222 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



mueli to increase our knowledge of the varieties. He was instru- 

 mental in discovering the two 'yellow' varieties of Ocdanthua 

 nivalis — lutescens and JI a vesce lis. He was an earnest member of 

 the British Pteridological Societ}', and his expert knowledge of 

 British Ferns led to his appointment as judge of these at most of the 

 shows of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society." Boyd did a 

 good deal of botanical work, especially in the Grampians. He found 

 the curious little Sagina Boydii, which was described by F. B. White 

 in Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb. xvii. 33 (1887), and was figured in this 

 Journal for 1892 (t. 326 h) from specimens sent by the discoverer. 

 Its exact locality has never been accurately ascertained, nor has it 

 since been found: in Trans. Bot. Soc. Ed. (/. c.) Boyd writes: "The 

 plant was found among a number of other plants brought by me 

 from Braemar in the autumn of 1878. I do not remember gathering 

 the Scujiiia, and did not remember seeing it till planting out the rest 

 of the collections on that occasion after my return home. In the 

 note accompanying the tigure it is stated as l^oyd's impression that 

 the plant " was obtained upon Ben A'an, a hill in the deer foi'cst of 

 Invercauld." Mr. Marshall, who stayed Avith Boyd at Faldonside in 

 1892, writes : " I think that he was the first to find Potamoyeton 

 angitstifolius = Zizii, in Cauldshields Loch, on or near his property 

 (he showed it to us, there). He was a first-class gardener, and raised 

 several good hybrids ; such as Saxifraga " Falconside " and 8. 

 " W. B. Boyd," and Dianthus alpinus "W. B. Boyd" if my memory 

 is correct. He grew many interesting native plants, like X Salix 

 Sadleri and Lactiica nlpina with great success. In 1913, the 

 keeper told me, he made the long and tiring ascent to the Glen 

 Spean station for Saxifraga cespitosa, and got it ! — riding a pony 

 for the lower parts of the expedition." Boyd was a prominent 

 member of the Scottish Alpine Club. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on 6th June, Mr. C. C. 

 Lacaita gave an abstract of his paper, " A Revision of some critical 

 species of Echimii as exemplified in the Linnean and other herbaria, 

 with a description of Echium judamm, a new species from Palestine." 

 He explained that this paper fell under five divisions : (1) On five 

 critical species oi EcJiium, namely, E. judceum, sp. n., E. australe. 

 Lam., E. Ooineyanuv), sp. n., E. fycnanthum, Pomel, and E. sal- 

 maticiim, Lag. ; (2) The genus Echium in the herbaria of Tourne- 

 fort, Jussieu, and Lamarck ; (3) the Echia in Sibthorp's herbarium ; 

 (4) The Linnean species ; and (5) The Echia of Miller's Gardener s 

 J)ictinnary of 1768. 



At the same meeting Capt. A. W. Hill showed a series of seed- 

 lings of Cyclamen. Normally only one cotyledon develops, the other 

 remaining as a rudiment at the apex of the hypocotyl or tuber. If 

 the lamina of the cot^dedon be removed, new laminae arise as out- 

 growths from the petiole just below the cut surface ; but if the 

 cotyledon Avith its petiole be removed, the rudiment of the second 

 cotyledon is stimulated to develop into an assimilating organ. On 

 removal of the lamina of this second cotyledon new laminte will be 

 formed from the inner edges of its petiole close to the apex exactly 



