86 NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 



pale porcelain-blue, and, although constricted at the mouth, are 

 considerablj" larger and wider in outline than those of -S'. officinale. 

 A large Si/nipJn/tum of similar appearance and stature is often seen 

 in old gardens in the S. Western counties of England : perhaps 

 this is the true S. asperrimum ; I have no opportunity of comparing 

 it with the Derbyshire plant, but if my memory serves me aright, 

 the flowers of the latter are much paler in colour (see Dr. Boswell's 

 remarks Bot. Exch. Club Report for 1876, lac. cit.) — W. H. Pueohas. 



Naias flexilis, Piostk. — This plant has been supposed to be 

 dioecious in Britain ; Dr. Boswell Syme says he could find no male 

 flowers on his specimens of the Irish plant collected by Mr. T. Kirk, 

 (see ' Eng. Bot.' ed. 3, x. p. 63) ; and Su- Joseph Hooker states it is 

 the female plant only that is found there (' Stud. Flora,' ed. 2, p. 399). 

 Last autumn I collected a quantity of the plant in Loch Cluny with 

 ripe fruit and many flowers. On examination I find plenty of male 

 flowers in their normal position at the base of lateral shoots as 

 described by Magnus. The plant is therefore monoecious. As it 

 seemed extraordinary that Irish plants should be dioecious, I examined 

 some of Oliver's original specimens, and also some collected by 

 Mr. T. B. Ku-k (I suppose the same as those referred to by Boswell 

 Syme), and on them also I had no difiiculty in finding male 

 flowers. I suppose they had been previously overlooked, from their 

 occm-rence at the base of young shoots and their rapid withering. 

 Naias flexilis, then, is monoecious in Britain, as it is elsewhere, and 

 as it has been described by Braun and by Magnus. — Bayley Balfour. 



lExtracts aulr Notuts of 33oofts ^ i^tmotvs. 



HILDEBRANDT'S AFRICAN TRAVELS. 



[The following condensed account of the explorations of Herr 

 J. M. Hildebrandt in Eastern Tropical Africa, and summary of 

 some of the botanical results, is translated fi-om a paper by HeiT 

 F. Kurtz, of the Berlin Botanic Garden, and was read at the 

 " Pfingstversammlung " of the Brandenburg Botanical Society at 

 Oderberg, May 27, 1877. It is printed in the " Verhandlungen " 

 of the Society, vol. iii.-ix. ; we are mdebted to Mr. George Murray 

 for the translation. 



Hildebrandt made extensive botanical collections, the enumer- 

 ation of his specimens reahsing nearly 3000. He was very 

 successful in discovering novelties, not a few of which have been 

 described in the pages of this Journal ; there are, however, yet niany 

 interesting new plants, especially among the Somali gatherings, 

 which have not been worked out. 



The traveller has recently spent a short time in London and Paris, 

 and has now again left Europe to proceed to Madagascar. In a 

 country where so little botanical investigation has yet been 

 systematically carried out, a naturalist of his knowledge, energy and 



