399 



in fruit. After looking at these forms, readers of the ' Phytologist ' 

 will understand the necessity of limiting and qualifying Mr. Lees' 

 hasty generalizations. And they will be prepared to believe that 

 even good botanists might mistake one species for another, if deciding 

 by their roots alone. I have put this to the test of a direct experi- 

 ment by sending roots of the Shanldin pimpinelloides, which is un- 

 doubtedly the true species, to one of our best English botanists ; ripe 

 fruit being also sent to assist his judgment. This botanist, expressly 

 referring to Mr. Lees' oivn statements about the roots of pimpinel- 

 loides, most confidently pronounced the plant to be — Lachenalii !* 



Hewett C. Watson. 

 Thames Ditton, 



December, 5, 1846. 



On the occurrence of Melissa officinalis near Chelmsford. By 

 Alfred Greenwood, Esq. 



This plant grows by the road-side between Chelmsford and Gal- 

 leywood Common, not far from the Running Mare public-house. 

 There are no gardens in the immediate vicinity, and Mr. Thomas 

 Corder, who first pointed the station out to me, states that it grew 

 there eight years ago, he believes before the nearest cottages and gar- 

 dens adjoining were in existence. 



I have also found this plant still further removed from garden cul- 

 tivation, by the side of a field between Great Bakering and Foul- 

 ness Island. 



A. Greenwood. 



Chelmsford, November 28, 1845. 



* " In (E. pimpinelloides the stem dies away after the seed has ripened. Young 

 plants grow up around its base, in the form of suckers. The roots of these young 

 plants at first consist of a cluster of filiform fibres. When the plants are more ad- 

 vanced in growth, we find fibres which have thickened much for a part of their length, 

 so as to form one elliptic or fusiform tubercle on each fibre. The upper portion of the 

 fibre, above the tubercle, usually remains thin and forms a peduncle by which the tu- 

 bercle is attached to the base of the stem. The peduncles vary in length on the same 

 plant. If nearly obliterated (by the tubercle forming near the base of the growing 

 stem, or being much elongated) we may have a root such as is represented in the fi- 

 gure of CE. peucedanifolia of ' English Botany,' plate 348." — H. C, Watson, in 'Lon- 

 don Journal' of Botany^ Feb., 1844. 



