676 



shoots are carried away in the autumn, as Dr. Broiiifield describes, 

 as soon as they separate from the ground ; and even before that period 

 the flowering tops of the plants, yet entangled amongst the masses of 

 weeds and other things that float down the current, and are cut off 

 before the seed can come to perfection. In order to counteract the 

 destructive agency to which the seeds of the plant are exposed, a 

 wonderfully increasing power is imparted to the stems of (Enanthe 

 fluviatilis, by the viviparous mode of increasing by buds which they 

 possess; and thus, for some wise purpose, is Q^^nauthe fluviatilis 

 almost the only evergreen plant of our rivers and ditches, affording 

 shade and shelter to aquatic animals at all times and seasons. 



I have but one observation more to make on the subject of (Enan- 

 the fluviatilis ; and that will bear on the shape of the submersed leaves. 

 Some readers of the ' Phytologist ' may have been struck with what 

 appears like a parsley-leaf, springing up in shallow river-ditches, above 

 the Enteromorpha intestinalis and other fresh-water Confervas which 

 cover the surface of the water in July and August. A little pains 

 taken to extract the parsley-like leaf, with its stem, from its pa- 

 rent mud, will show that this leaf is a transformed condition of the 

 submersed leaves of Q^^nanthe fluviatilis, as leaves of the natural form 

 and size of the submersed leaves are found growing from the same 

 root with the parsley-like leaf Indeed, the leaflets of the parsley-like 

 leaves of QCnanthe fluviatilis consist merely of the base and termina- 

 tion of the long leaflets which grow in the current. This is an inte- 

 resting fact, and tends to prove that the original idea of Dillenius 

 contained the elements of truth, when he ascribed the lengthening 

 out of the plant to the action of running water ; and it also furnishes 

 matter for consideration as regards the specific identity of (Enanthe 

 fluviatilis and CE. Phellandrium. 



E. G. Varenne. 



Kelvedon, August 17, 1852, 



Botanical Notes of a Week in Ireland during the present Month 

 ^{August, 1852). By Daniel Oliver, Jun., Esq., F.B.S.E. 



Filago minima, Fries. I took advantage of the interval between 

 the time of the arrival of our train at Maryport and the departure of 

 the steam-packet, to look about on the sand-hills southerly from the 

 harbour. I picked several specimens of this Filago at a short dis- 

 tance from the town. It appears to be new to the Lake Province of 



