96 



were gathered by the Thames, shortly above the Lock at East Moulsey, the racemose inflorescence distin- 

 guishing the specimens which had grown nearer tJie towing path, where the ground was more dry and stony. 



4. Cniciis pratensis and Forsteri. A series of specimens designed to show that branched plants of 

 C. praUnsis are referi'ed by botanical authorities to C. Forsteri, and that possibly aU specimens of C. Foi-s- 

 teri are luxuriantly developed plants of C. pratensis. Four specimens of C. pratensis were exhibited in its 

 usual state, each having a solitary flower and from one to three crenate leaves on the stem. A fifth differed 

 fi-om these in having two flowers and six leaves on its stem. A sixth specimen from Sir W. J. Hooker, and 

 labelled "C. Forsteri, Weybridge," had also a two-flowered stem, the lower portion of which was absent, 

 but it was accompanied by a leaf somewhat pinnatifid instead of crenate at the edges. Two other specimens, 

 gathered near Whitmoor Pond, Surrey, in June last, presented a still wider variation from the ordinary form 

 of C. pratensis, and would be called C. Forsteri by most botanists : the stems bore respectively two and 

 four flowers, and eight and ten pinnatifid leaves. Only a single plant had been found by Mr. "W., but having 

 six separate stems from the same root, mostly with two or three flowers each. The last specimen exhibited 

 was one that had been collected by Mr. Coleman near East Grinstead. This one differed from the Whitmoor 

 plant in having its leaves more divided and a branched stem bearing eleven flowers, together with the broken 

 peduncles of two or three others. Mr. C.'s specimens closely con'esponded with the specimens of C. Forsteri 

 preserved in Smith's herbarium, and is doubtless the true plant. In the absence of the intei-mediate speci- 

 mens it would have appeared to be very distinct from C. pratensiSihntthe transition is so strongly established 

 throughout the other specimens as to render it difficult to say where the one alleged species ends and the other 

 commences. Mr. Watson states the transition is still fiullier aided by a foreign specimen in Smith's herba- 

 rium, labelled " Carduus dissectus, (Vill.)' and which has only one flower though many leaves on a stem. 

 Between the Weybridge C. Forsteri, as named by Sir W. J. Hooker, and the two-flowered specimens of C pra- 

 tensis, there was scarcely a perceptible difference, except in the one pinnatifid leaf of the former and the 

 slightly crenate leaves of the latter ; but to counterbalance this difference in foliage Mr. Watson produced 

 two leaves gathered that day from the same plant in his garden, one of which was simply crenate, while the 

 other was pinnatifid ; the plant from which they were plucked being an undoubted C. pratensis. 



5. Juncus lampocarpns and nigritellus. A series of specimens to show that J. nigritellus of English 

 botanists is identical with J. lampocarpus, unless in some cases where small specimens of J. acutiflorus pass 

 under the same name. Mr. Watson believed that J. nigritellus might originate in two ways from J. lampo- 

 carpus : occasionally small feeble plants of the latter, with very few clusters of flowers, are named J. nigri- 

 tellus, but perhaps more usually this alleged species is represented by detached shoots or branches of J. lam- 

 pocarpus, produced by the flower-stalk being trodden down by cattle or laid prostrate by wet weather ; various 

 changes are thus made in its inflorescence ; one of the variations being seen in the production of roots at the 

 joints of the stem, and the shooting up of secondary branches, terminated by a few clusters of flowers. As 

 the old stem decays, these branches, being rooted at the base, become distinct plants and are gathered as 

 J. nigritellus, as was shown by specimens on the table. It was Mr. Watson's opinion that several of our 

 alleged species are in fact only extreme forms of some one or two other species . In speaking of one alleged 

 species being the extreme forms of two other species, he meant that the varieties of the two might be so much 

 alike as to be combined into a third supposed species by those botanical writers who describe plants from 

 dried specimens, and also do not supply then- herbaria with series of specimens sufficient to illustrate the 

 range of variation for each species. 



A letter was read from Mr James Eich, of Mahon, giving an account of a botanical excursion made by 

 him to Majorca. Mr. R. having left Mahon in the latter part of April, reached Palma after a sail of four 

 days, from whence he proceeded to Valldemosa, about eight miles distant, which Mr. E. remarks is " a place 

 of extreme beauty amongst the mountains ; in some places the rocks rise to an immense height, almost per- 

 pendicularly fi-om the road, with their grey-looking solitaiy peaks generally buried in clouds. At their bases 

 the luxuriance of the vegetation is unmatchable, but as you look higher up you see nothing but a stunted 

 oak or a pine (Q,uercus Ilex and Pinus halepensis), gi-owing as it were out of the solid rock." The following 

 plants are a portion of those collected by Mr. E. for the Society's collection, viz. — Punica gi-anatum, Aspho- 

 delus ramosus and fistulosus, Lonicera inflexa. Iris sisyrinchium, Hypericum Balearicum, Delphinium sta- 

 physagi-ia, Ceterach officinarum, Sedum altininum. Salvia clandestina. Origanum majoricum. Thymus fili- 

 formis, Verbascum sinuatum, and a number of others which, although common to England, are exceedingly 

 interesting in a geographical point of view. Mr. E.'s next journey was to SoUer, about fifteen mUes distant 

 from Palma, and three miles from the sea, the details of which he has promised to give in his next letter, and 

 concludes the present vrith a list of species added to his former collection, amongst which we observed Althsea 

 hirsuta, Lavendula spicata and dentata, Bellis annua, Tragacanthus poteiium, Hedysarum spinosissimum, 

 Psoralea bituminosa, Cytisus spinosa and argenteus, Anchusa angustifoha, and Anagallis phtenicea ; most 

 of which were collected on the road from Valldemosa to SoUer, near the base of the mountains, some of which 

 rise to an altitude of near 5000 feet above the sea. — T. S. 



