SHORT NOTES 211 



speculations which occupy the greater part of Dr. Gilbert's paper 

 certainly would not help us towards it. For myself I need only 

 say that none of these suggestions commend themselves to me. 

 They seem to me, in fact, not only unproved, but, so far as I can 

 understand them, highly improbable and inconsistent with my 

 knowledge of the plants in question. While far from wishing to 

 imply that I have nothing to learn on such points as are here dis- 

 cussed, I shall not, I hope, be thought presumptuous if I still 

 adhere with unbroken confidence to the line deliberately adopted in 

 my Handbook in 1900 and in the papers which I have subsequently 

 contributed to this Journal. — W. Moyle Rogers. 



Spanish and Portuguese Carices. — Carex basilaris Jord., which 

 Kiikenthal puts as a variety of the Portuguese C. depressa Link, is 

 not recorded for Spain by Nyman, but it is included by Will- 

 komm & Lange in their Supplement to Prod. Fl. Hisp., on the 

 faith of a specimen collected by Mr, J. Ball near Algeciras in 

 Granada. I gathered it in 1903, on the picturesque range of 

 Tibidabo, which is north of Barcelona, in Catalonia ; I also met 

 with it in 1904, near Costobelle, Alpes Maritimes. At Tibidabo it 

 was associated with C. Linkii Schkuhr (C. distachya Desf.), the 

 latter a new record for Catalonia. C. chcetoplnjlla Steudel, a sub- 

 species in Nyman's Conspectus, is rightly, I think, put as a variety 

 of C. divisa Huds. by Kiikenthal. Nyman only records it from 

 Barcelona. I saw it abundantly in grassy ground near the Eseu- 

 rial, and in several other parts of Spain. C. glauca Scop. var. 

 leiocarpa Willk. (Prodr. Fl. Hisp. i. 123 — "au spec, distincta?") 

 occurred with Scilla peruviana near Algeciras ; it appears to be 

 worthy of subspecific rank. It is new to this district, and occurred 

 at much lower elevation than previously recorded. C. divulsa 

 Stokes, which is unrecorded by Nyman for Portugal, I gathered at 

 Cintra in 1903. — G. Claridge Druce. 



(Ecology of Montia fontana L. — While recently engaged in 

 the study and cecology of some of our smaller streams, I was struck 

 with the peculiarities of Montia font ana L. in its choice of position 

 along the streams, and the apparent reasons for its choice. In the 

 particular stream which I have selected as an example, M. fontana 

 occurred in plenty at the source but was in scanty quantities and 

 poorly developed elsewhere along its course. The reason for this 

 does not seem to be very evident, unless it is caused by the stream 

 having a too rapid fall, and the absence of boggy ground owing to 

 the steep declivities of the banks. At the source, where it grew in 

 large and luxuriant patches, two other reasons for its choice of sites 

 seem to appear. M. fontana does not occur anywhere in the 

 stream itself, neither does it occur in all the boggy slopes which 

 surround it — in these it is only found where there is some slight 

 flow of water, and not when the water is stagnant. The factors, 

 therefore, which seem to be necessary for the growth of this plant 

 appear to be a spongy bog with a very slight trickle of water. If 

 the flow be too great there is no Montia ; if the bog be stagnant there 

 is likewise no Montia. Montia 9 however, grows at the side of the 

 stream where the flow is broken aud slight, and also in those bogs 



