53 



quoted in the ' British Ferns,' I may, however, perhaps be allowed to 

 quote it in this place. 



" There is found upon the tops of our most ban-en mountaines, but 

 especially where sea-cales are accustomed to be digged, stone to make 

 iron of, and also where ore is gotten for tinne and lead, a certaine 

 small plant : it riseth forth of the ground with many bare and naked 

 branches, dividing themselves at the top into sundry knags like the 

 forked homes of a Deere, every part whereof is of an overworne whit- 

 ish colour." From this it will be seen that no mention whatever is 

 made of the capsules, which are said to cover the entire lower surfaces 

 of the fronds of Asplenium septentrionale when mature, and which 

 may well be thought too conspicuous to have escaped the notice of 

 the generally very accurate Gerarde. 



It may be further remarked that the great rarity of Asplenium 

 septentrionale renders it extremely unlikely that so good a plant 

 should escape detection in the many unlikely habitats that have been 

 given for it by Gerarde, supposing it to be his Muscus comiculatus. 



I enclose specimens of Cladonia uncialis from Cove Common, 

 Hants. 



Henry Bull. 



Portsmouth, January 20, 1848. 



On certain Forms or Species of Fruticose Brambles experimentally 

 proved to be permanent. By Edwin Lees, Esq., F.L.S. 



Mr. Newman states in his preface to the last volume of the ' Phy- 

 tologist' that "Rubus still continues to be the most fashionable genus 

 of British plants ;" I am glad that it is so, as attention will thus be 

 brought to bear upon the subject, which it hardly could be while ri- 

 dicule was captiously or by insinuation heaped upon any botanist 

 who proposed to designate particular and supposed permanent forms 

 of Rubi as species. As I have been long unfashionable in the regard 

 I have paid for many years to the fruticose Rubi, I may as well just 

 dash on the current while the tide flows, and state my own experience 

 from the examination of some thousands of plants in the living state. 

 This I propose to do on an early opportunity ; but as the subject has 

 been mooted as to raising Rubi from seed, it is but fair to a humble, 

 but honest and keen-observing man, to say that this has been already 

 done in many instances. Let me then state the matter as it came to 

 my knowledge. 



