SHORT NOTES 301 



top of Tickenham Hill at alwut 500 feet. A field of oats adjoining 

 ,was being cut, and a week later I found quantities of the plant 

 .(associated with Prunella, A.renaria serpyllifolia, etc.) in the near 

 corner of the field. Examination of specimens confirms my opinion 

 that this annual late-fiowering plant is different from the larger and 

 jnore shrubby Calamint of limestone rocks about Clifton, where this 

 year it began to bloom the first week in May and has long since 

 withered up. As early as March 16th I gathered and dried good 

 foliage specimens with erect woody spikes of last year's flowering 

 stems, clearly showing the plant is not annual at Clifton Down. On 

 April ISth I sent a rooted specimen or two from Bristol to the late 

 Mr. Hunnybun, of which he fortunately made a drawing a week or 

 two later. Part of one of these specimens I dried because of its large 

 leaves, some of which are 13 mm. wide, though the plant was excep- 

 tionally leafy. However, a point of distinction not hitherto mentioned 

 is that the leaves of G. arvensis are usually distinctly smaller and 

 narrower than those of the Bristol plant. The larger size of the 

 corolla and leaves of C. Acinos brings it very near to O. alpina, a 

 somewhat variable species with more purple (i. e. less blue) flowers. 

 Schinz and Keller, who place all the Swiss and British Calamints 

 in Satureia, mention that in Acinos the calyx-teeth are connivent 

 and close the entrance after fertilization, whereas in alpina the calyx 

 remains open. — H. S. Thompson. 



EuoNrMUS EiTEOP-i;us L. It was Scopoli who divided ^2/o?ij/»M?/s 

 f'uropceus of Linne into two distinct species — E. latifolius Scop. 

 and E. vulgaris Scop, Although E. latifolius is sometimes seen in 

 shrubberies and gardens, I am not aware that it has been noted in the 

 " wild " state in Britain. In August I saw two bushes of it under 

 'Scots Pine and Oak in a wood I was valuing on Tickenham Hill, 

 N. Somerset. The kee])er thinks it was not introduced by man ; 

 but it may owe its origin there to birds. It differs from the 

 common Spindle-tree in its larger and broader leaves (the largest are 

 5x2^ inches) which are markedly veined beneath; by its ]Hirplish 

 flowers, 5-10 in a cyme, rounder petals ; and by its larger and flatter 

 and much winged capsules, which already by August 5th had seeds 

 enveloped in a similar beautiful orange-coloured arillus to that of the 

 common Spindle-tree. In this wood and some neighbouring ones the 

 common Spindle-tree is abundant ; and I have observed that whereas 

 the young branches of a third to half an inch diameter are remark- 

 ably quadrangular and ridged, the}^ become round when a little 

 older, and are always round when q^uite young and small. Tlie 

 shoots of E. latifolius are, I believe, never square. Marshall Ward 

 pointed out ( Trees, i. 94) that the Spindle-tree is one of very few 

 trees, shrubs, or other woody plants in which " we find the true 

 epidermis persist beyond a few months on the twigs," without " the 

 foi-niation of corky or other coverings on the older twigs, branches 

 and stems." — H. S. Thompson. 



