Natural Historic in Scotland, 



399 



Orobanche caryophyllacea, Sm. in Linn. Trans. y vol. iv. 169. — O. major 

 goryophyllum olens, Bauhin.PinaXy n.'87. — O. caryophyllacea, Pallas. Her- 

 barium, Bonn. — 0. vulgaris, Flor. Gall., n. 354. 2455. (Parisiis, 1806.) — 

 Yours, &c. — Gerard Edwards Smith. Sandgate, Aug. 25. 



Lycop^rdon Proteus Sow- 

 erby, the Bovista gigantea of . , , . . . i^ , . , , , -/.^ t^^m 



later authors. — A large spe- 

 cimen of this fungus (^g. 

 179.) has been received from 

 Mr. Robert Marnock, gar- 

 dener to V. Dolphin, Esq., 

 Moreton in the Marsh, 

 Gloucestershire. It mea- 

 sured 4 ft. 2f in. round, was 

 1 ft. 4 in. long, 1 ft. 2 in. 

 wide, and 11 in. high. The 

 late Mr. Sowerby received a 

 similar fungus, at least 6 in. 

 longer^ and wider than the 

 above, but, perhaps, not 

 quite so high. It grew in a 

 garden near Norwich, and may now be seen- in Mr. Sowerby's museum, 

 No. 2. Mead Place, Lambeth. 



Art. III. Natural History in Scotland. 



Glasgo w Royal Botanic Garden. — The following statement, understood to 

 be drawn up by Dr. Hooker, was published by the directors of this establish- 

 ment in January last : — It is now some time since any public notice has 

 been taken of the actual state and condition of this interesting establish- 

 ment y which, in spite of the difficulties attendant upon its limited means^ 

 and the error committed at its foundation, in not requiring from each 

 proprietor a small annual sum for its support, has yet flourished beyond 

 what its most sanguine friends could have expected. The funds destined 

 for meeting its yearly expenditure arise principally from three sources ; the 

 sale of plants, annual subscriptions, and voluntary annual contributions. 

 The failure of any one of these must materially cramp the means of carrying 

 on this institution. The first of these sources has been found to increase 

 in at least an equal ratio with the extent of the collection j and whatever 

 may be the objections in the minds of some of the proprietors to such a 

 mode of increasing the income of the garden, the produce arising from it 

 is of vastly too much consequence to allow of the practice being discon- 

 tinued. The second source of emolument, namely, the annual subscrip- 

 tions, may also be expected to add still more to our funds, in proportion 

 as the interest and beauty of the garden become more generally known. 

 In regard to yearly contributions, these, being voluntary, fluctuate accord- 

 ing to the views, feelings, and circumstances of the proprietors. Yet, surely, 

 since by the fundamental laws of the institution such receipts cannot be 

 enforced, a sense of the value of the collection, whether taken in a scien- 

 tific or a pecuniary light, might induce the shareholders to do that which 

 will so essentially tend to the maintenance and still greater increase of 

 the worth of that collection. 



At the time of the publication of our Catalogue of Plants in 1825 

 (which, by its distribution, has been the means of making known the extent 



