cies, it seemed generally agreed that the Shetland plant was properly 

 referred to the C. latifolium of Linnaeus. The specimens now pre- 

 sented to the Society, howev^er, are labelled " Cerastium nigrescens, 

 Edmond. in Shetland Fl. ined.^'' It would thus seem that Mr. Ed- 

 mondston has changed his opinion regarding its specific identity with 

 the Linnaean species. In the London Catalogue the plant is given 

 as a variety (Edmondstonii) of Cerastium latifolium, {Linn.) ; but it 

 may be doubted whether Mr. Edmondston's specimens can be distin- 

 guished from the Highland and Linnaean C. latifolium, even as a va- 

 riety merely : there is certainly nothing in the form of the leaves to 

 keep them distinct. 



Mr. Edmondston also presented specimens of the Shetland Lathy- 

 rus maritimus, which has been considered a different variety (acutifo- 

 lius) from the same species found on the coasts of England. Except 

 in the more robust growth of the English specimens, there is little to 

 distinguish those of Shetland from others collected in Suffolk by Mr. 

 D. Stock. Far wider differences may be seen in the leaves of Orobus 

 tuberosus, Vicia sativa, and others of our common Leguminosae. 



Mr. Newnham presented specimens of Elatine Hydropiper and 

 hexandra, from the lately discovered locality near Farnham, in Surrey. 



Specimens of Lastraea spinosa [Newm.) were exhibited, which had 

 been selected from a number of others collected by Mr. Jabez M. 

 Gibson, near Coggeshall, Essex. Two of the specimens having been 

 obligingly examined, and the correctness of the name certified, by 

 Mr. Newman, the Herbarium Committee had resolved to send out si- 

 milar examples in each parcel during the current year ; as the species 

 usually is labelled " L. dilatata^'' by many botanists. In the London 

 Catalogue, the name of "Roth'' is inadvertently given as the authority 

 for Lastraea spinosa, (copied from the ' Phytologist,' i. 836) ; but since 

 Roth described the plant under the generic name of Polystichum, Mr. 

 Newman is probably the first author who has applied Roth's specific 

 name '^spinosum,''^ to the other generic name Lastraea. 



Read, "Notice of the Botany of Thame, Oxfordshire, by Dr. P. B, 

 Ayres." Specimens of the plants mentioned are deposited in the So- 

 ciety's collection. — G. E. D. 



Erratum. — Phytol. ii. 64, line 3, for "frotn the Society's herbari- 

 n," read "/or the Society's herbarium." 



