Botanical Collections^ ^jt 



the characters given, seems to be identical with S' arbutifolia, referred now by 

 the best botanists (not horticulturists) to S. Myrsinites : this genus has been 

 already sufficiently tortured. The same gentleman has also described a species^ 

 of Aira, which he supposes to be perhaps A. montana ; but his description ap- 

 plies to a common alpine state of A. ccespitosa, which in elevated situations has 

 the leaves frequently involute, and the glumes of a shining purplish colour. 



In the course of the same month, an excursion was made to Loch Skene, 

 Dumfries-shire, and the mountains in its immediate neighbourhood, by Sir W. 

 Jardine, Bart, and Dr. Greville, when the following, among other plants, were, 

 obtained : 



Gymnostomum curvirostrum, rocks near the Gray Mare's Tail. 



Grimmia Doniana, on loose stones in an abrupt ravine, less than a mile 

 to the westward of Loch Skene. 



G. torquata, rocks near the Gray Mare's Tail. 



Weissia striata, mountain side above the Gray Mare's Tail. 



Hypnum rugulosum, ditto, but very rare. 



H. crista-castrensis, near the Gray Mare's Tail, very rare. 



Jungermannia spinulosa, "j 



J. heterophylla, > Ravines in the neighbourhood. 



J. ventricosa ? ) 



In the little glens and ravines near the base of these mountains, Hymenophyl- 

 ium Wilsoni, so long taken for H. Tunbridgense, is produced in the utmost pro- 

 fusion. 



Near Jardine Hall, the Ergot {Spermaedia clavus) was observed by Dr. Gre- 

 ville growing from Dactylis glomerata. 



Dr. Hooker, Mr. Arnott, and Mr. Klotzsch, an able German mycologist, have, 

 also made an excursion to the Highlands. Andrcea nivalis, in fruit, from the 

 summits of the Ben Nevis range ; Goody eria repens from the ancient forests of 

 Glenmore ; and Luzula nivalis, (abundant on the tops of all the Cairngorm 

 mountains,) are among their collections. Many Fungi, of the tribe called IIy~ 

 menomycetes, were gathered and preserved. Of these, particularly from Glen- 

 more and Badenoch, several are either new species, or new to this country ; 

 and it is to be hoped that an account of them will be given by Dr. Hooker in 

 his cryptogamic continuation of Smith's English Flora. 



Colour of the Red Sea. — Professor Ehrenberg has observed that the colour of 

 the Red Sea arises from a minute Oscillatoria. — Report of Travels in Egypt, ^c. 



Reproductive Organs of Ferns, (from Lindley's Introduction to the Natural 

 System of Botany, p. 313.) — The organ in Ferns which deserves the most particu- 

 lar attention is the theca, or case that contains the reproductive matter. By many 

 it is named capsule; but as that kind of pericarpium is essentially connected with 

 the power of conveying fertilization from the male apparatus to the ovules, and 

 implies the existence of a certain definite relation between the various parts that 

 it contains, nothing of which kind is found in the theca of Ferns, it is not neces- 

 sary to insist upon the impropriety of applying such a name to any sporule-case in 

 Cellulares. Easy as it is to show that the theca is not analogous to a capsule, it 

 is far less so to demonstrate with what organs or modifications of organs it really 

 has an analogy. I am not indeed aware that this had been attempted, all botanists 

 seeming to consider it a special organ, until, in the " Outlines of the first Prin- 

 ciples of Botany," I ventured to hazard the following theory (par. 533) : *' The 

 thecEB may be considered minute leaves, having the same gyrate mode of develope- 

 ment as the ordinary leaves of the tribe ; their stalk the petiole, the annulus the 

 mid-rib, and the theca itself the lamina, the edges of which are united." I was 

 led to this opinion, first, by the persuasion that there was no special organ in 

 Ferns to perform a function which in floweriri^ plants is executed by modifica- 



VOL. III. '"' ' '"'"' '" ■' '■ ^ • "' "* '-"' ' ' H ••■■•"' 



