Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/399

 SHORT NOT£S AND QUERIES. 37I

wZr' ?Tfr^,*° the corresponding mathematical forms." This wo d make; oblong a parallelogram; but all that seems to be impi id

extent: :u the proportion of length and breadth there is but lit le ao" ^ ment among authorities. ' Oval ' and ' elliptical ' are doub less svrTo iv mousrn geometry, and Linnaeus (Phil. Bot.) employed th m h tl sS mathematical sense ; they are still used interchangeably by many otan s

o ndica e a figure about twice as long as broad^ broadest in tJ. n Zb jnd equal at the ends, which may be either rounded or pointed Pro.'

fessor Oliver's outline figures, however, 'elliptical' is a figure b-oaier

an 'oval in the proportion of 3 to 2. Other descriptive bot n d.s luguish between ' oval ' with the apex and base graduated to a o nt

nd 'elliptic' with the end. rounded, mid the sides more or less paS ' It appears to me that a combination of or compromise between the v ts of htterent wnt^ers might be effected with advantage, and the four terms Urefofo: •:;:•■ "" ^'^ ^'""^ '' si-ply-utHned leave^ equal at both en s in the tollowmg manner, m no case giving a ?/eiv sigirification to a term

ptlSei J'"'""' '^'"'"^  '^^'^^ "°^ ^^^ -^^ i^ --iy-iiy

Leaf tapering from the middle equally to base and apex—

About twice as long as broad = oval.

About thrice „ = lameolate.

Leaf with more or less parallel sides and blunt extremities—

About twice as long as broad = elliptic.

About thrice „ = oblong.

Intermediate forms can be expressed by combination of these terms «nd forms w ere either the base or apex is the broader by the use of S ^^oho^ale, alone, or ,n combination with one of the terms above defined Whatever definitions be adopted, at all events it is very desirable that C^Tm""^^""^^ ^^^'^^^ ""' ' **^*" ^' P'-^«^"t existsJ-HENRY

A KIMEN.

��Middlesex Plants.-Ou some waste ground near the new South West India Docks I noticed last month (October) a very large quant v ot Ader Inpoluan, both rayed and not rayed. On the same -round occurred as introductions Scnecio vi^cosus and XcuUhium spim,un° The latter is not given as a Middlesex plant in the published Flora of that county I may also mention that in ISGfi I collected XantJdum Struma- Ynrn^i Chelsea; the latest date in the Flora is 1746, and the plant is 'vi± I" 'P>-o'^^'Wy extinct." I have shown my speeimens to Dr.

��Trimen. — F. Naylor.

��ISOTE ON THE Supposed Cerastium pumili^m from Jersey (sec arde, p. 199).-As Dr. Trimen has been kind enough to allow me to sec some more specimens of the Craslinm which he gathered on the sand- hills of Jersey, I think it may be as well to state here that, on a second examma ion 1 have found no reason to change my former opinion, and I believe the plant is lypieal C. Idramlrmn, not C. pnmilnm. So far as my

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