171 



On the duration of Rubus discolor. By Thomas Meehan, Esq. 



In Dr. Salter's ' Observations on the Genus Rubus,' inserted in the 

 Mai-ch number (Phytol. ii. 87), I observe that considerable uncertainty 

 exists in the botanical world respecting the age to which the shoots 

 of these plants attain. The general opinion seems to be, that they 

 are biennial ; but, as Dr. Salter observes, some of them live for a much 

 longer period. There is growing in a hedge-bank adjoining a wood 

 at St. Clare, a plant of Rubus discolor ; the main stem of which, to 

 my knowledge, is seven years old: it may possibly be older, but I have 

 observed there for that time. It is above three inches in circumfer 

 ence, and at about four feet from the ground branches out into a large 

 head, which, being entangled in that of an adjacent willow, is sup- 

 ported by it. There is a quantity of dead biennial wood, but of no 

 other age, among the rest, which seems to me to afford good ground 

 for a conjecture, that if the wood live above two years, it will live for 

 an indefinite period. The tree is otherwise healthy, and budding 

 well. Thomas Meehan. 



St. Clare, near Ryde, 

 April 25, 1845. 



Remarks on Calamintha sylvatica, (Bromfield). 

 By T. Bell Salter, M.D., F.L.S. 



Having now for nearly two years observed with much interest and 

 some little attention that most remarkable and truly beautiful addition 

 to our Flora, which was made by my friend Dr. Bromfield, in August, 

 1843, by the discovery in this island of the Calamintha sylvatica, no- 

 tices of which have appeared in former numbers of the ' Phytologist,' 

 I am myself induced to offer a few remarks on the same plant. The 

 last account given by Dr. Bromfield, in the February number (Phytol. 

 ii. 49) was so extremely clear, that it would appear to leave little to 

 be said on the same subject. The opinion of many of the most emi- 

 nent botanists in the country, who received early specimens of the 

 plant, that it was only a variety of Calamintha officinalis, produced 

 by growing in shady situations, was at first so decidedly and strongly 

 held by them, that I cannot but think that the testimony of one who 

 has watched it attentively in its native wood, for both two flowering 

 and two springing seasons, may be of some interest. Added to this, 

 however, I am able to give some account of its behaviour under cul- 



