212 SHORT NOTES. 



' strange locality to botanical friends at various times, and on Friday 

 last, June 11, I visited the spot in company with Professor Cowch, 

 the Rev. "W. "W. Newbould, and Mr. R. A. Pryor, when I was able 

 to show them a few plants which were just going off flower. The 

 character of the season of course affects this, as it does all other 

 plants ; after a dry season the number of plants noticed is always 

 much smaller than after a wet one. I may add that the combe in 

 which it grows is on the water-shed which drains into the Ouse 



Valley.— Joseph Pollard. 



Additions to the Flora, of Herts. — During a recent excursion 

 into the eastern division of the county, in company with Mr. 

 Britten, we had the good fortune to discover the true Mi/osotis syl- 

 vatica, Ehrh., growing in profusion in several localities. This may be 

 considered an addition to our catalogue, as a previous record was not alto- 

 gether reliable. Poterium muricatum also was noticed in several elover- 

 fields in the same district, and I have received living specimens of 

 Lepidium JDraba and Silene conica from the north of the county. All 

 three are new to our lists, and the two former are likely to become 

 permanently established. A still more important addition is that of 

 Galium erectum, Huds., which was gathered a few days back by the 

 Rev. W. W. Newbould and myself in the neighbourhood of Hitchin, 

 where, however, it would at present appear to occur but very 

 sparingly. It is given in " Topographical Botany for Essex, Cam- 

 bridge, and Bedfordshire," so that there is no antecedent improbability 

 in its extension to that portion of Hertfordshire which belongs geogra- 

 phically to the basin of the Ouse. — R. A. Prtor. 



Potamogeton PB^LoifGus, Wulf., IN Beds. — This handsome species 

 occurs abundantly in the Ouse just above Bedford; it has not, I 

 believe, been previously recorded for the county, although it is found 

 over several parts of the same river system in Cambridgeshire. The 

 drupes were fully developed, and the foliage beginning to decay at 

 a date (June 5th) when the flower-buds of P. lucens, which occupied 

 the same spots, were as yet altogether unexpanded. This is quite in 

 accordance with Prof. Dyer's observations on the Thames plant. 

 (Jour, of Bot., o.s. ix., 148.) Ranunculus circinatus was flowering in 

 some quantity wherever it was not exposed to the full force of the 

 current, growing in comparatively deep water with Oenanthe fluvia- 

 tilis, &c., and was the only Batrachian that I noticed. It appears 

 also as a plant of the open stream in Herts, where it accompanies 

 P. ^^ pseiido-fluitans,''^ without, however, showing any tendency to 

 pass into that variable series of forms. — R. A. Pryor. 



Pyrola minor, Linn., as a Sussex plant. — On a recent visit to 

 a wood between Ashburnham and Battle Abbey, in a road only occa- 

 sionally used, and covered with turf and moss, I found on the 1 st 

 June, almost concealed by the foliage of other small plants, a few spe- 

 cimens 0^ Pyrola minor, which is an interesting addition to our Sussex 

 flora. Pyrola media is the only species of the genus hitherto re- 

 ported from the county, and this was found by Mr. Borrer at one 

 station in St. Leonard's Forest, near Horsham, in West Sussex, where 

 Mr. Hemsley (Journ. Bot., 1868, p. 264), states that it is still to be 



