440 



SHORT NOTES. 



Cerastium arcticum Lange. — On p. 386 Mr. F. N. Williams 

 expresses the opinion that this is a hybrid between two forms of 

 0. alpiniun. I do not believe that British botanists will endorse 

 this theory. The plant certainly grows associated with our two 

 varieties (a. lanatum, and b. pubescem) in some of its stations ; but it 

 is not intermediate between them, being of a brighter and deeper 

 green than either, less shaggy in pubescence, with different seeds, 

 and a rather different habit. It also occurs alone, as on Cairntoul 

 and Ben More of Assynt. Our C. arcticum appears to be accepted 

 by Mr. Williams, as it was by Dr. Lange himself. Having collected 

 it in more than half a dozen stations, and also cultivated it for a 

 time, I am disposed to consider it as a distinct, though of course 

 closely allied, species. Why var. Edmonstonii should be termed an 

 " obscure" form, I cannot imagine ; it clearly belongs to 0. arcticum, 

 and Mr. Beeby informed me (in 1894) that it extends "over acres 

 in profusion" in Unst. C. alpinum does not appear to occur in 

 Shetland. The true C. latifolium is absent from Britain, so that 

 Norman's solution can hardly be correct. — Edward S. Marshall. 



Elatine Hydropiper L. (p. 400). — If Miss Lister means that 

 Elatine Hydropiper had not been gathered at Cut Mills before she 

 found it there, it is a mistake. The locality is well known, and was 

 discovered by the late W. W. Reeves. It has also been gathered in 

 Worcestershire, whence there is a specimen in Mr. H. C. Watson's 

 Herbarium at Kew, gathered by Mr. Irvine ; and in Staffordshire 

 (Journ. Bot. 1895, 283), where it was found by Mr. J. E. Bagnall. 

 Mr. Watson's note in his MSS. in the Department of Botany, 

 British Museum, runs: "In a mill pond near Churchill Station, 

 3 or 4 miles from Kidderminster, A. Irvine in letter of 27 Nov. 

 1855, with specimen." In this Journal for 1884, p. 41, Mr. W. 

 Mathews says that every mill-pond in the neighbourhood of 

 Churchill, Worcester, had been examined, but no trace of any 

 Elatine had been found. This would be the year to look for it. — 

 Arthur Bennett. 



In his Flora of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Mr. J. E. Griffith 

 observes (p. 26) under E, Hydropiper: "I have seen this growing 

 with the above [i. e. E. hexandra] in Llyn Coron, but of late the 

 place where it used to grow is covered with Chara.'' It may there- 

 fore be worth while to record that, in company with my brother 

 G. S. West, I saw it growing there on the E. side on Aug. 10, 1888. 

 On Aug. 1, 1891, we could not find it there, but a fortnight later 

 my father found it in small quantity on the other side of the lake. 

 I have twice seen E. Hydropiper at the Cutmill station, and found it 

 quite easy to distinguish, while still in situ, from the E. hexandra 

 with which it grows. E. Jiexandra forms small compact mats, the 

 leaves being more or less adpressed to the ground ; but the plants of 

 E. Hydropiper are more straggling, of a paler green, and especially 

 the pairs of leaves are markedly suberect. It is worthy of mention 

 that the Cutmill and Anglesey specimens are much less in size than 



