146 



was able to do so, found it remotely connected with another old branch at a wide an* 

 gle. I think I found as many recent stems forked as simple ; and the latter, to my 

 mind, appeared to form the exception, and not the rule. I beg to send this as a sug- 

 gestion, which, I cannot help thinking, you will find, on investigation, to be founded 

 in reality ; for, according to my view, the stems are, as you say, prostrate, creeping, 

 firmly adhering to the soil by means of their roots, but instead of being rarely branch- 

 ed, with a tendency at length to become dichotomous, the two branches then gradually 

 growing at a wider angle from each other, perhaps until the angle is one of 70". The 

 old stems are all so much decayed that I was not able to secure a single one with its 

 remote branch ; but the specimen I send vnll show the incipient ramifications, the 

 weaker of the two at a very obtuse angle. Centunculus minimus and Bidens cernua 

 are both found on the common. — W. H. Dawnay ; 30, Upper Brook St., Sept. 22, 1841. 



101. Curious form of the common Reed. Should the botanist be tempted to ramble 

 along the shore towards Puckaster, he can hardly fail to remark the very singular form 

 of the common reed (Phragmites vulgaris), which abounds on the slipped banks of wet 

 a,nd almost semifluid clay, skirting the southern shores of this island. The only notice 

 I can find of this curious prostrate variety of a species naturally quite erect, is in Ray's 

 Synopsis, 3rd edition, by Dillenius, where, in the Indiculus Plantarum Dubiarum at 

 the end of the volume, I remember to have read very long ago the then very puz- 

 zling announcement of a " Gramen arundinaceum 30 pedes longum. On the South 

 of the I. of Wight by the sea-side towards the Point; " precisely the very station on 

 which I first met with it, and calling to recollection the above quotation, which at the 

 time of reading it only created a feeling of wonderment, the mystery was at once ex- 

 plained. Springing from the steep sides of these extraordinary land-slips, the roots in- 

 terlacing in all directions just beneath the surface, may the common reed of our ponds 

 and marshes be seen with its culms depending like long and slender ropes, or trailing 

 in a straight or serpentine direction on the shingly beach or the smooth and level sand, 

 and that without rooting at the joints, to the length of from 20 to 40 or even 50 feet. 

 I have never observed the extremities of the culms to blossom under these circumstan- 

 ces, as indeed they could scarcely be expected to do with so exhausting a length of 

 growth ; the leaves too are very short, as if imperfectly developed, and occasionally a 

 few radicles are emitted from one or other of the joints, but in general the plant lies 

 quite prostrate and entirely unconnected with the soil from the root upwards, so that 

 it may be wound about any object like a cord, without the least difiiculty. The vari- 

 ety is very common on the slipped shore beyond Black-gang, and has been noticed 

 since near Bembridge, by my zealous friend Dr. Thos. Bell Salter. — Wm. Arnold 

 Bromfeld ; Eastmount, Ryde, Isle of Wight, Nov. 8, 1841, 



102. Staphylea pinnata. The retention of Staphylea pinnata in our Floras seems 

 continued in deference to the authority of Ray, in whose time it is said to have grown 

 about Pontefract sparingly and not certainly wild. It is likewise mentioned by Mer- 

 rett as found in " woods in the farther part " of the same county, and as a Yorkshire 

 plant by Smith, on the authority of Saml. Hailstone Esq. of Bradford, but who now 

 sees reason to believe himself mistaken in thinking it a native. The old writers, Ge- 

 rarde and Parkinson, mention it, the former giving very suspicious localities for it in 

 Lincolnshire, the latter, hedges about Ashford in Kent. In none of these stations has 

 it been seen by any recent botanists. I am told it is plentiful in Arniston woods, near 

 Edinburgh, but accompanied by the lilac, laburnum and other shrubs of foreign growth, 

 plainly pointing out its extraneous origin. It is much to be regretted that our gene- 



