SHORT NOTES. 239 



Officinal Rhubarbs. — At the garden of the Royal Botanic Society, 

 Regent's Park, a plant of the Rheum officinale is now in nearly ripe fruit. 

 This plant, a native of Tibet, is the species shown by Baillon to be 

 the source of some at least of the " Turkey " Rhubarb of commerce 

 (see. J. Bot., 1872, p. 379), and has been figured in the "Botanical 

 Magazine" for last December (t. 6135). It is an exceedingly hand- 

 some plant when in flower, and certainly not less so in fruit. The 

 broad wings of the triangular nuts are of a brilliantly bright red, and 

 cordate at the base and apex, the whole fruit being nearly half an inch 

 long, and pendulous in clusters. They are very indifferently ren- 

 dered both in form and colour in the Bot. Mag, plate. Quite recently 

 Prof. Maximowicz* has proved that the Rhubarb which enters Siberia 

 by Kiachta, or "Moscow" Rhubarb, is yielded by Rheum palmattim, 

 Linn., which was found in 1872-3 by Przewalski, on hills at Tangut, in 

 the province of Kansu, in North- West China. This^is a re-^discovery, tor 

 the species was originally brought to Russia in 1750, and thence distri- 

 buted to the gardens of Europe, f as the undoubted source of officinal 

 Rhubarb. There is no necessary antagonism between the statements 

 of Baillon and Maximowicz, and it may well be that the drug is 

 afforded by both species of Rheum. 



Aliens on Railway Debris. — I have observed several annuals on 

 railway debris near Croydon, the presence of which in England seems 

 rather unaccountable, during the past and present summer. Three 

 species have particularly attracted my attention : — Salvia CEthiopis, L., 

 Silene dichotoma, Ehrh., and Saponaria Vaccaria, L. I am indebted 

 to Mr. Hewett "Watson for determining these plants, which are chiefly 

 noticeable as never being cultivated in gardens, and therefore as not 

 being garden escapes. — Edward Newman, in " Eield," July 17, 1875. 



Stratiotes aloides. — Prof. Nolte, in his classical paper on this 

 plant, and Prof. De Vriese, in his more recent observations on its geo- 

 graphical distribution, state that only the female plant is known to 

 occur in Great Britain and Ireland. Dr. Boswell (late Syme) also 

 says in *' Eng. Bot.," ed. 3, that he has seen no male flowers, but he 

 adds that anthers are occasionally produced on the usually barren 

 stamens of the female flowers. Mr. Leighton^ in his " I^lora of Shrop- 

 shire" (p. 254), indeed considers the plant hermaphrodite, and describes 

 the pollen. We shall be glad to have any information on the subject 

 from botanists who have the opportunity of observing this interesting 

 plant. It is usually considered dioecious, but on this subject atten- 

 tion may be drawn to a paper by Dr. Lindberg, read before the Botanical 

 Society of Edinburgh, and reported in this Journal for 1872 (p. 317), 

 in which he shows that Hi/drocharis, also generally deemed dioecious, 

 is in reality monoecious, the apparently separate plants being connected 

 by branches under water. He says he has never seen a truly male 

 plant. 



* Kegel Garten Flora, January, 1875, and tab. 819. 



t The cultivated plant in gardens has a somewhat more spreading panicle 

 than the wild pahnafum as figured by Maximowicz. 



