NOTICES OF SERIALS. 69 



attenuated, and have fewer Strice; the latter characters would appear to 

 connect it with E. Mackaii, from which it may be distinguished by the 

 colour of its sheaths, and their having shorter teeth, and in its stems, 

 which never branch. In addition to these marks, it may be remarked, that 

 while the stems of all British unbranched species of Equisetum are persis- 

 tent, remaining green throughout the winter; the economy of E. Moorii is 

 the reverse of this, as its stems die down annually. The present only 

 recorded habitat is clay-banks facing the sea, at Eockfield, County 

 Wicklow, where it was found by Mr. D. Moore, in company with Professor 

 Melville. Botanical Society of Edinburgh ; Phytological Club, in connection 

 with the Pharmaceutical Society ; Linneaean Society, including notices of 

 two new British ferns, one the Polypodium alpestre (Hoppe), and the 

 others supposed to be undescribed, with the name of P. flexile provisionally 

 assigned. 



February : — (Baker, John G.) On Salix acutifolia, and its occurrence 

 in Britain ; (Newman, Edward) Contributions towards a History of a 

 British Asplenium, considered as a distinct species, and as entitled to a 

 place in the British Flora. In this contribution we have most ably dis- 

 cussed the claims of Asplenium acutum to a place in the British Flora ; 

 and we trust that the materials for properly considering the subject, here 

 so impartially collected, will meet with the attention they so well deserve 

 from all botanists who have made our native ferns a special object of 

 study. (Borrer, William) Notes on the " Cybele Britannica," vol. iii. 

 These notes are communicated, with their author's permission, by the able 

 author of the " Cybele Brittanica," to whom they were originally sent. No- 

 tices of Books — (Hooker, Sir W. J.) Species Filicum, part vi., or vol. ii., 

 part ii. Proceedings of Societies — Phytologist Club ; Linneaean Society ; 

 Dublin Natural History Society ; Phytological Club ; (Tulasne, M. L. B.) 

 On Germination of the Spores of the Uredineae. 



March : — (Leeman, Berthold) Remarks on Sarsaparilla. The object of 

 these remarks is to prove that the greater portion of Sarsaparilla is the 

 produce of one species of Smilax, and that species is S. officinalis H. and 

 B. (S. papyracea Poir S. Medien Cham et Schlecht), but is not intended 

 by so doing to abolish the commercial distinctions now so universally 

 recognised in the Sarsaparilla trade. As long as the Brazilians continue 

 to strip the roots of the beard, and put them up in the same long rolls as 

 they now do, there will always be Lisbon Sarsaparilla in the market ; as 

 long as the inhabitants of the Spanish Main continue to preserve the root- 

 lets, we shall have Jamaica Sarsaparilla ; and as long as the climate and 

 other physical circumstances of Guatemala remain unchanged, we shall 



