346 SHORT NOTES. 



(liverses langues, saus les rattaclier aux princiioes et saus examiner 

 leurs connexions. J'espere revenir ime fois sur les points con- 

 testes, clans qiielque ' Supplement' a mon ancien travail. En 

 attendant je prie MM. les botanistes de vouloir bien ne pas con- 

 siderer mon silence comme une preuve on d'acquiescement a toute 

 ce qui s'imprime ou d'indifference a I'egard des auteurs. — Alph. 

 DeCandolle, Geneve, Octobre 1, 1878. 



SciRPUs supiNus. — Several years ago I called attention to 

 the discovery of solitary subradical flowers in the axils of leaf- 

 sheaths, in a form of Scirjms supimis which is rather widely spread 

 in the United States ; and I mentioned that I had detected traces 

 of them in one East Indian specimen of that species, but not in 

 European specimens. My object is to ask if any one has found 

 them, or indeed looked for them. In our plant, toward the close 

 of summer, they may almost always be found in smaU individuals, 

 their very long capillary styles being rather conspicuous ; but 

 robust plants often want them. — Asa Gray. 



Kentish Cryptogams. — In Mr. Holmes' paper (sup. p. 211) 

 I see Mr. R. S. Hill's name given as an authority for the occur- 

 rence of Cladonia imngens in Kent. Mr. Hill's specimens were 

 collected near Basingstoke, in Hampshire. As this is not the only 

 instance in which Mr. Leighton, in the ' Lichen Flora,' quotes 

 Mr. Hill as an authority for Kentish Lichens, it may be well to 

 note that in every instance where this is the case " Kent'' should 

 be read " Hants.'' — F. I. Warner. 



SciLLA AUTUMNALis IN EssEx. — I caii add one species to the 

 Essex Flora, Scilla aiitumnalis, which I found abundantly in a 

 sandy field about two miles south of Grrays, and had it afterwards 

 growing in my garden for two or three years. — A. R. Wallace. 

 [This tends to corroborate the locality from the Banksian herbarium 

 given in this Journal for 1873, p. 341.] 



MOLINIA CiERULEA AS A MATERIAL FOR PaPER-MAKING. It OCCUrrcd 



tome, some years ago, that our common grass, Molinia caridea, might 

 form a good material for paper-making, on account of its tenacity 

 of fibre, freedom from knots, and the comparatively small quantity 

 of silica in its composition, — characters which distinguish it from 

 all our native grasses. I wrote to Mr. Jackson, of Kew, to inquire 

 if it had ever been used for the purpose ; in reply he informed me 

 that so far as he knew it had not, and referred me to Mr. Thomas 

 Routledge, of Sunderland, to whom I sent a small quantity of the 

 grass. The result of Mr. Routledge's experiment is given in the 

 following extracts from his letter : — "I have tested your Molinia 

 cfrrulea, the same giving me a better result than I anticipated, so 

 far as a laboratory experiment is concerned ; and I conclude that, 

 taken as dried, and put up carefully in bundles free from weed and 

 dirt, its value would be equal to Esparto, say at £5 per ton diy. 

 I however must refrain from reporting positively as to its value for 



