116 VALERIANA CALCITRAPA. [April, 



At this meeting donations were presented to the Society, al- 

 ready an influential and important body, consisting of books, 

 memoirs, monographs, papers, plants, etc. ; and several papers 

 were read, among which is an interesting one from an exploring 

 party in the far- west, and from which an epitome will be made 

 for the gratification of the readers of the ' Phytologist.' 



We beg to inform our readers that this Society is named the 

 "Botanical Society of Canada," a rather comprehensive and, 

 some might say, an ambitious title ; but if the ground was not 

 preoccupied, it is not only defensible but laudable, and every well- 

 wisher of botany will be delighted to hear that their success has 

 been as great as the auspiciousness of their beginning. 



VALEEIANA CALCITRAPA. 

 (From a Correspondent.) 



While rummaging over some old bundles of plants, I happened 

 to light upon specimens of Valeriana (CentranthusJ Calcitrapa, 

 from (so far as I know) an unrecorded locality ; and I am much 

 mistaken if it does not turn out to be the earliest direct testi- 

 mony that we have of its existence as a British plant. The plants 

 are accompanied by a ticket in the handwriting of the late Mr. 

 Benjamin Forster, of Walthamstow, at whose sale the bundle of 

 plants in which this Valerian occurs, came into my hands. 



The following localities for this introduced (? naturalized) 

 species, viz. 1. Walls belonging to Chelsea Hospital, Middlesex. 

 2. Churchyard' wall, Eltham, Kent. These two stations are re- 

 corded in print. See Withering's 'Arrangement/ vol. i. p. 63, 

 4th ed., 1801, and Hull's 'British Flora,' 2nded., 1808. 3. Pa- 

 lace, Enfield, Middlesex, in MS. 



It is remarked in ' Cybele,' vol. ii. p. 25, that the plant above 

 named has very slender claims to inclusion among our British 

 plants as a naturalized alien. Those who are curious in such mat- 

 ters, — I mean writers who would read even their Bibles if thereby 

 they could fix a charge of plagiary on their contemporaries, or even 

 on their predecessors, for they are not very particular about where 

 the dirt is flung, whether on the living or on the dead, — should 

 turn to the 309th page of the old series of the ' Phytologist,' and 

 there they will learn from what source the author of the ' Cybele ' 



