NOTES OX LrCHNOTHAMNUS 129 



being that in the latter species oogonia are produced on the outer side 

 of the branchlets as well as in their axils, and that the stipulodes are 

 of a diiferent shape. 



The separation of Nifellopsis and the removal from the genus- 

 of L. macropogon would leave the one well-marked species, Z. har- 

 hatus, in Lychnothainnus. 



The plants from which Miss McNicol obtained the facts for her 

 admirable paper " The Bulbils and Pro-embrvo of Lamprofhamnvs 

 alopecuroides A, Braun " {Annals of Botany, xxi. p. 61, 1907), were 

 also raised from mud derived from the neighbourhood of Port 

 Elizabeth, but I do not know whether or not from Mr. Hodgson's 

 gathering. The possibility of cultivating charoph3'tes in this way 

 from dried mud opens up opportunities of becoming acquainted Avith 

 the life-history of little-known species, and the success which has. 

 attended these experiments points to the desirability of samples of 

 mud being obtained where possible from districts the aquatic vegeta- 

 tion of which has not been worked up. The preservation of specimens 

 in formalin has been of great assistance and is an immense advance- 

 on the dried specimens which formerly represented one's only material, 

 but living plants would, of course, be far better. 



In examining one specimen of the South African L. macropogon 

 I came across a rather remarkable abnormality, there being no fewer 

 than three oogonia in which the number of spiral enveloping-cells 

 numbered four instead of five. Abnormalities in charophytes are by 

 no means uncommon, but a deviation in the number of spiral cells is 

 of special interest on account of the extraordinary constancy of the 

 number (five), dating back as it does to the earliest undoubtedly 

 characeous fruits which we possess, those from the Oolite. Braun, 

 in referring to the constancy of this character in his paper '* Uber 

 die RichtungsverhaltnissederSaftstrome in den Zellen der Characeen ^ 

 pt. 2 (1858), mentions that he had himself met with only one' 

 exception, that of a four-celled coronula in Chora galioides, which 

 implies also four spiral cells. The only others I have noticed, among- 

 the many thousand fruits which have passed under my observation,, 

 were a single oogonium of Nitella opaca, and a fossil '* fruit " froii*. 

 the Lower Headon beds, each of which had six spiral cells. 



SHORT NOTE. 



Cheshiee Plants (p. 91). The only new records for the county 

 in Mr. Adamson's list are Ceterach officinarum and Potamogetow 

 prcelongus Wulf . : the latter is an interesting addition ; it occurs; 

 rarely in the adjoining counties of Mid-west York ! Stafford ! and 

 Salop ! and is recorded for Denbigh (Journ. Bot. 1913, Supp. 39). 

 and Derby. P. coloraius Horn, was found b}^ Major Wolley-Dod 

 on Willey Moor in 1912 ; the specimens from West Kirby labelled 

 polygonifolius in De Tabley's herbarium belong to this species : 

 "P. lucens L." from Rostherne Mere, in his herbarium, is P. an- 

 gustiJoJius Bercht. & Presl. Major Wolley-Dod collected P. zos- 



