378 SHORT NOTES, 



botanists surely will not consent to ignore the first describer of the 

 species in favour of him who merely revises the work. That such 

 a practice would be a trifle more convenient than stating the whole 

 truth goes for nothing. The inconvenience only arises when the 

 species is referred to in a formal manner, and when the names 

 become as inviolable as the Io and Egeria of the lepidopterist, will 

 seldom be incurred. — S. A. Stewart.' 



Arum italicum Mill, and A. maculatum Linn. — I have read 

 with much interest Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill's remarks on Arum 

 italkum in the last number of the ' Journal, as it is a plant that I 

 have been observing much since I discovered it at this place 

 (Fursdon, Egg Buckland) some years ago. It would seem that Mr. 

 Melvill, on May 15th last, found both this plant and its near ally, 

 A. maculatum, in flower near Folkestone ; but here, at Fursdon, all, 

 or nearly all, the flowers of A. maculatum pass out of bloom before 

 those of A. italicum open, and, as a rule, no doubt this difference 

 prevails between the two,— a difference not favourable to the 

 production of hybrids. In the consideration of another question 

 touched on by Mr. Melvill,— a possibility of the two plants being 

 extremes of one variable species, several differences would have to 

 be dealt with ; not the least important of which, as opposed to an 

 identity of species, would be the different periods of growth be- 

 longing to them. The earliest leaves of A. italicum spring up and 

 expand about the beginning of November, or even before October 

 is over, whereas those of A. maculatum do not appear until 

 February. It is remarkable that the species producing its leaves 

 so long before the other should be the later to flower. The leaves 

 of A. italicum and A. maculatum have, notwithstanding their 

 succulent character, a remarkable power of withstanding frost; 

 in earliest spring, those of A. maculatum appear as the greenest of 

 the vegetation on many a hedgebank near Plymouth. I have seen 

 in a wood in this neighbourhood the spathes of this species torn in 

 a noticeable manner, apparently by some small quadruped or bird, 

 for the purpose of extracting the flowers. White, in his ' Natural 

 History of Selborne,' tells us of the thrush feeding on its tubers. 

 Reverting to A. italicum, I would add, that a good time to search for 

 it in England is the winter season, as any green Arum leaves found 

 between October and the commencement of February would, accord- 

 ing to my experience, mark A. italicum. When first I found the 

 plant here at Fursdon, I quite expected to meet with it elsewhere in 

 the country around, but, having failed to do so, now suspect that it 

 has become wild in the immediate vicinity of this house through 

 early cultivation in proximity to an ancient dwelling, the meadow 

 below here, close to which the plant occurs, still bearing the name 

 of Undertown.-T. R. Archer Briggs. 



The Two Valerians— Since the publication of the last number 

 of this Journal, Mr. Arthur Bennett has drawn attention to a 

 valuable communication on this subject in the ' Botanical Gazette 

 for 1849. This consists of an editorial article comprising trans- 

 lations of papers by Prof. Schlechtendal (Bot. Zeitung, 1847); 

 these papers recount the then recent investigations and experiments 



