Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/362

 334 SHORT NOTES AND QUEBTES.

spinil ; thus, in fnct, doing' that with which, as 1 gather from Mr. Tucker's note, Prof. Maxwell rejjroaches his oppotients, viz., representing the re- flected image instead of the object. It is manifestly contrary to reason to employ, when speaking of the movements of a living plant, a terminology diauietrically opposed to that made use of when alluding to those of an animal. Link (Elem. Phil. Bot. ed. 2. ii. 236), Choisy (in DO. Prod. ix. 821), A. de Jussieu (('ours. Elem. 138), Balfour (Class Book of Bot. 649), Henfrey (Elem. Course, 619), Payen (Elem. de Bot. 20), and Bentley (Man", of Hot. 107), follow De Candolle; St. Hilaire (Morphol. Ve'g. 103), A. Richard (Elem. de Bot. ed. 7. 90), Duchartre (Elem. de Bot. 127), and Le Maout and Decaisne (Traite Gen. de Bot. 13), u?e the Linnaean nomenclature. Prof. Lindley, in his ' Introduction to Botany' (ed. 4. ii. 378) interpreted the terms dextrormm and shusirors//m in De CandoUe's sense ; but in the glossary appended to the ' Elements of Botany,' he takes the other view of their meaning. Finally, in his elaborate memoir on climbing plants, published in the ninth volume of the ' Journal of the Linnaean Society,' Mr. Darwin, probably owing to the anil)iguity with which these terms are surrounded, avoids both, and speaks of the twining as 'following' or ' moving against ' the sun. — H. F. Hance.

��The Marram or Mat Grass, Punmwa aretiaria, R. et S., is one of the best natural sand-binding plants we have. It is recorded that in the latter part of the last century, a large district on the eastern coast of Scotland was quite destroyed, and in the course of a few years became a complete desert by the advance of the sand from the shore, owing to the wanton destruction of the Marram that grew upon it. On many parts of the coast where this grass abounds, the country people make it into mats or twist it into ropes. On some parts of the Welsh coast the peasants plait it into mats which are used in churches, or into matting for covering rooms. Johnson relates, in his ' Mercurius Botanicus ' (1641) that, in his time the manufacture of ropes, mats and similar articles from the Marram was the only handicraft known to the inhabitants of the village of New Ang-lesea. — J. K. Jackson.

��Lycopodium clavatgm. — One would scarcely expect to find Lycopo- dium claratum of much use as an economic plant, but besides the well- known application of its inflammable spores for producing artificial light- ning, and its use by the chemist for rolling pills in to prevent them sticking together, the ])lant itself makes excellent doormats, and for this purpose it is largely collected in Sweden. The mats are very elastic and have this recommendation, that when dirty they can be very easily washed, upon which they recover their elasticity and dry readily. — J. R. Jackson.

��Pandanus L'TiLis. — The Mauritian sugar-bags, which, after being emptied of their contents in this country, are bought up, cleansed and transformed into small fish-bags or baskets, are mostly made of the leaves oi Piindanus utillts. This species grows abundantly in the Mauritius, but owing to the trees being usually cut down every year they assume very different forms, frequently throwing out numerous small branches. Con- sequent upon the culture of the Sugar-cane in Queensland, this species of

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