SHOKT NOTES. 85 



Callithamnion repens, Lyngb. — On Chondrus mispus, cast ashore 

 at Trevone Bay. 



Nitophyllum reptans, Crouan. — On the stems of Laminaria 

 digitata, cast ashore at PoMdmouth Bay, near Forsey. 



Dermocarpa pyasina, Born. — On Catenella Opuntia, in a shady 

 creek, Harbour Cove, Padstow. 



Monostroma lacerata, Thur. — In a pool of brackish water over- 

 flowed by flood-tides at Pendavey Bridge ; also in brackish pools in 

 the marsh below Lostwithiel. 



M. Wittrockii, Born. — On ^Dosts and stems at the sides of tidal 

 rivers. By the Eiver Tamer above Saltash, Plym at Marsh Mills, 

 and the Eiver Fowey, between Lostwithiel and Fowey, high water. 



SHORT NOTES. 



On the terms Annual and Biennial (see Journ. Bot., 1881, 

 p. 7). — There is certainly much ambiguity in the terms Annual and 

 Biennial. Those plants which germinate in the spring and die in 

 the autumn are not very different from those which vegetate in the 

 summer or autumn and flower and die in the succeeding spring or 

 summer ; nor indeed can I see much between them and plants like 

 Agave, which live in a barren state for many years, and then flower 

 once and die. It seems to be only a question of the time requked 

 to concentrate the requisite energy to produce flowers and fruit. 

 True annual plants may be divided into Winter Annuals and 

 Summer Annuals. The former usually store up nutritive matter 

 in the autumn to supply the flowering state in the spring ; differing 

 in this from Summer Annuals. But this is not constantly the 

 case. The Agave is many years doing this. Although this plant 

 flowers only once, we of course ought to have a term to distinguish 

 it from the annuals. There are also the plants which produce 

 stoles rooting at the end, such as the sympodes of Fragaria ; in 

 that case the plants are truly perennial. But see such plants as 

 Epilobium , where the buds at the end of stoles alone remain alive 

 during the winter, and produce the plants of the succeeding year : 

 what are we to call these ? We usuaUy denominate them perennial. 

 Then how separate them from those which are not aerial, but go 

 through the same course ? Then come such plants as Orchis, 

 where a new tuber is formed by the side of the old one each year, 

 usually at a very short distance from it, but sometimes at some 

 considerable distance, as in Herminium ; and the tuber which has 

 flowered dies. The tuber is therefore a Winter Annual. Of 

 course all these ought not to be confounded with the true perennials, 

 where the same root lives and flowers at least several years in 

 succession. DeCaudolle's terms, mono- audi poly -car pic will not do; 

 for they convey another idea. Mono- and poly-tocous, as suggested 

 by A. Gray, are better, but here we do not distinguish between 

 Agave and Brassica. And he has not attempted to distinguish 



