The Scottish Naturalist. 



37 



% Sparganium simplex Huds. — Burn of Burrafirth, Unst., 

 1886. Regarded at first as a doubtful plant, I have now no doubt 

 in referring it to the floating state called " var. longissima " by 

 Fries. In the South of England these floating states of S. simp/ex 

 do not usually flower ; but this is not the case in Shetland, where 

 this state flowers freely, and where I have not observed the 

 normal plant. The resemblance which these floating states often 

 bear to S. affine probably accounts for the absence of records of 



simplex from some of the counties of the North of Scotland. 

 The two plants grow together in the Burn of Burrafirth, and with 

 them the hybrid S- simplex x affine — so named by Dr. Neu- 

 man ; and I think that there can be no reasonable doubt, bearing 

 in mind what we now know of the characteristics of hybrids 

 from the exhaustive experiments made by different investigators, 

 that this is one. I can no longer feel doubtful as to the accuracy 

 of Dr. Neuman's determination of the Mailand Burn plant as 

 S. minimum Fries. ; and were any corroboration required, it is to 

 be found in Mr. N. E. Brown's drawing, kindly shown me by him, 

 of the enlarged fruit, which convinces me that the plant is S. mini- 

 mum and not S. hyperboreum Laest. 8. ramosum occurs in Orkney, 

 and may be found in Shetland. In the preface to his Flora, 

 Edmondston mentions " the three Spargania " as occurring at 

 Tingwall ; but no mention of Sparganium is made in the body of 

 the Flora itself ; and I have sought in vain for any one of them 

 in the locality he indicates. 



Potamogeton perfoliatus L. var. lanceolatus Blytt. — 



West Loch, Hildasay Island. Mr. Arthur Bennett remarks : 

 " Seems to belong here, though rather less typical than Suther- 

 land and Roxburgh specimens I possess." I found only two 

 specimens floating in the water. Floating branches of this species 

 are of common occurrence, but with the exception of the two 

 Hildasay specimens, the leaves of such have always been quite 

 normal ; the better developed leaves of my specimen of the 

 variety are from 2 to 2\ inches long, and half an inch or less in 

 breadth, and are extremely thin and delicate in texture. 



% Ruppia rostellata Koch — Ditches in the salt marsh at 

 Hoove, upper end of Whiteness Voe. 



+ Scirpus setaceus L. — Boggy ground by a burn between 

 Sundabanks and Wester Quarff. Bog near the sea at Bur Wick, 

 near Scalloway. 



