230 Linncean Society. 



lower branches, and tenuity and tortuosity of the upper ones, which 

 only bear flower from the young shoots at their very ends. Fruit is 

 produced annually, and is eagerly gathered as a curiosity by the 

 country people, who look upon it as a charm, suspending it in their 

 habitations, and appearing to consider it a safeguard; while to the 

 mountain ash (Pyrus aucuparia) they pay no sort of attention, al- 

 though they seem to be fully aware of the relationship between the 

 species, designating the latter the " Whitten tree," while the former 

 is called the "Whitten Pear-tree," — the fruit very much resembling 

 a small jennet pear. The stations given for Pyrus domestica in Corn- 

 wall and the Isle of Wight, Mr. Lees thinks rest on doubtful author- 

 ity, and that its claims to being considered indigenous to Britain 

 would require to be based on a stronger foundation than that af- 

 forded by the solitary individual in Wyre Forest. 



LINN.EAN SOCIETY. 



March 6, 1838.— Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair. 



Mr. Newman, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of the Noctua cubicu- 

 laris in the larva state, obtained from Ham Green, near Bristol, the 

 seat of Richard Bright, Esq., where this caterpillar had proved very 

 destructive to wheat in the rick. 



Dr. Bromfield, F.L.S., exhibited a specimen of a singular variety 

 of Crepis virens, with the leaves nearly entire, gathered by him in a 

 wood near Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight. 



A plant in flower of the rare Ophrys lutea of Cavanillas was ex- 

 hibited by Mr. Anderson, from the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea. 



Read a description of the Mosses collected in the journey of the 

 late deputation into Upper Assam, in the years 1835 and 1836. By 

 William Griffith, Esq., Assistant Surgeon on the Madras Establish- 

 ment. Communicated by R. H. Solly, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S. 



The discovery of the China tea plant in Upper Assam attracted the 

 attention of the Indian government, and accordingly a deputation, 

 consisting of Dr. Wallich, Mr. M'Clelland, and Mr. Griffith, was 

 sent from Calcutta to investigate the subject. The present paper 

 comprises descriptions of the Musci collected in the journey ; but 

 the greater portion of the species, Mr. Griffith states, was gathered 

 in the Khasya Hills, an elevated tract of country, forming part of 

 the eastern frontier of British India. The breadth of this tract va- 

 ries from thirty-five to sixty English miles, and the following heights* 

 of places situated on the route of the mission, and copied from Cap- 

 tain Pemberton's report, are given by Mr. Griffith. 



