58 A FLORA OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 



directions in the mud in which it grew. In September these stolons 

 sent up several vigorous steins, on each of which the lowest stipule 

 was closely clasping, and furnished on its back with a narrow 

 linear -spathulate coriaceous leaf. This year, when putting a fine 

 series of Potamogeton plantar/ ineus in the press, I was much struck 

 with the resemblance its early state bore to that of P. Grijftthii, 

 and was therefore induced to examine my specimens more closely 

 to see if similar adnate stipules were present ; I soon found some 

 few examples, but they occur more sparingly than in P. Griffithii. 

 In the latter species they seem to be always present at the base of 

 each shoot. This hurried notice is written to call the attention of 

 observers to this new form of stipule, which is not the exact 

 analogue of that of the pectinatus group. They should be sought for 

 at the base of the stem, as they seem only to be produced imme- 

 diately above the surface of the mud. Probably they may occasionally 

 occur in other species of Potamogeton, and should be looked for as 

 early in the year as possible, as they soon decay. The collection of 

 early states of all our Pondweeds is well worth the attention of 

 botanists, and they make very beautiful specimens for the herbarium. 

 — Alfred Fryer. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



vrd of Hertfordshire. By the late Alfred Reginald Pryor, 

 B.A., F.L.S. Edited for the Hertfordshire Natural History 

 Society, by Benjamin Daydon Jackson, Sec. L.S. : with an 

 introduction on the Geology, Climate, Botanical History, &c. 

 of the County, by John Hopkinson, F.L.S. , F.G.S., and the 

 Editor. London : Gurney and Jackson. 1887. 8vo, pp. 

 viii. 588. 



After a series of delays, unavoidable although regrettable, the 

 posthumous work of the botanist known to the readers of this 

 Journal as " B. A. Pryor, M sees the light. Its author died early in 

 1881 ; and the task of completing his work, or preparing it for the 

 press, has passed through various hands before it came into those 

 of Mr. Daydon Jackson, who has brought it to a successful issue. 

 It was originally intended that I should edit the work, as Mr. 

 Jackson states in his Preface ; but he does not state that this under- 

 taking of mine was contingent on a promise of the late Mr. 

 Newbould to transcribe Mr. Pryor's MS. for the press. It will 

 surprise no one who knew Mr. Newbould's anxious conscientious- 

 ness, that this part of the work progressed but slowly; nor was it 

 to be wondered at that the Herts Natural History Society became 

 impatient, and requested, at the end of two years, that the 

 MS. should be returned to them. I was quite prepared to do all 

 that I had promised ; and I may further say that, although the 

 public are doubtless the gainers, it was a regret to me to be 

 deprived of the opportunity of carrying out what I know would 

 have been the wish of my late friend. Mr. John Hopkinson then 

 undertook the task, but his progress was hardly more rapid ; and 



