42 



M. Adolphe Brongniart. Although they seem to me to contain 

 a mass of very curious evidence, into the details of which I do 

 not enter, but which will, I trust, enable that distinguished 

 botanist to assign to this plant its proper place in the system of 

 vegetables, yet I shall be extremely gratified and obliged by any 

 further assistance, which I may be able to obtain in the investi- 

 gation of the subject. 



Norton Hall, Derbyshire, 

 April 2nd, 1847r 



Mr. Wellbeloved, as Curator of the Antiquarian department 

 of the Museum, congratulated the Members upon having received 

 from Joseph Dent, Esq., the High Sheriff, the very valuable 

 present of the monumental stone, erected to the memory of the 

 Roman standard-bearer Lucius Duccius Ruffinus, almost the 

 only existing relic of Roman times of that kind known to have 

 been discovered in York, not already in the possession of the 

 Yorkshire Philosophical Society. A brief history of the stone, 

 from Horsley and Drake, was then given, and some peculiarities 

 in the inscription pointed out and explained. 



A small fictile vessel, nearly perfect, and a coin much defaced, 

 both Roman, having been presented, the former by Mr. Chap- 

 man, the latter by Edwin Smith, Esq., as lately found near the 

 top of one of Severus' hills, on which the Waterworks' Com- 

 pany are making preparations for a reservoir, Mr. Wellbeloved 

 observed, that supposing these relics to have been found there, 

 which was by no means certain, it was not to be imagined that 

 such a circumstance gave any countenance to the old fable of the 

 artificial origin of these hills, or cast any doubt upon the opinion 

 of Professor Phillips, that " they are reliques of great geological 

 interest, marks of ancient watery forces in the vale of York." 

 Severus foimd them there when he came to York, and left them 

 certainly as he found them — there being " no mark of any 

 distinct earthwork, modifying even slightly the form left by 

 nature."* 



• See "Eburacum," by the Kev. C. WeUbeloved, page 113, and pi. xiii. 



