348 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Hume was much impressed with the study of botany as a 

 relaxation from business and a means of mental culture, and the 

 committee of management are hopeful that the Institute may do 

 useful work in the advancement of that study, especially as 

 relating to the plants of our own country. 



Beyond three short notes in this Journal for 1901 and 1902, 

 Hume did not contribute to botanical literature. He is mentioned 

 by Mr. F. H. Davey in the Flora of Gormuall (1909) as " my 

 companion on many an excursion in Cornwall and Devon, and 

 from the first my greatest helper in the compilation of this Flora.'' 

 He became a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1901. 



A. B. E. 



SHOBT NOTES. 



Papaa'er Ehceas var. chelidonioides 0. Kuntze. — Visiting 

 Gedney, Lincolnshire, during the end of July, 1911, I noticed a 

 plant with all the characters of P. Bhosas, but containing a deep 

 yellow sap, in colour and abundance exactly comparable with that 

 of Clielidonium majus. I forwarded specimens to the Eev. A. V^. 

 Woodruffe-Peacock, who subsequently published it in the addi- 

 tions to his " Check List of Lincolnshire Plants for 1911 " (in 

 Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union Transactions, 1911, p. 295) as 

 " P. Ehoeas L. v. Eeynoldsii, mihi, 1911, Beynolds (with yellow 

 sap)." I again visited Gedney last August in the company of 

 Mr. Burchnal, of Butterwick, Boston, a well-known Lincolnshire 

 botanist, where we decapitated some hundreds of P. Bhoeas, but 

 not till we reached the exact spot where I had previously found it 

 could we find any with yellow sap. At this place, on the site of 

 a road-mending heap of granite, we found one plant identical with 

 that I gathered there the previous year. It had been a robust 

 plant, but only secondary shoots remained with buds and capsules 

 but no expanded fiower. It was growing with an abundance of 

 true Blio&as, and we found no character except the sap by which 

 w^e could separate them. The plant is mentioned by Otto Kuntze 

 {Taschen-Flora von Leipzic, 171 (1867) ) as P. Bhceas var. cheli- 

 donioides, found only in gardens; the only character, " Milchsaft 

 gelb." Mr. Peacock suggests that the plant may be the hybrid 

 P. Bhmas x Lecoqii, but my knowledge of the Gedney plant does 

 not encourage this view. The sap of P. Lecoqii turns bright yellow 

 about fifteen seconds after exposure to the air ; that of the Gedney 

 plant is at once deep yellow, and I see by the Lincolnshire Check 

 List that P. Lecoqii has not yet been recorded for the south 

 division of the county. I think the variety may have been intro- 

 duced with the granite. — Bernard Reynolds. 



NiTELLA GRACILIS IN WeST CORNWALL. In AugUSt of the 



present year we received from Mr. F. Eilstone fresh specimens of 

 this beautiful and extremely rare species which had been collected 

 by him in a ditch near Perranzabuloe. Mr. Eilstone's discovery 

 is of especial interest, as N. gracilis has not, so far as we are 

 aware, been found in England for many years past. The species 



