1857.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 211 



fers in being larger in every part, more lax in habit, more glaucous, and 

 in its leaves being constantly and regularly in seven distinct rows. Sedum 

 reflexum is described by botanists from Linnseus downwards as having its 

 leaves scattered, but such is not the case, for its leaves are in nine rows 

 as constantly as those of S. septangulare are in seven. It must be ad- 

 mitted that they are rather difBcult to count when the branch is in a pro- 

 cumbent state, but if a branch is examined which grows more upright, 

 and which is in a growing state, its nine angles are then very apparent. 



I have three plants by me, which are producible at any time should 

 any doubts arise upon the matter. John Lloyd. 



[Without contradicting or even controverting the statements of our re- 

 spected coiTespondent, we beg to state that when we were at Boxley Ab- 

 bey, near Maidstone, we gathered, on the old and partly ruinous abbey- 

 wall, numerous specimens of what appears to be Sedum reflexum, and we 

 counted the ranks of leaves, and found them to be invariably seven. At 

 Hadleigh Castle, Essex, on a part inaccessible to us, grew a Sedum which 

 was concluded by appearance to be the same as the one taken from Boxley 

 Abbey. We have also preserved our specimens alive, and Mr. Lloyd is 

 welcome to compare them with his whenever it is convenient for him to 

 do so.] 



Arum italicum. Development op Heat in the Spadix of. 

 (Prom Curtis's 'Botanical Magazine,' vol. 1. pp. 2433-3.) 



" It was in this species that M. Lamarck observed an extraordinary de- 

 gree of heat, amounting almost to burning, in the spadix, at a certain 

 epoch, probably that when the fecundation of the germens takes place. 

 This high temperature continues only for a few hours ; and when several 

 spadices come from the same root, the heat is evolved from each in suc- 

 cession as they arrive at the proper epoch, while the rest remain at the 

 same temperature as the surrounding atmosphere. This observation is 

 said to have been confirmed by Desfoutaines." Mr. Curtis adds : — "We 

 are not informed however that the fact was proved by the thermometer ; 

 and if not, it is possible that some pungent vapour might occasion the 

 sensation of heat in the fingers, without really increasing the temperature 

 of the surrounding air. We hope some of our readers may be induced to 

 attend to this curious phenomenon." 



The same fact is incidentally noticed in a publication of more humble 

 pretensions to science than the ' Botanical Magazine.' In the ' English- 

 woman's Domestic Magazine,' vol. ii. p. 28, 1854, the heat of the spadix 

 of Arum maculatum is stated as a pretty well known fact. In this perio- 

 dical, which was probably never c^uoted before in any scientific work, the 

 term bell-shaped is printed as synonymous with umbellate. The Daisy is 

 pictorially represented with cauline lanceolate leaves, like those of an Or- 

 chis. The author of the botanical papers in this work informs his or her 

 readers that the Strawberry belongs to the Order Icosandria, and to the 

 class Folygynia ; also that Leontodon Paraxacum {Taraxacum^ belongs to 

 the Composites, and is of the Natural Order Jsteracea ; that Wood Sorrel 

 is a Polygonaceovs plant (gi-aver authorities have made this mistake), etc. 

 etc. Amons: all this nonsense there is the fact announced as not unheard 



