1857.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 117 



luxuries of puddings and drinks ^ and the busks supply fibre, 

 of wbicb tbe natives make tbeir very neatly-plaited ropes. At 

 dinner tbe milk of tbe cocoa-nut is generally drunk bot, and tbe 

 dessert closed by a cold nut. 



Tbe great luxury of tbe islands in tbe way of drink bowever 

 is derived from tbe Piper methysticum ; a specimen of wbicb is 

 on tbe table. Tbis is a large-growing sbrubby Pepper, which 

 the Feejeeans call Yangona, but which is elsewhere more com- 

 monly known under the name Kava, or Ava. It is universally 

 cultivated, and on approaching a chief it is usual formally to 

 present him with a piece. The method of preparing a drink 

 from tbis root has been often described. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUEEIES. 



DrOSEKA LOXGIFOLIA, var. CAULESCENS? 



Since writing a notice of a caulescent form of Drosera, found near Kil- 

 lamey, I have received intiiuations of its being in the hands of collectors 

 fi-om two other sources. Tirst, from ~Slx. Hardy, of Manchester, who has 

 kindly promised to send me a specimen collected in Lancashhe. Secondly 

 from ^Ir. Kirk, of Coventn,^ who writes to me as foUows -. — " I found the 

 caulescent variety of Drosera hiterriiedia very fine and plentiful, not far 

 from Taylor's Hill, Galway, in IS 54. Although my specunens are in 

 fruit and flower, I see no diiference except in luxuriance. I regret that I 

 have given them, away so freely that I cannot send one with this. I have 

 received a similar form from Tolchmoor, Devon. I think it is not un- 

 common in Connemara." Thus far there is evidence of the plant having 

 been found in six different places (five of these recently), and in localities 

 very considerably removed from each other. The question to be settled 

 is simply — has B. longifoUa a strong tendency to the caulescent state ; or 

 are the above-mentioned discoveries to be regarded as proofs that the 

 caulescent plant is specificallv distinct from B. longifolia ? 



W. M. Hind. 



Stachys arvensis. 



Have you ever obser\"ed in the above-named plant a fondness for throw- 

 ing out tufts of radicides (radicles?) from the lower part of its ascentUng 

 stem? I have found it frequently this autumn, is it a common occur- 

 rence in an annual ? Two monstrous varieties of Lina^-ia Elatine and spuria 

 are v_ery common with us, — the one double, and more rarely triply-spiUTed, 

 the other with the throat prolonged of equal width thi'oughout, instead of 

 terminating in a spur, and the lips veiy smaU and scarcely distinct. The 

 whole corolla is thus very like that of the common ^lusk-plant. 



Farerskam. HuGH A. Stowell. 



