937 



466. On Jungermannia Francisci and J. byssacea. At the sugges- 

 tion of a correspondent, whom I have been the means of leading into 

 error concerning these two species, I willingly acknowledge that I 

 have not properly understood them, until my friend Mr. Spruce sup- 

 plied me with genuine examples of J. Francisci, a species which I 

 have never gathered. I must therefore request all my correspondents 

 who have received from me specimens named "J. Francisci," to sub- 

 stitlite the name "J. byssacea." In extenuation of the mistake which 

 I have thus committed, let me remark that in the monograph by Sir 

 W. J. Hooker, J. bifida of Schmidel is twice cited, once under J. bys- 

 sacea, t. 12, and again, doubtfully, under J. Francisci, t. 49, where will 

 be found also the following observation: — "In habit J. Francisci cer- 

 tainly approaches J. byssacea, but the uj)right growth of the surculi, 

 and the more concave and less deeply notched leaves are of them- 

 selves sufiicient marks of discrimination ; and when the presence of 

 the stipules is taken into consideration, no difficulty in distinguishing 

 them will be found to occur." Now the fact is, that although J. bys- 

 sacea does sometimes present itself with stipules so very obscure as 

 to escape the ordinary means of detection (in which state I have never 

 failed to recognise it as J. byssacea), there are numerous cases where 

 the stipules are quite obvious (as in specimens gathered by Mr. 

 Cruickshank near Dumfries, and in my own specimens gathered on 

 Delamere-forest and elsewhere), so that there can be no doubt that J. 

 byssacea ought to be placed in that section of the genus which is 

 possessed of stipules. I have long suspected the stipule-bearing plant 

 was not essentially distinct from .J. byssacea, but while I was ignorant 

 of the true J. Francisci, I naturally referred it to that species. It now 

 remains to ascertain whether our J. byssacea is the species so called 

 by Roth. On Delamere-forest, Cheshire, I have seen it growing on 

 blocks of sandstone, in small, compact, rounded tufts, the surculi be- 

 ing of course erect, and bearing very evident stipules. — W. Wilson ; 

 Warrington, February 20, 1844. 



467. On the parasitism of Orobanche. While in Wales last sum- 

 mer, I obtained very satisfactory evidence of the parasitical habit of 

 Orobanche major and O. barbata. As regards the latter species, there 

 is already a correct representation (as far as it goes) given at tab. 2859 

 of the ' Supplement to English Botany;' but as nothing is stated in 

 the description beyond the mere fact of parasitism, I may be pardoned 

 for presenting the readers of ' The Phytologist ' with the result of my 

 own observations, which were made independently of what had been 



4 L 



