336 TEMPERATURE OF FUNGI. 



Pruit of Vinca. — The following passage from Blair's 'Botanical 

 Essays' (1720), pp. 10, 11, is a sort of answer to Mr. Grindon's qiieiy 

 (p. 14) : — " Vhica pervinca, or Clematis daphnoides, flowers plentifully 

 every year, but never produces the pod or seed-vessels in its native soil, 

 especially in these colder climates ; because most of its nourishment is 

 spent in sending forth abundance of new twigs and leaves, by which it 

 overspreads the whole ground ; but if it be put into a pot, and all its 

 stolons or shoots be taken off, but one or two of the strongest, then it 

 will produce the pod or seed-vessel, which shall contain seed till it ripen, 

 according to the observation of Dr. Morison and Dr. Tournelort." Uay 

 also notices the rarity of its fruiting (Methodus Plant, p. 8, 1682). — 

 W. T. Thiselton Dyer. 



Bromus ramosus, HnJs. — Without disputing the distinctness of the 

 ordinary British form from the possibly not indigenous B. asper, L., 

 of Beneken, it is as well to point out, by way of warning, that the restric- 

 tion in our English plant of the number of lowest branches of the panicle 

 to two is not an absolute diagnostic character. In Hooker's ' Student's 

 Flora ' they are described as 2-3-nate ; and Dr. Boswell-Syme pointed 

 out to me in his garden at Balmuto a cultivated tuft of the grass, in 

 which this was very conspicuously shown, near Linlithgow. I also met 

 this summer with a plant in which there were four branches at the base 

 of the panicles, but agreeing in other characters with ordinary raviosus. 

 — W. T. Thiselton Dyer. 



I have several times noticed one common form with more than two 

 branches at the lowest semi-verticil. A plant which I collected at Win- 

 chester this autunui had three branches, and Mr. Warren has sent me speci- 

 mens from near Shrew^sbury with tht; same number. As I pointed out at 

 p. 270, it is by the coexistence of several characters that the plants are 

 distinguished; probably the relative length of the awns and palea-, and of 

 the two glumes, are the best single characters. Dr. Ascheron, of Berlin, 

 informs me that the restricted £. aaper of Beneken is really the common 

 form in many parts of Germany, though so scarce in more western 

 Europe. — Henry Trimen. 



TEMPERATURE OP PUNGI. 

 Last week I met with a number of specimens of the Giant Puff-ball, 

 Lycoperdon (/igcndenni, while making one of my usual weekly class excur- 

 sions in the neighbourhood of Cirencester. Two of them were selected, 

 a large and a small one, for museum specimens, while a portion of a very 

 large one was placed by me in my l)otanical box. Next morning, on 

 opening the box, I fouiul the contents sensibly warm to the hand, and 

 had no difHciilty in tracing the eftect to its cause. The portion of Pungus 

 was quite warm, and had communicated part of its warmth to the other 

 plants in the box. Unfortunately, no thermometer was at hand at the 

 time, or a careful reading of the temperature would have been made. 

 The smaller specimen of the Puff-ball, weighing 1 lb., was taken, and 

 placed in a box, where it remained all night. Next morning, two read- 



