SHORT NOTES 429 
In the Sloane Herbarium are eight volumes (H. 8. 325-332) 
lettered “‘ Hawkins Collections” and described on the title- eee as 
“Plants from several parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America 
from Mr. Petiver’s and Sir Hans Sloane's collections : oo together 
by Mr. H ae and mostly referred by him to Mr. Ray [Hist. 
Plant.].” These specimens, which are well selected, carefully 
account of the contents will be given in i. 
erst History of the Sloane Herbarium 
Faas BRITTEN. 
SHORT NOTES. 
Tae ApApration oF Prants.—Some remarkable instances of 
the adaptability - plants came before my notice this summer in 
Switzerland. Ina wooded valley near Engelberg, at an elevation of 
pe 4000 ft., I pelted by an ae limestone slab, about 20 ft. x 
t. x 3ft., having a more or less uniform slope of about 30°, similar 
e oat of the forest path. I counted no fewer than sixty different 
kinds of flowering plants, ferns, and mosses on that rock, though 
ash of 6 ft., large raspberry and blackberry bushes (three kinds, 
including Rubus saxatilis), a bush of Rzbes alpinum, and another 
of Rosa alpina (not flowering). There were three ferns, three 
mosses, one lichen, and Mar ae ntia polymorpha. The phanero- 
Oxalis meas Lotus corniculatus (a most oe avecks laine 
reaching 9000 ft. in the Alps), Viola silvatica, Fragaria vesca, 
Campanula rotundifolia, and Mercurialis perennis ; and sixteen 
styles alpina, Circea alpina, Scabiosa lucida, Saxifraga rotundi- 
olia, Spirea Aruncus, Arabis alpina, Phytewma spicata, and 
Majanthemum bifolium, &e. The trees in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of this rock were spruce, beech, sycamore, and mountain 
vicinity which had not got a footing on the rock were Ranun- 
culus aconitifolius and the handsome mauve spikes of Mulgediwm 
alpinum, both of which presumably would require more water 
than that afforded by the dripping of the trees. The humus on 
JournAL oF Borany.—Vorn. 47. [Nov. 1909.] 21 
