THE LIFE -HISTORY OF A CEOCUS. 87 



AiRA ALPiNA IN Kerry. — 111 tliis Joumal for 1881, p. 345, Aira 

 alpina is recorded as found upon Brandon Mountain, near Dingle. 

 In my " Kecent Additions to the Mora of Ireland " (' Eoyal Irish 

 Academy Proceedings,' vol. i., series 2, Science, pp. 256, 1872). 

 I have also noticed the same grass as a small form of A. cccspitosa, 

 which Dr. Boswell considered " undistinguisliable " from the 

 Scottish A. alpina. Now, from a fine series of the same plant 

 recently collected by my friend Mr. H. C. Hart upon M'Gilli- 

 cuddy's Reeks, I have no doubt that the Irish and Scottish plants 

 are identical ; and perhaps I was over-cautious in not then ad- 

 mitting it to the full title of A. alpina ; but, in any case, nearly all 

 our best botanists seem agreed to regard it as a variety only. — 

 A. G. More. 



iExtvacts antr Nottcts of ISoofts. 



ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OF A CROCUS AND THE CLASSI- 

 FICATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE 

 GENUS* 



By G. Maw, F.L.S. 



The author commenced his description of the life-course with 

 the corm during its short period of rest in July intervening be- 

 tween the dying away of the spring foliage and the commencement 

 of the ensuing season's growth. The newly matured corm con- 

 sists of an almost homogeneous mass of cellular tissue and starch, 

 two-fifths of its weight being water, nearly half its weight of 

 starch. Sugar occurs to the extent of six per cent., and the small 

 residuum consists of oil, albummous compounds, cellulose, and a 

 little fibrous tissue and mineral matter. The homogeneous struc- 

 ture of the corm is varied only by an irregular column of vascular 

 tissue running from its base to its depressed apex, but which is 

 dead and functionless in the new corm, being merely the remnant 

 of the connecting-link between last year's foliage and last year's 

 corm. The new growths, both of leaves and roots, originate 

 independently of the old axis, by the development here and there 

 of minute papillae on incipient buds, which are scattered indis- 

 criminately over the corm surface : these are, as it were, planted 

 into the surface of the old corm, and in their expanding growth 

 gradually absorb its substance. Every living part of a Crocus is 

 annually replaced, and in one sense there is no continuity of life 

 within each organ. The corm-tunic is the only permanent record 

 of perennial existence, and even this in its living state lasts but a 

 year. 



The corm-tunics are homologous with the leaves, the main tunic 

 covering the upper part of the corm being continuous with and 



* [We are indebted to Mr. Maw for this full abstract of his very interesting 

 paper, read at the Linnean Society, January 19th. — Ed. Journ. Bot.J 



