I860.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 351 



and stunted in growth. In the same strange habitat, the base of the wall, 

 we shortly after saw FolypocUum Dryopteris, very luxuriant, though we 

 could only find two plants. There was a wood near from which they might 

 have strayed, but we had not time to explore it. Further on still we saw 

 Cystopteris fragilis and C. deiitata. The commoner Ferns found were Poly- 

 podium vidgare, Fteris aquilina, Lastrea Fillx-mas, L. dilataia, Athyrium 

 Filix-fmmina, Aaplenium Rida-muraria, and BlecJmmn borecde ; giving a 

 total of fourteen species within twenty yards of the roadside, for two 

 miles in length only. Vasculum. 



Medicago lupulina. 



Near Shooter's Hill a curious form of the above well-known plant was 

 observed and sent me by a coiTespondent ; and as this variety has not 

 been recorded as seen before, it is communicated to our readers in hope 

 that it may be a novelty, at least to some of them. I received it about 

 the beginning of August, and about the middle of September in the same 

 year it was still to be found in the same place. If not a botanical cuii- 

 osity, it is at least a botanical casualty. The characters of this form of Me- 

 dicago lupidiua are as follow. It has lax flowers on peduncles which 

 are longer than usual ; the calyx-teeth are rather longer than in the usual 

 form ; the petals are present, though in a diminutive or abortive form ; 

 the legumes are decidedly falcate, though not nearly so well developed as 

 in the falcate Medicks. The seeds are mostly abortive. 



The following is from De CandoUe's Prodromus, sub voce. Medicago 

 Inpuliyia, y miguicidata (Ser. Mss.), floribus apetalis, leguminibus falcatis 

 vix nervosis stipitatis unguiculatis. In Helvetia circa Longirod, et in Belgio. 

 Trigonella mniocarpa, Wallr. ! in litt. Medicago mniocarpa, WaUr. ! in litt. 



M. 



PiMPINELLA DISSECTA. 



The reverend author of the 'Flora Hertfordiensis' showed me a dried 

 specimen of the above-named plant, which he collected at Flitwick, not 

 far from Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, and which he has preserved in his her- 

 barium. On referring to the ' Flora Bedfordiensis,' 1798, I perceive that 

 the reverend author, p. 68, ISTo. 232, describes this very plant, which he 

 calls P. dissecia, with a reference to Eetzius' ' Fasciculi Botanici," iii. 

 fig. 2. Dr. Abbott's description, though brief, clearly defines the above 

 plant from the common form, viz. " All the leaves winged ; with many 

 divisions, etc." Dr. Sibthorp, in his Flora Ox., p. 102, gives the following 

 character : — " P. dissecta, foliis omnibus pinnatis, pinuis muUipat'titis, 

 segnmitis subfoliatis acutis. Between Whitney and Burford, near Henley." 

 Dr. Abbott describes its locality thus : " Dry pastures. Common." This 

 form is entered in Dillenius's edition of Hay's ' Stii-pes ' thus : " Pimphiella 

 Saxifraga major, degener seu foliis dissectis, Hist. Oxon., iii. 284. Hedges, 

 everywhere near Maidstone, Kent ; observed by Mr. J. Sherard, in com- 

 pany Avith Mr. Eand (Stirpes Brit. 213)." The accurate Hudson enters 

 this as var. y8 of his Pimpinella m<ijor, with the reference to Plot's ' Ox- 

 ford,' as above, and adds, " Insylvis agro Cantab., Bedford, Leicester, Cant., 

 et alibi. Fl. Aug., 110." In the excellent work of Clusius, p. cxcvii., 

 there is the following notice of this vaiiety or species. "... In majore 

 autem, tametsi magna ex parte foliorum forma non variet (onniia enim in 



