SHORT NOTES 381 



Parietaria officinalis L. (Journ. Bot. 1906, 429; 1907, 34). 

 Dr. Vigurs points out that the action of the stamens in this plant 

 was fully described by Curtis in the Flora Lo?idine?ms, who says : 

 " The curious manner in which these flowers shed their pollen, or 

 fertilizing dust, is known to most botanists, but may be new to 

 some of our readers ; each filament has a peculiarity of structure 

 which renders it highly elastic ; there are four of them in number ; 

 on their first appearance they all bend inward ; as soon as the 

 pollen is arrived at a proper state to be discharged, the warmth of 

 the sun, or the least touch from the point of a pin, will make them 

 instantly fly back with a degree of force, and discharge a little 

 cloud of dust. This process is best seen in a morning when the 

 sun shines on the plant, in July and August ; if the plant be large, 

 numbers w T ill be seen exploding at the same instant/' 



Archibald Sinclair. — In the parish churchyard, Penarth, 

 Glamorgan, there is a well-preserved tomb bearing the following 

 inscription : — " Sacred to the memory of Archibald Sinclair of the 

 town of Cardiff, who was one of the Harbingers of His Majesty 

 George III., a justly celebrated and scientific botanist. He died 

 Oct. the 7th, 1795, aged 64 years." I can find no reference to his 

 work either in the Biographical Index or elsewhere, and should be 

 glad to obtain some indication of his claim to the position he ap- 

 pears to have held among his contemporaries. — A. H. Trow. 



[The name of Archibald Sinclair was previously unknown to 

 us, and we have been unable to find any reference to him in 

 botanical literature. — Ed. Journ. Bot.] 



South Lancashire Notes. — I have found Sparganium ne- 

 glect Kin Beeby in two localities near Walton recently. Since its 

 discovery in West Lancashire by Messrs. Salmon and Thompson 

 (Journ. Bot. 1902, p. 295) it has been detected in several fresh 

 localities in the county, and it seems very probable that many of 

 the stations for S. ramosum will be found to refer to this plant. A 

 quantity of Senecio viscosus L. appeared in August on railway 

 banks near Walton. The ground had been disturbed to make a 

 temporary railway siding, but no fresh ballast was brought, so far 

 as I could ascertain. The plant had certainly not occurred in 

 this locality previously, as I have visited it several times a year 

 for the past ten years. I have since learned that the Eev. 

 S. Gasking has also found it this year on railway banks near 



Fazackerley, about two miles away. It is not recorded for the 



Lancashire side of the Mersey in the Flora of Liverpool. — J. A. 

 Wheldon. 



Orchis pyramidalis in Co. Down.- — Whilst botanizing recently 

 in company with Mr. J. Glover, in the woods of Mount Stewart, 

 near Grey Abbey, Co. Down, we observed Orchis pyramidalis L. 

 in fair quantity at one point. In the Cybele Hibernica the only 

 record for the county is "Ballyholme 73, two plants/'— A. A. 

 Dallman. 



