286 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



can of course be correctly used to denote the stage of development of 

 a plant to contrast, say, with " dowering," and it can also be correctly 

 used in contrast to " sterile " ; but as an antonym of " male/' for 

 which I gather Mr. Church proposes to use it, I should have thought 

 it impossible. Just now long words with Greek roots are, one realizes, 

 much in fashion, ; but really Mr. Church's suggestion of the use of 

 two prefixes, which merely mean " large " and " small," for purposes 

 of sex-differentiation seems ])reposterous, and to my thinking the 

 sooner such misleading terms are " scrapped," to use Mr. Church's 

 expression, the better in the interests of accuracy. Your contributor 

 would appear to have some objection to the recognition of sex in 

 plants, but I may be pardoned for suggesting that the use of am- 

 bisruous verbiau'e will not do awaA^ with the fact. — James Geo yes. 



Pollination of Vtscum album. Following some experiments 

 on the fertilization of Mistletoe by Dom Ethelbert Home, as recorded 

 by him at length in this Journal for 1916 (p. -92), and again in a 

 shorter note in the volume for 1918 (p. 331), and guided by some 

 advice from him about protecting the blooms for trial, four flowering 

 twigs of a female plant were enclosed in fine hexagonal cotton net 

 with a 1 mm. mesh. The net was kept clear of the blooms by a 

 framework of thin split cane ; two little hoops of this wei'e tied 

 across each other at the top, the ends being then brought down to the 

 .stem, where they and the net covering, now of balloon shape, were 

 securely tied. There is no male plant in the garden, but twigs of 

 pollen bloom were obtained from a distance and hung up in the female 

 l)ush. The uncovered part of the bush, especially on the sunny side, 

 became loaded with berries. Of the four enclosed twigs, two have 

 one berry each, the other two none. It may be surmised that some 

 of the pollen may have been caught and retained by the fine net, or 

 all of it in the case of the flowers where no fertilisation was effected. 

 In any case, this experiment, agreeing with former trials b}^ Dom 

 Ethelbert, would support his view that fertilisation is not necessarily 

 due to the agency of insects, for none of the bees and flies, claimed b}^ 

 the natumlists Koelreuter, Kirschner, and Loew to be conveyors of 

 the jioUen, could possibly pass through the small meshed net. 



Gertrude Jekyll. 



Galium erectum in Somerset. When Murray's Flora of 

 Somerset was published in 1896 there was only one undoubted record 

 for this plant in the county of Somerset, and that was from a wall 

 near Templecombe — a strange habitat. Since then it has been 

 found in several localities in X. and S. Somerset (see Marshall's 

 Siipplemen/). On June 7th this year, in walking up to Sidcot School 

 from Winscombe Station, by the old and much frequented foot-path 

 through the fields, I noticed in the top enclosure, close to the main 

 road to Bristol, numerous patches of Galium erect um in the short 

 mowing grass. The plant was vaiiable in form, colour, and stature. 

 Some were very short, and others somewhat like the upland Mendip 

 form of G. Mollugo, the type of which grows in a lane adjoining and 

 on the main road. Further search showed that G. erectum was 

 disli'ihuted in patches over the greater part of the field. On enquiry 



