NOTES.-ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 
29I 
the disposition of the spikelets in four rows instead of two. Col¬ 
lectors in the neighbourhood of Brightlingsea will be well advised 
in looking out for this abnormal state.—(Rev.) A. C. Morris, 
M.A., Exbourne Rectory, North Devon. 
Scirpus maritimus and Melampyrum arvense in Essex. 
—Botanical readers will doubtless remember that, in Gibson’s 
Flora of Essex, Scirpus maritimus Linn, is recorded for Oldfield 
Grange, near Coggeshall, in a pond, 0 with 5 . tabernaemontani,” 
where it still persists. But, to my surprise, I have only lately 
turned it up in a pond at Cressing, at a place known as Lanham’s 
Green, where there is auite a lot of it. This would be some 
three miles south of Holheld Grange. I usually visit this spot 
several times in a year, but the probable reason for my not 
having seen it before may be that it has not flowered—there 
is more water in the pond this year, so that it is more luxuriant. 
I have a fresh station for Melampyrum arvense Linn, in Essex, 
namely, near Cressing Temple, on the roadside between Witha’m 
and Braintree.— Edwin E. Turner, Grange Hilly Coggeshall, 
July 5 th, 1914. 
The Water Speedwell. —Following continental usage, 
British botanists have recently recognised two forms or species 
of the plant that appears in the last edition of the London Cata¬ 
logue of British Plants as Veronica anagallis-aquatica, Linn. The 
more common plant is Veronica aquatica, Bernh., distinguished 
by the flowers being pinkish or white with deep pink stripes, 
and with the flower stalks (pedicels) ultimately becoming 
widely spreading after fertilisation. The second or less 
common plant is what is considered to be the true plant of 
Linnaeus— Veronica anagallis, Linn. It is readily known by its 
blue flowers, borne on flower stalks that ahvays ascend and never 
become divaricate or widely-spreading. 
Besides these characters there are other alleged differences 
with regard to the form of the capsules, which I have failed 
to recognise, but I have noted that V . aquatica is a coarser plant 
with larger bracts than V. anagallis. Both species occur in 
Essex. I have gathered V. anagallis, Linn., along the Lea above 
Broxbourne and on Nazeing Mead, where, also, I have gathered 
V. aquatica, Bernh. I send examples for the herbarium of the 
Essex Field Club.—C. E. Britton. 
