NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
85
some insect. Closer examination, however, showed that the
missing piece was reflexed back flatly upon the upper or outer
surface of the standard, and took the form of a crescent-shaped
lobe. Upon dissecting very young flower-buds, I found the
variation to be present in the earliest stages, the folding back of
the lobe upon the outer surface of the standard being clearly
seen.
The bush upon which I found these abnormal flowers is
situated in Roding Lane, Chigwell, and is one of a number. I
took a later opportunity of examining the flowers of the other
bushes, and upon two of them observed a few blossoms which
possessed the variation named. The other flowers upon these
bushes were, however, quite normal. Those in which the
variation occurred mostly showed it on one side only of the
standard.
Not having previously met with this variation, I submitted
a specimen to the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
who advised me that it was a variation of Ulex europaeus
noted by D. Mathieson in the Journal of Botany, 1885, as having
been observed by him on Putney Heath in February of that
year. Upon reference to the above-mentioned journal, I found
that Matheson's observations in several details coincided curiously
with my own, in particular the appearance of the variation in a
few of the flowers upon adjacent bushes, the vexillum of none
of those flowers, however, having the extra lobe on both sides.—
W. Howard, Buckhurst Hill, February 1915. [See p. 33, ante.]
Notes on Plants.—On my visiting Mersea, on August Bank
Holiday last, I found a plot of Lepidium latifolium L. (Dittander).
It was growing on the sea-wall near the Strood. I do not know
whether this has been recorded before for the island, but it is
very plentiful at Wivenhoe, and thence down the river to Alresford
Creek, so that if it is a new arrival, it may have been brought
over by duck or other fowl.
I do not think I recorded for the year 1913 some white
specimens of Epilobium hirsutum L. which were found at Fairsted
by the roadside. It was such a striking and handsome
plant that I sent some to Miss Willmott, and she was more
than pleased with them. I have still some seeds left, but the
plants I raised have not flowered this year, owing to the drought,