20 SHORT NOTES. 



half- orbicular, much imbricated, bright red, coriaceous, glabrous, 

 ^ in. long, i ill. broad. Petals 5, orbicular, ^ iu. long, a paler red 

 than the calyx. Stamens mouadelphous ; anthers in 5 bundles of 

 3 each, with the thick red connective protruding beyond the 

 cells. Ovary ampullae form, 5 -celled, with a thick style and 

 5 radiating stigmas like a bird's beak. Ovules 2 in a cell. Fruit 

 not seen. — Betsileo-country, in the forest. Baron 16 ! Native 

 name, Kimha-vary. The yellow resin that exudes h'om it is used in 

 fastening knife-handles, &c. 



(To be continued.) 



SHOET NOTES. 



POTAMOGETON LANCEOLATUS IN IrELAND. AlllOUg the PotamO- 



getoiis kindly sent me from Ireland by Mr. D. Orr (see Journ. 

 Bot., 1881, p. 312), was a specimen so like Smith's P. lanceolatus 

 that I felt sure it must be referable to that species ; but mistakes 

 have so often occurred that I preferred to leave it for further 

 examination. I have now no doubt it is lanceolatus, agreeing as it 

 does with the Anglesea and Cambridgeshire specimens. To avoid 

 any mistake I wrote to Mr. Orr, asking specially as to the locality 

 of the specimen, and his answer is so far satisfactory. The specimen 

 is labelled "Potamogeton ? Six-Mile Water, Co. Antrim. D. Orr, 

 1845." Mr. Orr writes — " The time is so distant, and it was my 

 first and last visit to that locality, that as to the exact place and 

 quantity I am at a loss to say. But I quite remember the time. 

 I was in company with the late Dr. Drummond, of Belfast ; we 

 entered at Muckamore, the right bank going down the river for a 

 mile or more, and it must have been somewhere iu that distance 

 along the river that I got it." Three stations are given in the 

 ' Cybele Hibernica ' for P. lanceolatus, but the authors express 

 doubt as to the specimens being identical with the Anglesea plant, 

 and these have since been shown by Prof. Babington to be errors. 

 One of these is in Antrim — " Mayola Ptiver, near Shane's Castle." 

 I have succeeded in getting nearly ripe fruit on my living speci- 

 mens ; this has no resemblance to that of P. heterophyllus, and is 

 like no described species I know. It may be of interest to British 

 botanists to know what some European botanists think of our 

 plant. Prof. Buchenau, of Bremen, suggests — " It may be an 

 hybrid between f/yaminens (heteropliijllus) and one of the linear- 

 leaved species." This is answered in the negative by the fruit. 

 Prof. 0. Drude, of Dresden, says — "We have nothing like it in 

 Germany." Dr. Nyman, of Stockholm, writes — " ... by 

 its rarity and sterihty, may it not be supposed to be an ancient 

 species that is becoming extinct, because the climatic conditions 

 are changed?" M. Motelay, of Bordeaux, says — "We had con- 

 founded a form of fframineus [heterophyllus) with this ; we supposed 

 it to be a form between the true yramineus and variifoliiis, Thore." 

 Mdlle. Eysan, of Salzburg, says — " We have no plant like it in 

 in Austria." — Arthur Bennett. 



