SHORT NOTES AND QUERIES. 109 ' 
whole, I think their claims to be considered as Irish are slight indeed, 
not one of them having been found for thirty or forty years, if indeed two 
of them were ever found at all.—R. M. BARRINGTON. : 
pad of blotting-paper. We stitch from three to five sheets together into 
a dryer, the specimens being placed. between successive dryers, of course 
enclosed in a sheet of thin soft paper; nothing can be better nor so 
cheap.—PRorEssoR Asa Gray in‘ American Naturalist.’ 
Drosera ROTUNDIFOLIA.—Mr. W. G. Smith, in a communication to 
the ‘Gardeners’ Chronicle,’ gives as a reason why the flowers of Drosera 
rotundifolia are so rarely seen expanded, their “ extreme sensitiveness to 
touch, the flowers being far more sensitive than the leaves in this respect.” 
He found that a very light touch caused the instant closing o several 
ho o 
the anthers of D. rotundifolia were white, those of D. intermedia yellow, a 
statement which I am able to confirm.—JamEs BRITTEN. 
of the Wheat is certainly very prevalent. Farmers are extremely particu- 
lar about their wheat-fields when “in flower.” Nobody is permitted 
to walk through them when in that condition. I have myself been cen- 
sured for doing so. I have never observed the same cautio i 
Oats and Barley. . Dyer says (p. 26) it is “a general belief that 
fertilization is effected in the manner described by Bidard and Dr. 
Boswell Syme.” The belief may be general among botanists, but it cer- 
tainly is not general in this neighbourhood (Bray, co. Wicklow) among the 
very class of men to whom it is of practical importance, 7. e. tillage farmers. 
Prof. Dyer having stated that it was probable that information would be 
obtained on the subject in the ‘Royal Agricultural Society's Journal,’ I 
