246 



SHORT NOTES. 



Additions to the Flora of Dorset. — While staying at 

 Swanage from the 28th to the 30th May, we were fortunate enough 

 to discover several plants of interest, including two new to Dorset- 

 shire. Arum italicum, Mill., occiu'red among brambles near 

 Swanage, with both open and unopened spathes and young fruit. 

 This plant has hitherto only been recorded for the Isle of Wight, 

 South Hants, and West Cornwall, and will probably be found also 

 in Sussex and Devonshire. The time of its appearing accounts, no 

 doubt, for its being overlooked in this locality. The leaves are like 

 those of the Isle of Wight plant, and unlike those of the Con- 

 tinental form in not being veined with white, though the veins are 

 very distinct, and of a lighte]- colour than the rest of the leaf; 

 some of the leaves were spotted with black. Orobanche mnethystea, 

 ThuilL, was very abundant in waste ground facing the sea, between 

 Seacombe and St. Alban's Head. It was parasitic on Daucus 

 Carota. The colour of the corolla was much paler than in the 

 Kent plant, the flowers being whitish with lilac veins. This plant 

 has not hitherto been recorded from Dorsetshire, though it has 

 been found in the other counties along the south coast. The spring- 

 flowering form of Gentiana Amarella was plentiful along the 

 Dancing Ledge. At Chapman's Pool we found a tall variety of 

 Carex glauca with aristate glumes. Geranium purpureimi, Forst., 

 was growing on a chalky bank above Punfield Cove, Swanage, the 

 plant and the locality probably intended in Ray's Synopsis, ed. iii., 

 p. 358^ — " Geranium lucidum saxatile, folus Geranii Robertiani 

 D. Sher. Syn. II. 218. Ger. Saxat. Robertiano simile Anglicum 

 Schol. Botan. 'Tis of the saxatile kind, having frequent joynts. In 

 several places near the shore. I have found it near Swanniny in 

 Dorsetshire ; Dr. Sherard. (On the shore of Selsey -Island plentifully; 

 D. Dillenius, in company with Mr. Man7iinyham.''] A very in- 

 teresting monstrosity of Carex ylauca occurred above Peveril Point, 

 in which both the female spikes arose on long peduncles from 

 utricles in the axils of the leafy bracts ; the lowest male spike was 

 similarly situated, but the peduncle was so short that it did not 

 protrude from the utricle. There can be little doubt but that the 

 peduncles in this case correspond to the seta in Uncinia and the 

 psyllophorous Carices, which has been shown by Mr. Dyer (Lin- 

 nean Journ. xiv. 154) sometimes to bear rudimentary flowers. 

 In Durleston Bay we found a specimen of what Milde (Monog. 

 Equiset., p. 250) calls Kquisetiim Telmateia, var. serotinum., var. 

 proliferam, which consists of a branch-bearing stem, on which is 

 a spike of fructification, terminated by another branch-bearing 

 portion. The top of the spike exhibits the transition from the 

 sporophores into the brown acuminate leaves. This last point, 

 which is so interesting from a morphological point of view, is not 

 noticed by Milde. — II. X. Ridley & W. Fawcett. 



