176 
THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
SHORT NOTES. 
Mimulus moschatus scentless. In connexion with the interest 
which has arisen on this subject, Miss Gertrude Jekyll approached 
Mr. C. E. Saunders, of Pasadena, California, receiving in reply the 
following letter which she kindly allows us to publish :— 
“ Your letter has opened up an interesting subject. Mimulus 
moscliatus used to be grown—and perhaps still is—rather commonly 
in gardens of the Atlantic side of our Continent, and people who 
knew it there tell me it was decidedly musky. On our western 
coast it seems to be neglected as a cultivated plant, and I know of 
no one who has it, so I cannot speak from experience of its scent in 
cultivation here. In nature there are two varieties both musk- 
scented, but the var inodorus, I read, is only faintly so. After re- 
ceiving your letter I asked Mr. Theodore Payne, of Los Angeles, a 
seedsman who has done much of recent years to awaken interest among 
Californians in the value of their native plants for gardens, to supply 
me with some seed of the musk plant, which he lists in his catalogue. 
My plan was to send you some that was native-grown to test for 
fragrance. To my surprise he tells me his seed is imported from 
Europe ! It is quite possible that the continual inbreeding of the 
plant under foreign conditions has resulted in suppressing entirely 
the character of scent—a possibilit}^ hinted at, 1 think, in nature by 
the occurrence of the faintly-scented variety referred to. Change of 
environment, we know, has a more or less marked effect in time on 
plants. Mr. Payne has told me that the seeds of Esclischoltzia 
californica, for instance, imported from Europe (a principal source 
of them for many years) produce dowers noticeably different in 
colour from the Californian. I shall endeavour to secure you some 
native-grown seed of the musk. . . . The species is veiy rare in 
Southern California, and I do not know a station for it here, or 
would collect some seed myself.” 
Barren LxYrciies. I should be glad to know wdiether any of 
your readers have noticed the complete absence this year of the 
crimson female conelets on the Larch ? The small yellow male cones 
I did see on one tree. I have been searching for them from early 
March till mid-April, in order to make my usual entry of the dowering 
date, and for the drst time for about dve and twenty years I have 
«. « 
failed to do so. This year, when most dowering records are early. 
I expected a March date, the 5th being the earliest on my list, and 
April 16th the latest. Can it be the effect of the cold, wet weather 
of last summer?— Eleonora Armitage. 
? Senecio yiscosus x yulgaris. Last autumn some plants of 
8. viscosus were sent to me from E. Glos. (v.c. 33), together with 
specimens of what appears to he 8. viscosus x vulgaris. No doubt 
vulgaris was in the neighbourhood, though, as a fact, 8. erucifolius 
was the only other Senecio noted. The supposed hybrid has smaller 
heads and intermediate phyllaries, and the heads in fruit have a very 
strong appearance of 8. vulgaris : fruit sets poorly. The plant is 
far less viscid than viscosus. The ray-dorets are well developed. 
