326 Linnean Society. [March 16, 



March 16. 

 The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair. 

 Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, Esq., was elected a Fellow. 



Mr. Ward, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of several Ferns collected 

 in Ireland, including Trichomanes speciosum (referred to Tr. radicans, 

 Hedw. fil.) found in a new station on the Toomies mountain, Kil- 

 larney ; Hymenophyllum Tunhridgense, of more than double the size of 

 any specimens to be found at Tunbridge Wells ; and a monstrous 

 and singularly divided variety of Asplenium Filix Fcemina, found 

 about twenty years ago in Connemara, and sent to the Botanic Gar- 

 den at Dubhn, where it maintains its character when grown from the 

 sporules, which are freely produced. 



Read a " Note on Samara lata, L." By G. A. Walker Arnott, 

 Esq., LL.D., F.L.S,, Regius Professor of Botany in the University of 

 Glasgow. 



In this note Dr. Arnott gives a minute account of the history of 

 the genus Samara, and of the errors of various authors in regard to 

 it, originating partly in Linnseus's own misquotation as a synonym of 

 Burm. Thes. Zeyl. t. 31, which represents a species of Memecylon ; 

 partly in Jussieu's reference of the genus to Rhamnece, afterwards 

 corrected by himself, but which correction seems to have escaped 

 observation ; and partly in the assumption that the Samara Iceta of 

 Swartz, referred to in his ' Flora Indise Occidentalis,' must therefore 

 be a plant of the West Indies. With regard to the affinities of the 

 genus, he notices Mr. Brown's reference to Myrsine of the three spe- 

 cies added by Swartz, Solander and WiUdenow, and also Jussieu's 

 suggestion that Samara is related to ikfyrsme, both published in 1810. 

 A detailed examination of the three specimens of Samara lata pre- 

 served in the Linnean Herbarium, and of three specimens from 

 China referred to that species in the Banksian Herbarium, follows ; 

 and he concludes from this examination that Samara, L., is identical 

 with Choripetalum, A. DeC, which is scarcely distinguishable from 

 Embelia, L., except in the quaternary instead of quinary division of 

 the flower, although perhaps the aestivation may also slightly differ. 

 The following are the characters which Dr. Arnott gives of the spe- 

 cies hitherto known to him : — 



