651 



334. Asperugo procumbens a Kentish Plant. The cares and duties 

 of the day being finished, I strolled out, a few evenings since, in the 

 direction of the Abbey Wood, beyond Erith village, when after a 

 lengthened ramble in the neighbourhood of Plurastead, and towards 

 Plumstead church, I chanced to meet with a plant I had never before 

 seen, and had not hoped to find in this county, namely, the extreme- 

 ly scarce and interesting Asperugo procumbens, Linn. It occurs 

 sparingly in one or two places in a narrow bushy lane, part of the 

 foot-way leading from the marshes at the Thames-side to Plumstead 

 church-yard. The plant appeared to have been somewhat injured — 

 probably through the late almost incessant rains — but was in other 

 respects very luxuriant and beautiful, Irvine, in his ' London Flora,' 

 mentions the Asperugo as having been found in Essex, but, if I re- 

 member rightly, does not give any recently verified habitat for it. 

 This notice is sent for publication in ' The Phytologist,' simply fi-om 

 a sincere desire to add an humble mite of information to the general 

 record already contained in the pages of that most useful periodical ; 

 and therefore I should be exceedingly sorry to find that my having 

 done so should lead to the eradication of this rare plant, in what I 

 believe to be its only known station in Kent. The Aspeiiigo is fra- 

 gile and delicate, and, like its congeners, Lycopsis, Lithospermum, 

 and other Boragineae, loses its beauty sadly in drying. — Edward Ed- 

 wards ; Bexley Heathy Kent, June 22, 1843. 



Art. CLV. — Proceedings of Societies. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



May n, 1843. — Dr. Neill, President, in the chair. John Kirk, Esq., was elected 

 a resident fellow. Mr. Brand read a communication from Dr. Joseph Dickson of St. 

 Helier's, Jersey, respecting some recent discoveries in the Flora of that island. 



Dr. Neill communicated an interesting letter from Mr. Brackenridge, who was at 

 one time a journeyman in the experimental garden here, and now holds the post of 

 Iwtanical curator at Washington. We insert full excerpts from his letter, the more 

 readily, that his successful career may encourage others of his profession to similar ex- 

 ertions. Mr. Brackenridge writes :~" I spent the first fourteen months in the United 

 States veiy much to my satisfaction, as foreman to Mr. Buist, who has one of the lar- 

 gest plant establishments in America. When the South Sea expedition was oro-anised 

 I was induced by Mr. Poinsette, the Secretary of War, to accompany it in the capaci- 

 ty of Assistant-botanist and Horticulturist. The voyage lasted nearly four years, and 

 my compensation during the last three years was 1200 dollars per annum. The squad- 

 ron (under the command of Lieutenant Wilkes) on its way out touched at Madeira, 

 the whole of which we scoured. I ascended the Peak of Ruivc (0246 feet high) almosL 



