22 



in county Deny, it should not have been found in any other 

 portion of the British islands. On one or other side of the 

 Menai Straits there must be other limestone banks well 

 adapted for the plant, but as far as is known it is confined 

 to a few square-yards of one bank on the Caernarvonshire 

 side of the Straits. Much of the land, however, on both 

 shores is not accessible to the public, and the plant may 

 exist in the neighbourhood in some unknown station. In 

 the almost near certainty of the early disappearance of the 

 plant, I hope Mr. Griffith will carry out the intention he 

 expressed to me of taking his man to transplant a few of 

 the stocks a little further from danger. One hardly likes 

 to see one of our native plants " assisted " after this fashion, 

 but when the alternative is a possible extinction of the 

 species from its Welsh habitat, the fostering care of botanists 

 is quite justifiable; Lancashire botanists in particulai* would 

 be glad to see Wilson's name perpetuated after this fashion, 

 rather than in herbarium specimens only. 



Along with the examples of my own gathering I exhibit 

 specimens from a plant grown at Kew, derived from the 

 Menai station, and it will be seen that the plant has not 

 improved in luxuriance by growth in a southern latitude. 

 I also show a specimen collected by Mr. John E,alfs in 1840, 

 and another by our old and valued member Mr. Joseph 

 Sidebotham, F.L.S., collected as long ago as 1844. It would, 

 I am sure, be interesting to the Section if Mr. Sidebotham 

 would put upon record his recollection of what the Welsh 

 station was like forty years ago. 



The late Mr. John Hardy — formerly an associate of the 

 section and whose comparatively early death so many Lan- 

 cashire naturalists regret — has frequently referred to Wil- 

 son's Eose at our meetings, but a specimen in his herbarium 

 labelled Rosa Wilsoni is not the true plant. It may interest 

 the members to know that Mr. Hardy's phanerogams and 

 cryptogams will be incorporated with my herbarium of 

 British plants ; they include almost a unique set of Sole's 

 Mints, and a good series of Irish Saxifrages collected by the 

 late Dr. Andrews. 



