314 Miscellaneous. 



tleman I have recently had an opportunity of examining that speci- 

 men, and find that it is not D.plumarius but D. superbus, which is 

 so frequent an inhabitant of gardens that I think it certainly cannot 

 be considered as an indigenous plant without further proof than we 

 as yet possess. Mr. Mackay's description appears to have been 

 drawn from the true D. plumarius. 



In Mr. Leighton's 'Flora of Shropshire/ (p. 188.), D. plumarius is 

 introduced upon the authority of specimens gathered upon the walls 

 of Ludlow Castle and Haughmond Abbey, in both which places it 

 is very plentiful, as I know from personal observation, and has quite 

 as good a claim to be included in our lists as D. Caryophyllus, the 

 only certain stations for which are the walls of the Kentish Castles. 

 — Charles C. Babington. 



Sinapis Ciieiranthus, Koch. — Specimens of a plant from near 

 Penard Castle, Swansey, have been distributed by myself and others 

 under this name, which turn out, upon more careful examination, 

 to be only S. Monensis. — See Prim. Fl. Sam., p. xiii. The Jersey 

 plant is the true S. Cheiranthus, which has not yet, I believe, been 

 found in England. — Charles C. Babington. 



SAXIFRAGA UMBROSA, 



Brislington, near Bristol, Nov. 24, 1840. 



Sir. — It is stated in the Review of Mr. Baines's Flora of Yorkshire 

 (Ann. Nat. Hist, for Nov. p. 216.), that Saxifraga umbrosa is "not a 

 northern plant," but that it is found " in the west and south-west 

 of Ireland, in as mild a climate as any part of the British islands 

 affords." It may be worth mentioning that it was brought to me 

 some years since from Clovelly, when I doubted its being truly wild. 

 I this year have had an opportunity of verifying the locality myself, 

 and from the circumstances of its being a mile distant from any gar- 

 den, and that no other cultivated plants are to be found in the course 

 of the road near which it grows, I am much inclined to admit the 

 station as a true one. I found it on the left-hand side of the Hobby 

 approaching Clovelly near a little bridge. 



I am, Sir, obediently yours, 



Richard Taylor, Esq. F. Russell, 



BUCK BEAN OR BOG BEAN, MENYAItTIIES TRIFOLIATd. 



This beautiful flower has always been referred to Pentandria Mo- 

 nogynia, but on examining several plants I was struck with observing 

 that the terminal flower of four out of eight specimens had six equal 

 perfectly formed stamens. This fact does not appear to have been 

 observed, as I do not find any reference in the Synoptic Tables to 

 plants under Hexandria Monogynia. It is also remarkable that the 

 terminal flowers should have the anomalous number ; as in general 

 the student is directed, if he is under any difficulty on account of 

 the difference in the number of stamens in the flowers of the same 

 plant, to be guided by the number of the terminal flowers. 



The corolla is six-lobed, or rather formed of six petals soldered 

 together, as they separate very easily one from the other, and the 

 calyx is six-leaved, with a small scale at the centre of the base of the 



