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Silybum Mariamim a hiennial. By George Lawson, Esq. 



The Silybum Marianum, Gart. (Carduus Marianus, L.), is given 

 in the ' Edinburgh Catalogue ' as an annual, while in ' Hooker's Bri- 

 tish Flora,' the period of duration is omitted. From what I have seen 

 of the plant, I should at once set it down as a biennial. It grows at 

 Momfieth, a village about six miles east of Dundee, Forfarshire, 

 where I have frequently had opportunities of observing it, and there 

 the plants are produced from the seed in one season, and flower and 

 perfect seed during the succeeding summer. Generally a few of the 

 plants produce flowers the same year in which they rise from the seed, 

 but such plants assume a low, stunted and unhealthy appearance. 

 Under cultivation, however, this plant may be made fully to develope 

 itself, and to perfect flowers and seeds during the same season in 

 which the seeds are committed to the soil ; but this is the case with 

 many biennials, and in a state of nature this plant is utterly incapa- 

 ble, as far as / have observed, of arriving fully at perfection in one 

 season, and therefore I must consider it a biennial. In other situa- 

 tions, however, the case may be different. I only speak from what 

 has come under my own notice. 



Geo. Lawson. 



Hawkhill, Dundee, 

 December, 1845. 



Occurrence of Salvia Verbenaca near Dundee. By G. Lawson, Esq. 



It is stated in Sir William Jackson Hooker's ' British Flora,' in 

 regard to Salvia Verbenaca, that it is " in Scotland only found about 

 Edinburgh." This statement is, however, scarcely correct, as the 

 plant is also found near this place, growing with all appearance of 

 being really indigenous. The situation where it is here found, to 

 which I refer, is the Magdalen-yard Green, an open common at the 

 west end of the town, on the margin of the Tay, to which many of our 

 townspeople resort for amusement and recreation. Two or three 

 years ago, extensive alterations and improvements were made upon 

 the grounds, and in consequence of these the plant was reported to 

 have been destroyed. During the past summer, however, I had the 

 pleasure of rediscovering it growing on a dry sunny bank, in gravelly 

 soil, a short space from the spot it formerly inhabited, and, although 

 in a very public situation, where it was exposed to the merciless tread 



