686 



staiit character belonging to the flowers is the one used by Sir J. 

 Smith for H. pulmonariura, (Eng. Flora iii. p. 36) ; " The first partial 

 stalk remaining always much lower than the rest, " in fact the first 

 flower is always overtopped by the next unopened buds, in the 

 axillary branches as well as on the main stem. I hardly know any 

 composite flower that is so much affected by a shower as H. maculatum, 

 especially when growing on walls : the flower becomes rumpled and 

 disfigui'ed extremely, so as hardly to be in a fit state to be gathered 

 for preservation : (I have several times lately been obliged to acknow- 

 ledge the correctness of the foregoing remark). If trees are near 

 them so that the droppings of the leaves fall on them, they are simi- 

 larly affected. 



The habitat. The situation that H. maculatum seems most to 

 flourish in, is on old exposed walls, next stony banks on road sides, or 

 the elevated edges of foot paths : it is rarely to be found in open fields 

 or woods, very rarely in hedge-banks. One of the places where it 

 grows in greatest luxuriance is on some yard-walls, from five to 

 twelve feet in height, in one of the streets of the town. 



The growth. The time when it is in highest perfection is about 

 the latter end of July ; it may then be found chiefly from two to three 

 feet in height ; as those stems decay after flowering, a second growth 

 springs up from the same roots, or from the axil of the lowest leaf of 

 an injured stem, and are now, September 2nd, in flower, from nine to 

 fifteen inches high, with from three to a dozen flowers and buds. 



It is very probable that some of the discrepancies of the descriptions 

 may have arisen from their authors having seen only the latter plants 

 of the second growth. James Bladon. 



Pont-y-pool, September, 1846. 



On the Flowering of Raiiunculus hulhosus. By Mr. Thomas Meeham. 



The time of flowering of many British plants depends so much 

 on the nature of the season, as to make the times given in British 

 Floras often appear erroneous. Not only does the season exert its in- 

 fluence over the time of flowering of certain plants, but the nature of the 

 soil also seems to modify it. The Ranunculus bulbosus, when grow- 

 ing in meadows, is usually in bloom about May, or if the season be 

 later, iu the earlier part of June. I believe that in cultivated ground 

 it would often be found in bloom later in the autumn, when not a 

 plant would be found in the meadows in bloom. If this prove cor- 



