184 SHORT NOTES. 



May I ask readers of Mr. Scully's paper to ignore that note and to 

 read as follows: — "This plant seems to be P. Lonchitis, the 

 American form ! Not the Irish 'Lonchitis ' distributed by Messrs. 

 Linton ; which I cannot make agree with the American plant — 

 especially in fruit-characters — nor either of them with the fenland 

 P. fluitmis.''' The beautiful specimens of "P. pohjgonifolius var. 

 Imearis Syme," collected by Mr. Scully, are simply the ordinary 

 phyllodial state of P. nutans; I can match these exactly with 

 specimens of P. natans gathered in my pond to-day. This is not 

 a *' barren," but merely a young, state of the plant ; and if it does 

 not fruit in the Kerry locality, that is probably owing to un- 

 favourable local conditions only. These narrow leaves are produced 

 throughout the whole season of growth, and are even to be met 

 with in young branches springing from stems which bear ripe fruit ; 

 they are the so-called " submerged leaves " of P. natans, and as 

 they are much longer than the upper leaves they ultimately ascend 

 to the surface and float there for a few weeks until they decay. 

 They are true leaves and float with the upper surface exposed 

 to the air. This exposed part of the leaf is the first to decay, 

 and the lower part, or petiole, has been described as per- 

 sistent ; but (although I must plead guilty to having fallen into 

 the same error) it is not really so. In my very extensive 

 series of P. natans, collected in widely separated localities, both 

 British and foreign, I can find no specimens of truly " persistent 

 petioles"; nor can I remember ever having seen such. Actually, 

 these leaves decay gradually, the lamina first, the petiole soon 

 afterwards. As far as my observations go, the so-called " persistent 

 petioles" are linear-leaved young shoots like Mr. Scully's "var. 

 linearis.'' If I am wrong I hope some one will kindly correct me 

 by sending a specimen of P. natans with truly persistent leaf- 

 stalks. The joint at the upper part of the petiole is well defined 

 in the more mature Kerry specimens, so no reasonable doubt can 

 exist as to their being true P. natans. In 1885 Mr. Beeby sent me 

 a similar form from Surrey, which has grown and fruited in my 

 pond, and is typical natans, though of more slender growth and 

 smaller in all its parts than the plant of our " fat " fenland waters 

 usually is. With the Surrey and Kerry plants I place " P. polygoni- 

 folius V. pseudo-Jlidtans Syme. Eecess. Galway, 1885," distributed 

 through the Exchange Club by Messrs. Linton. — Alfred Feyer. 



Primula Hybrids. — P. veris x vulgaris, gathered in E. Suffolk 

 last May, has behaved oddly in cultivation. It commenced to 

 flower in January, the blossoms at first being almost exactly like 

 those of vulgaris. It has gradually shaded off towards veris, the 

 stalked umbels growing more and more pronounced, and the colour 

 deepening, till it is now (end of April) nearer the latter parent in 

 appearance. The Kev. K. P. Murray has shown me fresh speci- 

 mens of natural garden hybrids of P. vulgaris x elatior and P. 

 veris X elatior, v/hich are just like the wild hybrids from Saffron 

 Walden. In the second case the fertilisation must have been due 

 to insects, as P. veris grows only at some little distance. In 1887 

 I found P. vulgaris x elatior in a wood where no vulyaiis was to be 



