IX 



in Watford Locks. This gentleman learned that a branch of the 

 Market Harborough Canal was so full of this plant, " that the passage 

 of boats was impeded by it, and the canal necessitated to be cleared 

 out once or twice a year, and that it had been so for many years" 

 (Phytol. iii. 990). In connexion with this subject, Mr. Kirk well 

 observes, " How very remarkable that for so long a period this plant, 

 in widely separated localities, should, with the single exception of 

 Berwickshire, have totally escaped the notice of botanists." I can- 

 not resist the temptation I feel again to express my regret that Mr. 

 Babington should have thought it necessary to give this plant another 

 name, and more especially that the new name should be even partially 

 retained, although our best botanists consider the plant absolutely 

 identical with the North- American species. 



Mr. Thomson records the discovery of Lobelia urens in a wood 

 near Ashford, in Kent (Phytol. iii. 1051). The only previously known 

 British habitat of this conspicuous species is in Devonshire, and its 

 occurrence in Kent is a circumstance of great botanical interest. I 

 may add that Mr. Thomson most obligingly brought me a living spe- 

 cimen from this locality, in order to convince me that the species 

 was correctly named. 



Mr. Webb has a paper on the Allium Holmense of Ray (Phytol. iii. 

 937), which he appears to consider identical with A. Porrum, and to 

 be descended from the common leek, as cultivated in gardens : he 

 also invites a further examination of the Steep- Holms' plant, since it 

 has been universally treated by botanists as Allium Ampeloprasum, 

 a plant which appears to be absent from the western departments of 

 France. 



Mr. Lees reports the occurrence of Atriplex hortensis in Worces- 

 tershire (Phytol. iii. 1050), at the same time informing his readers 

 that he finds it on made ground, and suggests that the seeds of this 

 old olitory plant may have lain dormant for many years. The same 



b 



