SHOKT NOTES. 275 



seta or rliaclieole of some species is a second achene, which is 

 tetragonous from compression. This achene is scarcely two-thu-ds 

 the size of the other, by which it is closely seated. On one side of 

 it, and partially enchcling its base, is a rudimentary perigynium, 

 easily recognised by its bifid tip. Mr. Dyer found an analogous 

 case in C'aye,v acuta, but his was a quite rudimentary flower. He 

 states (' Journal of the Linnean Society,' xiv., p. 154): "One 

 flower, which I examined with great care, possessed an abnormal 

 arrangement of great interest (fig. 8, t. 12). AVithin the 

 perigynium, the upper margin of which was much depressed in 

 front, there was, besides the normal ovary, a rudimentary second 

 flower consisting of a nuclear body subtended by 

 a bract which was clearly deficient posteriorly, 

 or with its edges connate low down and out of 

 sight." Our condition of things appears to difi'er 

 only in the degreee of develoxDment attained. 

 The accompanying diagram represents the po- 

 sition of the parts as they appear in a nearly or 

 quite ripe state. It may be added that several 

 botanists, as Wesmael, Wigand, and Eichler, 

 record instances of the seta or rhacheole growiiDg 

 out at the top of the perigynium and bearing « axis, b primary 

 spikelets of flowers. The differential character P^^'gyi^ium, c pri- 

 -S . , -r 1 1 T 1 • 1 i 1 marv achene, a se- 



which 1 observed, and winch appears to be con- coudaryperigyuium, 



stant, is in the achenes ; those of C. Grayi e secondary achene. 

 being nearly globular, with a slender style, 

 and indistinctly three-ribbed, whilst those of C. iiitumescais 

 are elongated and sharply triangular, with concave facets. — 

 W. B. Hemsley. 



M09INO AND SeSSE's collection OF MeXICAN DRIED PLANTS. 



The writer of this note would be glad to know what has become 

 of a collection of Mexican plants made by Mo9ino and Sesse, and 

 formerly in Lambert's herbarium. According to a memorandum 

 in a catalogue of the sale of Lambert's collections in the library at 

 Kew, this collection, as well as many other lots of American plants, 

 was purchased by a person named Eich, probably an agent.''' 



* From a priced catalogue of the sale in the Botanical Department of the 

 British Museum, it is seen that the coUoction fetched £1 85. It was therefore 

 probably small — less than a hundred species. Mr. Pamplin, now of Llnndderfel, 

 N. Wales, has kindly given us the following infoimation concerning Mr. Ilich : 

 — " He and his father before him were the accredited ag.-nts in London for the 

 eminent botanist and banker of Paris, M. Benj. De Lessert ; and jiltbough Mr. 

 Eicli was most probably entrusted with commissions from others, yet I have 

 very little douljt that the principal purchases in his name at A. B. Lamberts 

 sale were for Baron Ue Lessert." This is fully borne out by a consulfadon of 

 Lasegue's valuable book on the De Lessert Herbarium, where (at p. 20i)) we find 

 the plants f>f Mo9ino, Sesse, and Cervantes " autrefois In propriete de 3L Lambert 

 de Londi'es," mentioned as forming part of the collection. The same work 

 states (p. ;348) that the herbarium of Moyino and Sesse is at the Royal 

 Gardens, Madrid, and also (p. >i2-i) that the great number of Mexican plants in 

 the herbarium of Ruiz and Pavon (now in the British Museum), appear to have 

 fui'med part of Moyiuo and Sesse's collections. — (Ed. ' Joukn. Box.') 



