Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/363

 SHORT NOTES AND QUERIES. 335

raiidann.-i li;is lieen rccoiuiiieiidcd for introduction into some of the nu- merous islands bordering the Queenshuid coast. The manufacture of the bags would open a new branch of industry in the colony. Mr. Hill, the director of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, in advocating the cultivation of the plant says, " When an active demand shall arise in Queensland for sugar-bags we shall find that they are wanting, as also the material for their manufacture, unless no time be lost in rearing this valuable tree." Though the Mauritian sugar-bags are chiefly made from the leaves of this species, those of P. odoratmiiuiis are also used, and it is not at all impro- bable that other species likewise lend their assistance. The leaves of P. driipaceits and of several others are used for thatching huts, and their stems for posts and supports to buildings. Indeed, in the Mascarene islands which, together with the islands of the Indian Archipelago, are the headcjuarters of the Pandani, they are most useful to the natives. — John R. Jackson, Museum, Kew.

��WoLFFiA AKRHIZA. — I have visited the pond at Staines, where this grows, every year since 1866, and have observed each year that the struggle for life appears to be more and more to the advantage of the smallest inhabitant. Lemna minor seems to have departed, L. polyrrhiza to have great difficulty in holding its own, whilst little Wulffia arrhiza has secured one corner of the pond entirely to itself. I send you a box- ful just as when taken from the water. — E. C. White.

��Draba rlpestris, R. Br., in Ireland. — Seeing Dr. IVFoore's notice of the appearance of Draba rupeslris on Ben Bulben, Sligo, I think the following narrative may be of interest. In August, 1869, I visited Ben Bulben, and brought away a number of living plants of various species. Amongst these was a Bltchnmn, gathered on the gentle slope of the northern base of the mountain. On reaching home I potted it, and last year I perceived a small plant springing from the soil, wiiich I allowed to grow. In the early spring of this year it commenced to flower, and I found that it was a Draba ; and, knowing that D. in- ca)ia was common on the Sligo mountains, I concluded that it must be that species. As its growtii maturefl I fo\md that the pods were not twisted, and that it could not be B. incana, but must be D. ru- pestris, a plant hitherto excluded from the ' Irish Flora,' or recorded with a doubt attached to it. The earth used in potting the Blechium was fresh peat from Bedfordshire, mixed with wliite sand from this neighbourhood, neither of which could have contained the seed which had germinated, and which must have been brought in the soil attached to the root of the Fern from Ben Bulben. I have dried the plant, and forwarded it to the Professor of Botany, Trinity College, Dublin, to be placed in the herbarium of the Dublin University. — W. M. lIlND.

��Peksicaria bifoumf., Fr. — I find that in stating (p. 35) that authentic specimens of this plant in the Kew Herbarium have ochrea^ without cilia, I was in error. Another opportunity, with b<!tter light, allowed me' to ascertain that they are in reality sparingly ciliate. Except for the sake of accuracy, the correction is of no great importance. — W. T. Tiiisp.lton

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