78 SHORT NOTES AND QUERIES. 



some plants in good condition, the older root-leaves alone being withered 

 at the base. Now began my difficulty. On the first specimen I 

 found the perianth segments vary in all possible degrees between fig. 

 1 and fig. la, of pi. 140, the nuts showing a similar variation. I 

 then turned my attention to the root-leaves, hoping to find the cha- 

 racter of one or other species sufficiently ^'predominating to guide me 

 to a decision, but in these I found a similar diversity. The younger 

 leaves had the form figured in pi. 140, fig. 5a, as that of R. Hijdro- 

 lapathum, while of the older ones some were attenuated into the leaf 

 stalk, while others were rounded at the base with the two sides un- 

 symmetrical, like those of R. maximus, fig. 5. Other plants presented 

 a like diversity. Some little time after I noticed some plants at Tong 

 Lodge Pool, near Shifnal, and on examining them I was quite unable 

 to decide to which species they should be assigned, and gave the in- 

 quiry up in despair. When the autumn comes round again, I shall 

 be happy to send fresh specimens from this neighbourhood to Mr. 

 Warren or any gentleman who may be desirous of having them. — 

 William Phillips. 



[Mr. Phillips' experience is quite that of myself and others who 

 have examined these plants, and corroborates the view expressed in 

 the paper above referred to, that R. maximus, at all events as we see 

 it in England, cannot be specifically separated from R. Mydrolapathum. 

 The details figured in tab. 140 were, as pointedly stated in the text, 

 " extremes purposely selected " for contrast, and were very accurately 

 drawn by Mr. Blair. It would, I think, be more in accordance ^vith 

 present knowledge,to employ Borrer's varietal name latifolius (as was 

 done in the paper above alluded to) for the English plant, instead of 

 the specific one of R. maximus. — H. T.] 



A Steay Feen. — A friend handed to me the enclosed frond of a 

 New Zealand fern. The plant from which it was taken was found 

 last year growing on the lower stonework of a bridge over the river 

 Swale, in the neighbourhood of Thirsk, Yorkshire. Probably it had 

 been washed from some garden by a flood. As an instance of accli- 

 matisation I thought it might interest your readers. — Pbed. Addison. 

 [The specimen sent is Bavallia NovcB-ZelandicB. J. G. B.] 



Gtpsophila muealis, Linn. (p. 14). — I found this growing 

 in company with Eschscholtzia crocea, Iberis amara, Euphorbia Cypar- 

 issias, Marrubium vulgare, a Chrysanthemum resembling C. segetum, 

 Linn., Asparagus officinalis, and some others, on the banks of a 

 former clay-pit in a field close to Jacklands, Low Purness. The 

 place had a wild, deserted, uncared-for look, and the small wayside 

 tenement appeared to be unoccupied ; but I have not any doubt that 

 this favourite of seedsmen and gardeners had been planted there 

 along with the rest, excepting Filago germanica, which overspread the 

 field. — E. Hodgson. 



DiPLOKA integeifolia. — In the Rot. Jakresbertcht, 1873, p. 169, Dr. 

 Kuhn has identified my Diplora integrifolia, described and figured in 

 Joum. Bot., 1873, p. 235, with Micropodium longifolium, Mett., Ann. 

 Mus. Lug. Bat., ii., 233. This last is a plant gathered in the 



