82 



Dr. Balfour then made some remarks on the progress of vegetation 

 in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and the injury done by the late frost, in 

 the course of which he stated that Galanthus nivalis was in flower in 

 the Botanic Garden, and Eranthis hyemalis in Dr. Neill's garden, on 

 the 10th inst. 



The following gentlemen were elected ordinary fellows, viz., Alex- 

 ander Christison, Esq., 40, Moray Place ; John M'Gilchrist, Esq., 8, 

 Keir Street ; George Edward Allshorn, Esq., 63, Hanover Street ; 

 William Douglas, Esq., 47, George Square ; J. H. Skinner, Esq., 

 18, Carlton Terrace; Dalhousie Tait, Esq., 7, Shandwick Place; 

 Philip J. Van der Byl, 41, Clerk Street.— W. W. E. 



Note on some examples of Polystichum angulare distributed by the 

 Botanical Society of London. By Thomas Moore, Esq. 



In noticing some specimens of Polystichum angulare, which I com- 

 municated to the Botanical Society of London, Mr. Watson has re- 

 marked (Phytol. iii. 45) that he does not know why they are dis- 

 tinguished by a series of numbers — 1 to 7. As most of those into 

 whose hands the specimens have fallen are probably readers of the 

 ' Phytologist,' I may perhaps be allowed to offer a few remarks ex- 

 planatory of the reason why the specimens sent to the Society were 

 thus distinguished. They were intended to illustrate some of the va- 

 rieties of form and character which this species of fern assumes, even 

 in the same locality, and growing under circumstances precisely similar. 

 The plants from which were gathered the fronds which have been dis- 

 tributed, were all growing on the same bank, within perhaps twenty 

 yards of each other, and subjected to no appreciable, difference of cir- 

 cumstance ; and yet each plant presented more or less apparent dif- 

 ferences, and probably no two of the many plants there growing would 

 be found exactly identical in the shape of their pinnules, and in the 

 development of the spinose serratures, and the basal lobe. It was 

 thought that those who had never paid attention to the variations 

 which occur among the individual plants of these species of ferns, 

 might be interested in this evidence of that variation, occurring under 

 circumstances in all respects similar; and those who had not yet 

 learned the lesson, that in nature the groups of individuals which we 

 call species* are not moulded with the precision of an artist, might 



* Can any reader of the ' Phytologist ' give. a good definition of what should be un- 

 derstood by a " species ? " 



