SHORT NOTES. Il7 



impressions of a man whose personality was of a striking character, 



and into whose comparatively short life such a large amount of 



important work was crowded. t t> n 



J. 13. Caeruthers. 



SHORT NOTES. 



Montgomeryshire Eecords. — During 1893 and 1894 I have 

 received specimens from my correspondent, Miss E. Jones, of Mont- 

 gomery, of three species not hitheito recorded for the county: — 

 Mtjupodiuin Podaymria. Lane leading to Lymore Hall. — Sambncus 

 Ebiilus. Hilly wood at the south end of the town. — Hijoscyamus 

 ni(jer. Above the town reservoir. All these localities are un- 

 questionably within the county. — William Whitwell. 



Impatiens Noli-me-tangere in Montgomery and Salop. — In 

 Turner and Dillwyn's Botanist's Guide (1805) no Shropshire record 

 for this plant is given, but the following appears under the head of 

 Montgomeryshire: — "Within a mile from Montgomery, at Gwern 

 Dhee, Menett. Banks of the river Camlet, at Morrington, in the 

 parish of Chirbury, about five miles from Montgomery, Bim/leij.'' 

 This is copied verbatim in Watson's New Botanist's Guide (1835), 

 and no other localities are named. In the first edition of Topo- 

 graphical Botany (1874) the record stands: — "47, Montgomery: 

 Merrett, Bingley, quoted in B. Gr." In the second edition this is 

 omitted, and neither Shropshire nor Montgomeryshire is named 

 for the species. Leighton's Flora of Shropshire has no mention of 

 Impatiens. In Herb. Brit. Mus. I have found a specimen of the plant 

 labelled " Herb. Banks. Near Bishop's Castle, Montgomeryshire," 

 and another "Acton Burnell, Salop : W. E. Beckwith, Aug. 1881." 

 This is recorded in Journ. Bot. 1881, p. 61, where Mr. Beckwith 

 notes: — " Mr. E. M. Sergeantson has brought me several specimens 

 of this plant, which grows apparently wild near Acton Burnell." 



The Impatiens still grows in good quantity in Marrington Dingle, 

 in the parish of Chirbury, evidently the "Morrington" of Turner 

 and Dillwyn — a ravine of great beauty through which the river 

 Camlad runs. Miss E. Jones sent me specimens thence in 1893 

 and 1894. But the locality is in Shropshire ; the county boundary 

 passes just south of the Dingle, which lies in a projecting lobe of 

 Shropshire, entered at less than two miles from Montgomery in a 

 direct line, and again left for a similar lobe of Montgomeryshire 

 soon after the Dingle has been crossed. The case is one which 

 well illustrates the absurdity of dealing with botanical distribution 

 according to artificial county limits. 



Turner and Dillwyn's record must thus stand as the first for 

 Shropshire. Mr. Beckwith's is also an undoubted one for that 

 county. As to the Bauksian specimen, Bishop's Castle is itself in 

 Shropshire, and the very nearest point of Montgomeryshire is 

 two miles distant. I am inclined to thiuk that this specimen also, 

 which is undated, may be from Marrington Dingle, that locality 

 being only six miles from Bishop's Castle as against four from 



