22 OCCUERENOE OF MEDICAfiO LAPPACKA IN BEDFORDSHIUE. 



7. Lecidea sinceruU, Nyl. This is Lecidea Dicksoni, Ach., typical, 

 witli normal greyish thallns, which previously had been unknown. 

 Similarly L. subcontimia, Nyl., occurs also with a normal, smooth, 

 leaden-coloured thallus. Saxicole. 



8. Lecidea cerebrinclla, Nyl. Similar to L. cerehrina. Ram., but 

 smaller, the apothecia and spores both beinff less in size. The 

 apothecia are much plicato-corrugatod. Saxicole. 



9. Verrucaria ohfiiscata, Nyl. From V. ohnigrescens, Nyl. this 

 species differs in the thullus being umbrine-black, continuous,^ very 

 thin or subevanesccnt, and in the spores, which are oblongo-ellipsoid, 

 being somewhat longer. Saxicole. 



10. Verrucaria Kerpielena, Nyl. Thallus greyish, obsolete ; apo- 

 thecia moderate, prominent, hemisphserical, pyrenium dimidiate, 

 black ; spores 8na}, colourless, ellipsoid, murali-divided, moderate ; 

 paraphyses slender, crowded. A somewhat remarkable species, belong- 

 ing to the section of V. tlwlostomoides. Saxicole. 



ON THE OCCUREENCE OF MEDIC AOO LAPP ACE A, Laml\, 

 IN BEDFORDSHIRE; WITH SOME ADDITIONS TO 

 THE RECORDED FLORA OF THAT COUNTY. 



Bt R. a. Peyor, B.A., F.L.S. 



Dlikino the past summer I came across nMedicago in Bedfordshire, 

 which was at first sight uuknoAvn to me, but which turned out to be 

 M. lappacea of Lamarck's " Encyclopedic Methodique." It has been 

 noticed once or twice before in Britain as an evident introduction with 

 wool or foreign seeds ; but it is less easy to account for its occurrence 

 in the present instance. Growing by the road between Luton and 

 Caddington, near Farley Green, in company with Plantago lanceolata 

 and P. tnajor, Poli/gonum aviculare, Matricaria viodora, and the 

 ordinary wayside weeds of the district, it had quite the appearance of 

 n native, and unless it could have been brought in with material from 

 abroad for plaiting — the great industry of that part of the country — 

 it is difficult to see by what means it could have been conveyed into 

 rather a sequestered neighbourhood, which is out of the course of 

 general traffic, and where, too, it seemed to have made itself quite at 

 home. 



It is easily distinguished from M. macidnta, with which it has 

 perhaps sometimes been confused, by the laciniate stipules, the loose 

 spiral and very different venation of the pods, which are flatter and 

 not narrowed into the thin edge, witli longer spines that are generally 

 hooked at the end ; the leaves are never spotted, and the flowers are 

 of a different shade of yellow, with the keel shorter than the wings. 



With M. denticulata it is much more closely allied. It has gene- 

 rally fewer flowers ; the largo, subglobose, burr-like pods arc less 

 deeply and regularly veined, and the veins themselves take a different 

 direction ; the uppermost whorl is larger in proportion, and covers 



