66 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Linnean Society in 1892, shortly after being placed in charge 

 of the Botanical Survey of Western India ; he was also a Fellow 

 of the Geological Society, and a member of the Anthropological 

 Institute. 



D. P. 



SHORT NOTES. 



Middlesex Plants (see Journ. Bot. 1910, 269, sqq.). — I have 

 found an earlier record of Geiim rivale for Middlesex in a MS. 

 note, circa 1770, by Dr. Lightfoot, in the library of the Botanic 

 Garden, Oxford. It reads: "In a boggy meadow on the left-hand 

 side of road from Colnbrook to London on the skirts of the County 

 of Middlesex, about a mile from the great turnpike road, and 

 about 1^ mile from Colnbrook." This is very near the locality 

 whence Mr. Wallis recorded it a hundred and forty years later. 

 The S'piraa salicifolia of Mr. Loydell's collection (see p. 272) is 

 said by Mr. A. Bruce Jackson to be S. Douglasii Hook., a planted 

 shrub. Mr. C. B. Green tells me the locality for Alchemilla 

 alpestris (1. c.) was a copse near Dew's Farm, Hanfield. It may 

 be well to add that possibly many of Loydell's localities were 

 already known to other workers, and that in some cases Mr. C. B. 

 Green and Mr. J. E. Cooper told him of them or even gave him 

 specimens, and he sometimes omitted to put their names on the 

 labels. The spellings " Yewsley " and " Apperton " are as given 

 on the Ordnance Map. Drayton means, in the case of alien 

 plants recorded by me, the deposits of street sweepings and house 

 refuse on the banks of the canal west of West Drayton Station and 

 the branch line to Uxbridge, and north of Drayton Mill. It must 

 also be borne in mind that in the National Herbarium is the large 

 collection of Middlesex plants made by Mr. J. Benbow, many of 

 which would probably antedate Loydell's specimens. — G. Claeidgb 

 Deuce. 



[We cannot but think that far too much importance is being 

 attached to Loydell's work, especially as to whether plants col- 

 lected or recorded by him were "already known to (or "antedated") 

 by other workers." As we have said more than once, this matter 

 of " first records " is assuming a prominence altogether dispro- 

 portionate to its importance, which indeed is very slight. — Ed. 

 JouRN. BOT.] 



SiBTHOBP's Plants. — The following may be added to the 

 Lincolnshire plants recorded in Journ. Bot. 1910, 257 : Linwn 

 perenne L. Circa Stamford and Ancaster. — Savibucus Ebiilus L. 

 Stoke, 1780. — Galium erectum Huds. Easton, 1780. — Dipsacus 

 pilosios Li. Easton. — Oxycoccus quadripetalus Gilib. "The in- 

 habitants of the fens of Lincolnshire draw annually a considerable 

 revenue from the commerce of the cranberry, which they disperse 

 over the whole kingdom." — Gentiana Pneumonanthe L. Dodding- 

 ton Moor. (Also recorded in Moris. Hist. Oxon, 483, 1699.) — 

 G. campestris L., G. Amarella L. In ericet., 1780. — Polemonium 



