399 



SHORT NOTES. 



Donegal Plants. — Ciiscuta Epklujnnun appeared on thyme in 

 several patches in natural ground close to the hotel at Eosapenna, 

 Carngorst. It is such an inconspicuous sort of plant, looking like 

 a patch of withered reddish vegetation, that it may easily have 

 escaped my observation in previous years. As early as 1707 

 Threlkeld recorded Dodder (probably this species) from " Magdcn 

 Tower, near Drogheda." It had not been gathered subsequently 

 up to the publication of Cijbcle Hibernica (1866), and I am uncertain 

 if it has been gathered since in Ireland, but I think it has.* 

 iMus tenuis has appeared in considerable quantity in a patch of 

 laid down grass in the same locality, opposite the entrance of the 

 hotel. It is, I should say, undoubtedly established. The variation 

 of its leaves towards those of L. cundculatus in some plants is very 

 obvious. The species has an erect habit at Eosapenna. Oalmm 

 Mollwjo occurs sparingly, and undoubtedly introduced, with the 

 preceding. This grass was laid down four years ago. Reseda 

 suffnuiculosa was also introduced, and has established itself in the 

 same way. Cochlearia (jrocnlandica grows in several places on the 

 outer exposed bluffs and headlands of north-west Eossgull, about 

 five miles north of Eosapenna : west of Gortnaloghoge is one 

 station. Mr. Bennett, who kindly examined specimens, writes, 

 "I sent your Cochlearia to Mr. Marshall, and he says, 'I believe 

 the enclosed is true C. yroenlandica L.' " I had so named it from 

 memory of its appearance in Greenland. But I have little regard 

 for it as a specific form, distinct from arKjlica. — H. C. Haet. 



PoLYGALA ciLiATA Lebel, FOKMA. — A short time ago Mr. Hilton 

 brought to the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, a very 

 interesting Pobjcjala which he had gathered on the Downs near 

 Brighton. The sepals are strongly ciliate, more so than in some 

 specimens we have of the Gogmagog plant, but it does not quite 

 agree with Lebel's original description (in Grenier & Godron, Fl. 

 de France, i. 195) of his P. ciliata. Two points of difference being 

 (a) the racemes are often lateral ; (b) the sepals taken as a whole 

 are narrower (I say, taken as a whole, because they are not always 

 all quite the same shape). We are fortunate in having in the 

 Herbarium specimens from Lebel of his P. ciliata, and I notice the 

 point he so emphasizes in his description, "les grappes terminales 

 et jamais latcrales," is not quite borne out by his specimens, the 

 racemes of which, though generally terminal, are not invariably so. 

 The sepals of the Brighton plant are narrower than in the Lebel 

 specimens — an important point, as he says, " la largeur des ailes 

 Ten distinguent parfaitement," so I think it must be referred to 

 P. ciliata as a form. I notice P. ciliata Lebel, non Linn., is the 

 P. blepharoptera of Borbas {Oest. Rot. Zeit. 1890, 177), which has 

 got changed to plepharoj^tera in Hallier & Wolfarth's edition of 



* [See Journ. Bot. 1892, p. 14, where Mr. A. G. More records its occurrence 

 in Kerry, Waterford, and Meath. — Ed. Joukn. Bot.] 



