Welsh Journals

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than heart-shaped leaves and mostly small (infertile ?) pollen grains,, suggesting hybrid origin. Members would do well to look out elsewhere for Greater Bindweed with pink flowers. Scilla verna (Spring Squill). Merioneth. On a hill near Tal- sarnau, a rediscovery of an old locality (Mr. and Mrs. T. HUGHES) and on a rocky knoll in the Mawddach estuary near Bontddu, a new locality (communicated by Mrs. J. MILLS PHILLIPS). Scilla verna had not been seen in Merioneth for many years. It was well known to the old botanists on a little hillock on the outskirts of Barmouth", where it is reputed to have grown with Veronica spicata (Spiked Speedwell) this place has unfortunately been lost. Cephalanthera longifolia (Sword-leaved Helleborine). Card. 8 flowering stems at Eglwysfach on the 6th June 1956. This appears to be the first record for Cardiganshire and Wales south of the Dovey (Mrs. I. M. CROSS and W. M. Condry). It is interesting to note that this species grows just across the Dovey estuary in a wood and on an adjacent railway embankment near Aberdovey. Ophrys apifera (Bee Orchid). Merioneth. In one of the only two localities for the plant in the county the following numbers of individuals have been seen in recent years I 950-3; 1951-11 1952-not visited 1953-24 1.954- IO 1955-2 1956-1. The very steady increase and decrease is curious. 1953, with adequate rain and sunshine and following the wet summer of 1952, was an exceptionally good year for orchids in general drought probably accounted for the poor totals in 1955 and 1956 (P.M.B.). Information about the flowering of Bee Orchid elsewhere in Wales would be most welcome. Anacamptis pyramidalis (Pyramidal Orchid). Merioneth. In the locality where there were 163 flower spikes in 1955, 171, a remarkably similar number, were counted on the 6th July 1956 (P.M.B.). Cyperus longus (Galingale). Caern. A circular clump c. 5 ft. in diameter with over 50 flowering stems was found in September 1946 on the bank of an ox-bow" at the tide limit of a tributary of the Conway, in a damp habitat invaded by salt water at high tides. So late in the season the plant was only in flower, the fruits being quite undeveloped Cyperus longus is a Continental-southern species, here in its northernmost known locality, and it may be that the fruits do not often come to maturity in the British Isles. This locality is also the only one in N. Wales where Cyperus longus is known to exist the species was recorded by LIGHTFOOT in 1773 (see the Journal of Botany, 1905) on the marshes by the sides of ditches near Harding [Hawarden] in Flintshire but it is doubtfully present there now.