2oG THE JOURNAL OF BOTAXX 



SHORT NOTES. 



Sedum Drucei (p. 212). My opinion having been quoted hy 

 Mr. Driice in support of the distinctness of this plant, I should like 

 to state the facts of the case. In 1910 I was at Agnetendorf in the 

 Riesengebirge. I had Garcke's Flora with me, but in the absence of 

 a dictionary could not read it. Among the plants observed was a 

 Sfdum on the walls which I did not think was S. acre. I found that 

 of the group Garcke only gives it and »S'. sexangulare. As 1 could not 

 tell whether it agreed with the description of the latter (which I did 

 not know), I thought no more about the matter (except that in the 

 meantime I had seen S. sexangulare and realized that my plant must 

 have been S. acre) until 1912, when I was introduced to Mr. Druce 

 at a meeting of the International Phytogeographical Excursion at 

 Hayling Island. In the course of conversation he told me that it 

 was supposed that the British S. acre was not identical with the 

 Continental ])lant, whereupon I said that this perhaps explained why 

 I had thought the Agnetendoi-f Sedum was something I did not 

 knovr. But I considered the matter equally likely to be explained by 

 the fact that I had never given more than the most casual glance at 

 the British aS^. acre. I was surprised to read in the B. E. C. Report 

 the statement quoted by Mr. Praeger. — A. J. Wilmott. 



Botanists and horticulturists are under an obligation to Mr. R. 

 Lloyd Praeger for his work on Sedum, and particularly for his 

 illuminating account of S. Drucei. Especially interesting is the 

 result of his cultivation of >S'. acre from various British, Irish, and 

 Continental sources, and that he found it impossible to separate these 

 into groups. I agree that several European species of Sedum display 

 a wider range of variation than is found in S. acre (including Drucei) ; 

 and it would be well if everv British and German bottmist would note 

 Mr. Pi-aeger's last paragraph, where he says " No doubt it will be 

 shown eventually that in the case of a large number of our plants the 

 British forms diifer slightly from Continental types ; it would be 

 surprising if this were not so." This im])ortant point was alluded 

 to by several writers in the Weiv Phyfolor/ist on the International 

 Phytogeographical Excursion (1911). In the opinion of many such 

 variations are only worthy of varietal rank ; and some of us who have 

 botanised much on the Continent as well as at home consider it 

 unfortunate that Prof. Graebner has separated as a distinct species 

 the British Sedum acre. If this be taken as a precedent other new 

 specihc names, equally regrettable, may follow. I do not remember 

 gathering aS*. acre in Germany, but have frequently examined and 

 gathered it in France and Switzerland ; and that without observmg 

 any great difference in it from the British })lant, which itself varies 

 naturally according to soil and situation, and occasionally simulates 

 S. sexangulare. — H. S. Thompson. 



A Large Motii-Mulleix {Verhascum Blaftaria). In August 

 I took the following particulars of a very large specimen of 7Vr- 

 hascum Blaffaria, 7 ft. 6 inches high, growing in long grass in a 

 neglected garden in Clifton, Bristol. I estimated that the plant 

 produced at least 250,000 seeds, after allowing for 96 apparently 



