58 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY.
It would appear that it was rare, if found at all, outside Bengal so late as 1885, and rare in Bombay even up to 1908. It would be interesting to be able to trace its spread from Serampore and its rate of progress. In this light the notes of my own observation below may be of interest.
I first became acquainted with the species in the district of Ganjam in about 1900. That district borders on Orissa. Prain gives its distribution for Bengal (Bengal Plants, p. 772J in about 1903 as " in every province."
I have also seen it in the following places in the Madras Presi- dency : — Practically throughout Malabar, in the Nilgiri Wynaad, in the Central and South-West portions of Coimbatore and in the portions of the Cochin State adjoining the latter district. In all these localities, all of which are fairly to extremely damp, it grows vigorously and in abundance. The elevations at which it is found in these parts ranges from practically sea level to about 3,000 feet. The flowering and fruiting I have noticed as at any time from May to February i.e., at any season but the very driest.
Perhaps other readers would record their observations in other localities giving elevations, dates of flowering and also some idea of the nature of the locality. Such notes would be specially interesting from the Bombay Presidency.
C. E. C. Fischer.
CURRENT LITERATURE.
Arber, Agues. The Leaves of the Irids and the Phyllode Theory. — A paper read before Sect. K of the Brit. Ass. Adv. Sci. August, 1920.
In this paper an attempt is made to apply the Phyllode Theory — considered by the author in a previous general memoir (Annals of Botany, Vol. 32, 1918, p. 465), to the special case of the Iridaceae. The peculiar character of the leaf of the Irin has been recognised from time immemorial and its interpretation has given rise to much controversy. For this and other Irids the writer rejects the view that the limb is produced by conge- nital concrescence of the two halves of the sheath; she considers that the clue to its interpretation is to be found in the comparison with the phyllodes of Acacia. This parallelism is traced in some detail. It is shown, for instance, that the leaf of Iris Douglasiana closely resembles the phyllode of Acacia penrfula, while, in the same way Gladiolus dracocephalus can be compared with A. TJnciuetla ; Sisyrinchium junceum, with A. teretifolia; and the four-angled leaf of Gladiolus omatus with A. incurva. The author regards
