134 
Notes. 
a complete account of my own work, which is still in progress, but 
the results given above appear of sufficient interest to justify the 
appearance of this note. 
J. BRETLAND FARMER, Oxford. 
ON A NEW FORM OP TRAPELLA SINENSIS.— Since 
the account of the new Chinese genus Trapella appeared (Annals of 
Botany, Vol. II (1888), p. 75) further specimens have been for- 
warded by Dr. Henry from Ichang. The specimens in question, 
which are dried, show an apparently unbranched, erect-growing, dwarf 
plant, which there is no reason to suppose is other than a terrestrial 
form of T. sinensis. The plant grows in amongst the rice-stalks in 
the locality where the aquatic form was taken. Its general configura- 
tion would point to the plant being a reduced form of the aquatic 
species, adapted to land habit. The leaves are smaller and of one 
shape, and the fruits are borne in the leaf-axils. The plant does not 
exceed 10 cm. in height. Dr. Henry was never able to find it in 
flower, and an examination of this material points to a cleistogamic 
production of all the fruits. It will be remembered that, in the aquatic 
form, all the fruits developing in the axils of submerged leaves are so 
produced. It is possible some difficulty attends the pollination by 
insects of normally expanded flowers, growing, as the plant does, 
crowded in between the bases of the rice- stalks. As to histological 
differentiation, such examination, as was possible, of the dried speci- 
mens, shows a retention of the aquatic type of central bundle-cylinder, 
with however a more powerfully developed xylem — there being several 
rings of vessels— than in the described form. For the present this 
form may be regarded as being derived from the normal aquatic type, 
recalling a comparable state of things in the genus Myriophyllum. 
Should Dr. Henry be able to send spirit-material of this plant it should 
furnish the basis of a supplementary paper on this singular genus. 
During the past summer, however (1888), no specimens of Trapella 
were observed, either in the rice-fields or in the ponds. The season 
was a very dry one, and the pond in which Trapella previously 
occurred was dried up. 
F. W. OLIVER, Kew. 
