcely expect to find Lycopo- 

 dium claratum of much use as an economic plant, but besides the well- 

 known application of its inflammable spores for producing artificial light- 

 ning, and its use by the chemist for rolling pills in to prevent them 

 sticking together, the ])lant itself makes excellent doormats, and for this 

 purpose it is largely collected in Sweden. The mats are very elastic and 

 have this recommendation, that when dirty they can be very easily washed, 

 upon which they recover their elasticity and dry readily. — J. R. Jackson. 



Pandanus L'TiLis. — The Mauritian sugar-bags, which, after being 

 emptied of their contents in this country, are bought up, cleansed and 

 transformed into small fish-bags or baskets, are mostly made of the leaves 

 oi Piindanus utillts. This species grows abundantly in the Mauritius, but 

 owing to the trees being usually cut down every year they assume very 

 different forms, frequently throwing out numerous small branches. Con- 

 sequent upon the culture of the Sugar-cane in Queensland, this species of 



