904 



however, the seeds are ejected, not by any movement of the outer 

 valves of the capsule, but by a curious mternal bag in which each seed 

 is enveloped. The capsule consists of five cells, each containing one 

 seed, and having an opening at the side. Each seed is enclosed in a 

 closely fitting semitransparent skin; w^henripe this little skin acquires 

 the projecting power, having a strong inclination to turn inside out- 

 wards, which, continually increasing, ultimately causes a small fissure 

 at the top, and immediately this is effected, the bag rapidly inverts it- 

 self, and the seed is thrown out with a crack through the opening 

 provided for it ; and sometimes the bag itself is thrown out by the 

 violence of the movement, but generally it remains in the mouth of 

 the cell. — Joseph Sidehotham ; Manchester, January 10, 1844. 



450. Note on Veronica triphyllos. While examining lately one or 

 two very fine specimens of Veronica triphyllos, from the neighbour- 

 hood of York, with which I was favoured by my friend Sylvanus 

 Thompson, Esq., I was struck with the great discrepancy between 

 Hooker's description and these specimens. Hooker arranges this 

 plant in the last section of the genus, having the " flowers axillary — 

 solitary," whereas my specimens have the flowers in terminal racemes^ 

 exactly as in V. alpina, serpyllifolia, and others of the first division 

 of the genus. Hooker indeed says of V. triphyllos, — " flowers sub- 

 racemose," so that its being placed in a section having axillary soli- 

 tary flowers, may arise from inadvertence. I may remark that the 

 only other specimen of V. triphyllos in my collection, and which I 

 owe to the kindness of Sir W. Hooker himself, shows exactly the 

 same mode of inflorescence as in the Yorkshire specimens above al- 

 luded to. I quote the third edition of the ' British Flora,' perhaps 

 the error may be corrected in a subsequent edition, to which at pre- 

 sent I have no access. — Tlios. Edmonslon, jun. ; Baltasound, Shet- 

 land, January 27, 1844. 



451. Villarsia nymphceoides. As I am not acquainted with any 

 recorded Scotch habitats of this beautiful plant, it may perhaps inte- 

 rest your readers to know that I gathered it in August, 1840, in a 

 large mill-pond near Glasgow, where it was first observed by Mr. W. 

 R. Murray of Edinburgh. The plant grows in great abundance in 

 this station, intermixed with Potamogeton, Myriophyllum, and other 

 aquatic plants. I regret I cannot give a more explicit description of 

 this station, from my ignorance of the localities round Glasgow, and 

 it was so dark when we gathered the plant, that we both took only a 

 specimen a-piece as Nuphar lutea ; and thus we did not pay that at- 

 tention to the station that we should otherwise have done. The plant 



