KEPOllT or THE BOTANICAL EXCHANGE CLUB. 25? 



that I have not altof^ether sacrificed their convenience to the claims of 

 ' Enj^lish Botany,' for as yet I have not found time to write the de- 

 scription of a single grass for the concluding volume of the book. 



Thalictrum minus, L., marilmnnK I have sent to all the mem- 

 bers desiring it specimens of the flower and fruit of this plant, collected 

 at Kirkcaldy, Fife. In the third edition of ' English Botany ' I divided 

 T. munis, L., into T. eu-minus (with two varieties, mar'diiiium and 

 montanuyii) and T. fiexuomm, Bernh. This is certainly wrong ; T. 

 maritimum, T. montanum, and T. flexuosmn must stand in the same 

 rank. Whether they should be considered as subspecies or as varie- 

 ties, is a question I do not yet feel able to determine. T. maritimum 

 I have in cultivation, both from roots and from seed. T should feel 

 nnich obliged to botanists who would furnish me with ripe seed of T. 

 montanum and T. flexuosmn, whicii, I may mention, must, to ensure 

 germination, be sown in the same autumn in which it ripens. 



Ranunculus peltatus, Fries, form approaching R. pseudo-fluitans, 

 Bab. A few specimens, wliich I believe to show a transition from one 

 form into the other, were sent to those supposed to be interested in 

 Batrachian Ranunculi. They were collected in a rapid stream running 

 into Loch Leven, a little to the north of the South Queich river. At the 

 month of this stream, in the still waters of tiie loch, the normal form 

 abounds. I visited the locality in the end of May this year, and found 

 the Ranunculus had disappeared from the stream, no doubt washed 

 into the loch by the winter floods ; and at the month of the stream I 

 could find nothing but the ordinary R. peltatus. 



Ranunculus reptans, L. Of this plant I collected on the shore of 

 Loch Leven sufficient specimens to supply all the members who asked 

 for it, where it grows in company with Littorella, Scirpus acicidaris, 

 and S. palustris. 1\\ this situation it is very constant in appearance, 

 but my faith in its distinctness, even as a subspecies, is considerably 

 shaken by the following circumstances : — In the sandy pastures by the 

 side of the loch R. FUanmnla, var. pseudo-repUtns, abounds ; and in 

 ditches by the side of cultivated fields the nornuil form of R. Flammula. 

 At the end of May in the present year I find that the whole of the 

 ground where R. reptans grows is under water. Can it be that R. 

 pseudo-repians is a depauperate, and R. reptans an inundatal form of 

 R. Flammula ? I have several pots of R. reptans subjected to difterent 

 treatment, but hitherto the plant lias not appeared, although, on dis- 

 turbing the earth, I find the roots still alive, — the only exception being 

 a pot submerged in a tank, in which case a few tufts of snuill radical 

 leaves have appeared. 



Ranunculus acris, var. vulc/atus. A large supply of this plant has 

 been sent from Wiltshire by the Eev. T. A. Preston; from Somerset 

 and Glo\icester, by Mr. J. F. Duthie ; and from CJhesliire, by the Hon. 

 J. L. Warren. These specimens exhibit a complete transition from a 

 horizontal rhizome, 4 or 5 inches long, to a nearly perpendicular one, 



VOL. VIII. [august 1, 1870.] T 



