356 Miscellaneous. 



of some rare plants, splendidly figured in Audubon's great work on 

 North American Ornithology, viz. Plat anus reccmosus, Columbia ri- 

 ver ; Cornus Nuttali, Columbia river ; Iris cuprea, Louisiana ; Nym- 

 pluca Jfava, Florida. The President requested Mr. Morrison to con- 

 vey to Mr. Audubon the thanks of the Society for his kindness in 

 allowing the engravings to be exhibited. 



Mr. Edward Forbes read a second notice on certain Continental 

 plants allied to British species. Specimens of the following were 

 exhibited, and their alliances and synonyms amongst British species 

 pointed out. 1. Silene Pseud-Otiles, Bess, from Monte Spaccato ; 

 2. Silene livida, Willd.,from Monte Spaccato ; 3. Gentiana angulosa, 

 Bieb., from Carniola ; 4. Plantago carinata, Schrad., from Adelsberg 

 in Carniola ; 5. Plantago altissima,Ja.cq., from Gaule, near Trieste; 

 6. Holoschcenus australis, Reich., near Trieste ; 7. Bupleurum pro- 

 tractum, Link, from Istria; 8. Lotus cUiaius, Ten., from Trieste ; 9. 

 Onobrychis arenaria, Kitt, near Trieste. 



The Society then adjourned till Thursday, the 9th of May, when 

 the summer meetings at the Royal Botanic Garden will be resumed. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



OX THE WILD CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



As an addition to the notices of the wild cattle of Great Britain, 

 for which our Journal is indebted to the contributions of Mr. Hind- 

 marsh, the Earl of Tankerville, and Sir Philip Grey Egerton *, the 

 following passage from Matthew Paris may be of some interest, as 

 showing that herds of these " boves sylvestres f" existed not only in 

 the forests of Caledonia and the north of England, but in the mid- 

 land districts. In his account of Leofstan, one of the abbots of St. 

 Albans in the time of Edward the Confessor, he says : 



" Opaca nemora quae a limbo Ciltrice usque Londoniam fere, a 

 parte septentrionali ubi prsecipue strata regia qua? Watlingestrata 

 dicitur, fecit resecari, salebras explanari, pontes fabricari, et abrupta 

 viarum in planitiem redigi tutiorem. Abundabant enim eo tempore 

 per totam Ciltriam nemora spatiosa, densa et copiosa, in quibus habi- 

 tabant diversse bestiae, lupi, apri, tauri sylvestres, et cervi, abun- 

 danter." — Vita Sancti Albani Abbatum, p. 28. 



These great forests of the Chiltern district of Buckinghamshire, 

 Herts, &c, were those in which the Saxon chieftains, aided by some 

 of the citizens of London, for a long time held out against the Norman 

 conqueror, under the countenance of Abbot Fretheric ; and where, in 

 subsequent times, the citizens maintained their right of hunting, 



* Vol. ii. p. 274; hi. 241. 



t See the passage from Bishop Leslie, vol. ii. p. 282. 



