1019 



496. Note on Anthyllls viilneraria. Mr. Greenwood's note (Phytol. 

 1000) has led me to examine the flowers of this plant, and I find that 

 on the Cambridgeshire examples they are monadelphous. One fila- 

 ment is free at the base and summit, but quite joined to the other 

 nine tliroughout most of its length, I hope Mr. Greenwood will care- 

 fully re-examine his plant, and if it is really diadelphous, that he will 

 allow me to examine a specimen of it. — Id. 



497. Note on Botrydium graniilosmn, Grev. Most of the shallower 

 ponds in this neighbourhood have become dry from the long want of 

 rain to replenish them, and this circumstance has brought to view the 

 above curious little algoid plant, which I have often looked out for, 

 but could never before meet with. Walking with a friend from War- 

 wickshire along the Henwick road near Worcester, the bed of a little 

 pond opposite Henwick farm attracted our notice, as it appeared al- 

 most as if covered with hoar frost, though on the morning of the 3rd 

 of June, and as we trod on it, our ears were surprized with a crackling 

 as if of icy particles. On stooping down, however, I found that the 

 whole bed of the pond was occupied by an aggregated growth of Bo- 

 trydium granulosum, Grev., the rupture of whose globules caused the 

 noise we heard, and the frosty appearance presented to view I found 

 was occasioned by innumerable yar/wo^e granules that densely cover- 

 ed the exterior of the green spheroidal vesicles forming the plant. 

 These exterior granules seem not to have been noticed by observers, 

 though very conspicuous, unless Sir W. J. Hooker alludes to them in 

 his account of the Botrydium, where he says that " the membranous 

 coat has internally a number of small granules," (Brit. Flor. ii. 321). 

 When the vesicles collapse and become cup-shaped, they then indeed 

 appear superficially internal, but they cover all sides of the globule 

 before the fluid within it is spent. The size of the green spherical 

 vesicles is subject to great diversity, as in all globular structures, be- 

 ing very minute where they are crowded in their growth by pressing 

 upon each other, averaging generally the size of a mustard-seed ; but 

 when standing singly, nearly double that size, or as large as a cur- 

 rant. The}^ have rather a tough skin, for it requires some degree of 

 pressure to burst them by the hand, though of course breaking, with 

 a crackling noise, beneath the tread. In general, the vesicles col- 

 lapse without bursting, though when forced to do so, or when pricked 

 with a needle, the included fluid is diffused externally, the skin sinks 

 down, and the plant presents the appearance of a Peziza, or where 

 there are many together, like the cells of a wasp's nest upon a small 

 scale. Having at the time only a pamphlet to put my specimens in. 



