236 ON SPARGANIUM. 



perhaps, not altogether surprising, as its distribution is not known 

 to extend to Enssia. 



In continuation of former notes, I now give the following 

 additional counties whence I have seen specimens of S. ramosum 

 and S. neglectum : — 



S. ramosum Curtis. — Devon north, W. P. Hiern ; Essex north, 

 J. C. S hen st one ; Suffolk east, W. M. Hind; Hereford, A. Ley; 

 Pembroke, C. Bailey ; Elgin, G. C. Druce ; Easterness, G. C. Druce. 



8: neglectum Beeby. — Cornwall west, C. A. Wright; Devon 

 south, W. P. Hiem ; Devon north, W. P. Hiern ; Wilts north, 

 W A. Clarke (com. Arthur Bennett) ; Dorset, — Qalpin (com. 

 Arthur Bennett) ; Hereford, A. Ley ; Pembroke, C. Bailey. 



The more southern range of 8. neglectum continues to be fully 

 confirmed by such specimens as have been seen up to the present 

 time. The occurrence of the plant in one locality in Denmark 

 (Neuman sp. !) in about the same latitude as Berwick-on-Tweed 

 makes it possible, however, that it may be found so far north as the 

 South of Scotland, although it can only be expected to occur as a 

 rare plant in such latitudes. 



Variation. — The Spargania, like all water-plants, present a very 

 much wider range of states due to local or temporary conditions 

 than is, naturally, the case with land-plants ; and these states, as 

 with other aquatics such as Batrachium, Potamogeton, &c, are often 

 elevated to the rank of varieties. I am disposed to regard the 

 8. ramosum var. microcarpum Neuman as the only case of a good 

 variety of a British species which I have yet seen in the genus. 

 Even here intermediate forms certainly occur, but the variety is 

 generally well-marked, is quite permanent, occurring in quantities 

 where no other form is to be seen, or maintaining its characters 

 year after year when growing mixed with 8. ramosum type, 5. 

 neglectum, and S. simplex; and that it is not the result of local or 

 temporary causes or conditions I have proved. It is true that in 

 the excellent account of this genus, from the pen of my friend Dr. 

 Neuman, in the new edition of Hartman's ' Flora,' several other 

 varieties are described ; but taking, for example, his varieties 

 ft and y of S. affine, I can regard them as nothing more than 

 respectively a land state, and a depauperate alpine or hyper- 

 borean state, of the type. The land state, so far as Britain is con- 

 cerned, I have only seen in Watson's Herbarium at Kew, from the 

 old Surrey station ; and the label mentions that the plant grew on 

 mud, the pond having dried up in 1870, when Watson gathered it. 

 When I gathered S. affine at the very same spot in Surrey, in 1888, 

 the pond was decidedly wet ; so much so that I had to wade over 

 knee-deep to get the plant at all. That year the plant was quite 

 typical ajfine, and was indeed afterwards confirmed by Neuman as 

 his type, a zosterajolium ! The size of heads, length of peduncle, 

 &c, are liable, as in S. simplex, to an unlimited amount of variation, 

 according to local circumstances. The 8. simplex var. lonyissimum 

 Fries I can also scarcely regard as anything more than a state, 

 though in some doubt whether it may not be desirable that it should 

 appear in our lists as a form, owing to its being so characteristic of 



