Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/220

 198 NOTES IN JEUSEY AND GUERNSEY.

Our form would be J. Kunthiana, Muell. 1. c. p. 1099, but I do not think this is really a different species. It is certainly painful to get hurt by its stinginor hairs. My left hand was swollen for about three days, and L felt rather feverish, though no more than five hairs had touched the back of the hand.

17. As a curious case of what has been styled mimicry in vegetation, I may mention Cessaria legitima, De Cand. (Prodr. v. 456), a shrubby plant, growing commonly on the banks of our rivulets. It is called Saxce (i. e. Willow), and is indeed so very much like the Salix Caprosa^ L., that at first sight it uiight be taken for it, especially when not in flower.

18. Mr. A. Goering, an ornithological traveller, who lately visited the mountains of Merida, brought with him to Canicas a small collection of alpine plants from the " Paramos." Though the specimens were badly preserved, being dried as druggists dry their herbs, I could make out the following : — Asphnitim fragile, Kl. ; Acrostichimi lepidotiivi, Willd. ; Jamesouia canesceus. Hook, et Gr. ; three Grasses ; Sedum bicolor, H.B.K.; OsTEOMELES GLABRATA, II. B. K. ; BaccJiaris microphjlln, H. B. K. ; Ewpatorium, sp. ; Hypochceris sessilijlora, H. B. K. ; Espeletia argerdea, H. B. K. ; Cerasti.nm, sp. ; Euphrasia santalindpfolia, H. B. K. ; Gentiana corymbosa, H. B. K.; Cenlropogon, sp. ; Myrrlm (?) ; Hypericum

juniperinum, H. B. K. ; another species, very likely //. acerosimi, H. B. K. ; TJiibaudia nitida, H. B. K.; Vaccinium thymifoUum, Kl. ; {Romerito, inc.); Ehachicallis caracasana, Z>e CrtWfi?. ; Braba cheiratitkoides, Hook. f. The few names printed in small capitals refer to plants that occur also in the mountains of Caracas ; the rest, the greatest part, belongs to the flora of New Granada. The large collections made i)y Linden, Funk, Schlim, Moritz, and Wagner in the mountains of Merida and Trujillo confirm this result, which is to be expected as a consecpieuce of the geogmphical position. I may be allowed to add that Mr. Goering found the Myroxy- lon toluiferum near .Turaras (west of Puerto Cabello), and forwarded specimens to Dan. Hanbury, Esq., of London. Dr. Seemann had noticed the tree in 1864 on the Tocuyo river.

19. Teratological Remarks. — I have seen some fruits o^ Persea gratissima, Geertn., which had no seed, containing instead of it a watery liquid. I was told that the tree they were taken from (on an estate near La Guaira) never had produced normal fruits. Pasciation occurs not seldom in the spikes of StacJiyfurpha jamaiceusis ; syncarpy is not unfre- quent in Musa sapitnium. llippocratea comosa is an example of the complete suppression of the flower (comp. Masters, * Teratology,' p. 409). An instance of the fission of stamens came lately under my notice ; one of the stamens in Crinum amabde was nearly wholly divided in two. The case of pleiotaxy of the gyncecium \\\i\\eora)ige, mentioned by Masters (1. c. p. 389), is pretty common here. The people call these fruits " naranjas paridas," i. e. oranges lately delivered.

{To he continued.)

��NOTES IN JERSEY AND GUERNSEY.

By Henry Trim en, M.B., P.L.S.

I spent the last Aveek of April, 1871, in the Channel Islands, four days in Jersey and two in Guernsev, liavinj^ the advanta'^c of Mr. P. Stratton's

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