306 THK JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



SHORT NOTES. 



Fertility of Senecio albescens (S. Cineraria x Jacobjsa). 

 — In the Rev. E. F. Linton's valuable paper (p. 274) the fertility 

 of Senecio albescens is set down as unproven. Mr. Linton has 

 overlooked the following passage on page 113 of the Flora 

 of Comity Dublin, published three years ago, where the question 

 is set at rest : — " The Killiney Bay hybrid produces perfect fruit 

 in small quantity. Of five plants which I have grown from its 

 seeds, gathered on the sea-cliffs near Vico in 1902, one retained all 

 the prominent characters of the hybrid, while the others ap- 

 proached in varying degrees more closely to S. Jacobcea." In 

 further proof of the fertility of this natural hybrid between a 

 native and an alien species of Senecio it may be of interest to 

 mention that I have produced a second generation of the plant. 

 Seeds gathered in 1905 from a hybrid grown in my garden, and 

 itself the product of seed taken from a hybrid parent in its natural 

 station at Vico, have proved fertile, and produced one strongly 

 marked hybrid plant. This, unfortunately, died after reaching a 

 height of three inches, so that I have been unable to raise a third 

 generation of the hybrid. — Nathaniel Colgan. 



Ecology of Montia fontana L. (p. 211). — Although the 

 habitat of this widely diffused plant is typically as Mr. L. H. 

 Riley has described it above, yet, in its two forms, minor All. (erccta 

 Pers.) and major AIL (rivularis 6m. — repens Pers.), it is able to 

 live and maintain itself in many varying conditions of dryness 

 and moisture. The enumeration of the following localities from 

 my own herbarium should suffice to confirm this statement. 1. 

 Swampy place on a common, Staffordshire; 800 ft., in shallow- 

 stagnant water. 2. Edge of a small pond on the top of the cliffs 

 of Moher, 500 ft., Co. Clare; swampy pond-edge, with Pepti* 

 portula 3. Edge of a pond, Aldershot, Hants. 4. Six inches 

 long, growing in a bog, not on Sphagnum, in Denbighshire, 900 ft. 

 5. In a mountain rill, Monmouthshire. 6. In a damp place on a 

 hillside, 600 ft., Salop. 7. On the top of a dry hill, 900 ft., the 

 Buckstone, West Gloster, on Old Bed Sandstone Conglomerate, in 

 short turf, with heather, gorse, Polytrichum juniper inum, &c. 

 Mr. West remarks (p. 282) that Montia does not grow in bogs. It 

 might be well to limit that assertion to " on Sphagnum" or "in 



Sphagnum-bog" — Eleonora Armitage. 



Phleum pratense L. var. precox Jord. — In June 1905 a 

 very well-marked variety of Phleum pratense was found on the 

 limestone at Cave Dell, Castleton, Derbyshire. This proves to be 

 var. prcecox Jord. — E. Drabble. 



The Koeleria of Ben Bulben. — In the Memorials of Babing- 

 ton a reference is made to the " Koeleria on Ben Bulben supposed 

 to be valeriaea " [sic] . In the index this is altered to "valesiaca." 

 I may say that through the kindness of the Curator I have seen 

 the specimen in Babington's Herbarium from Ben Bulben and 

 find it is not K. valesiana, but is similar to the plant which I 



