259 
sionally well developed. Peduncles smooth. In the early state 
the spikes tapered towards the tip, but this character vanished. 
The length of the spikes is variable. In var. agrestre Meisn., 
with manifestly divaricate branches and loose ochreae, they are 
not infrequently l gin. long, and vary in colour — white, pale 
pink, or deep red. ~ In these sheets the colour was of a decided 
red — J. E. Little. Meisner requires his elatius to have stems 
1 — 3 feet high, leaves 4 — 6 inches long by 1 — ljin. broad, spikes 
1 — 11 i n> long, slender and tapering to the apex. My example 
of Mr. Little’s gathering scarcely conforms with this, particularly 
as regards the slender spikes — C.E.S. 
Rumex elongatus Gussone [402]. Thames bank at Kew, 
Surrey, July 7, 1923 These specimens are from the tidal mud- 
banks of the Thames near Kew, wheie the plant occurs with 
Glyceria aquatica, Scirpus carinatus, and other estuarine species. 
It is noteworthy that it seems contined to the mud, and does not 
grow on the waste ground above the river-wall, where other 
Docks abound It was first recorded as an introduced British 
plant by Trimen in “ Journ. Bot.” XI, p. 237 (1873), from speci- 
mens collected lower down the river on the Surrey bank between 
Hammersmith and Putney Bridges. The plant has thus main 
tained itself by the Thames for at least fifty years, and appar- 
ently extends as far above London as the tide. I am not aware 
of any record for the river-bank below London. R. elongatvs has 
also been reported for the Itchen at Southampton, and for the 
Wye at Tintern, by the late Augustine Ley, but these localities 
are rejected by Moss (“Camb. Brit. Flora,” II, p. 139), who refers 
Ley’s specimens to R. crispus, var. plantifolius Schus. Judging 
from the material in Herb. Mus. Brit., these more western plants 
do not seem identical with the Thames R. elongatus , but rather a 
form of R. crispus approaching it, with undulate and broader 
upper leaves, more crowded whorls, and usually triangulate inner 
sepals. But the specimens are hardly sufficient for an exact 
determination, and it would be interesting to know whether on 
the Itchen and the Wye the plant also grows on the mud. R. 
elongatus does not appear to fruit freely on the Thames, and as it 
was described from Sicily (Gussone, “PI. liar. Adriat.” p. 150, 
1826), and is only known as a native in the Western Mediter- 
ranean, it is unlikely to be indigenous in Britain. But it is just 
possible that, growing on tidal mud-banks in beds of Glyceria , etc , 
and usually half smothered with slime, it may have been over- 
looked in some of the estuaries of France or Spain. — Id. W. 
Pugsley. 
