719 



its sides nearly parallel in the lower part, lobes nearly flat with a ivavy midrib, indusi- 

 um ^entire.' A. spinulosum (Sm.). Small forms of this are often called A. dumetorum. 

 I am in doubt if these plants are distinct species or varieties, but require a more per- 

 fect knowledge of them than I now possess. It appears that the A. spinulosum (Willd.) 

 is a different plant, having ' glandulose bristles ' on its indusium ; if therefore Smith's 

 plant proves distinct it will require a new name, and I would suggest Smilhii as high- 

 ly appropriate." — p. 386. 



It appears to me that this view of the case is untenable, and I am the 

 more inclined to dissent from it, because Mr. Babington has, I fear, 

 been misled by some previously published observations of mine. — 

 Smith emphatically states that the frond of his Aspidium spinulosum 

 is " triangular or deltoid;" it is thus figured in the 'English Botany,' 

 (t. 1460); the authentic specimen in his herbarium has this form; and 

 all the evidence arising from Smith's description, figure and specimen, 

 convince me that a small frond of the plant we call Lastraea dilatata, 

 was and is Smith's Aspidium spinulosum. Mr. Babington's linearis 

 appears to me to be the Polypodium spinulosum of Withering, found 

 in " bogs on Birmingham heath ; " it is also the plant described by 

 myself as "the linear type, erect, rigid, pale sickly green, lateral mar- 

 gins of the frond nearly linear, &c." This term (linear), apparently 

 adopted by Mr. Babington [linearis), is I believe the only distinguish- 

 ing epithet the plant ever received. Sir J. E. Smith's part in the trans- 

 action appears to have been to misunderstand Withering, and that, 

 surely, does not entitle him to the proposed honour. Had Mr. Babing- 

 ton proposed to call the plant Lastraea Witheringii, as a compliment to 

 the original describer, no objection could have been raised ; but in 

 the present instance the proposed honour appears to me to be misap- 

 plied, and I hope Mr. Babington will allow the plant, if raised to the 

 rank of a species, to bear the name of linearis, as it certainly has no 

 claim to that oi Smithii, or even to that oi spinulosa. — Edward New- 

 man ; Hanover Street, Peckham, August 24, 1843. 



Art. CLXVI. — Proceedings of Societies. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



August 4, 1843. — J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S., &c.. President, in the chair. 



Read, " Observarions on a variety of Rosa sarmentacea, Woods (found near Bridge- 

 water by Mr. Clarke)," by Edwin Lees, Esq., F.L.S. 



Mr. L. had known this variety for some years ; and though there is considerable 

 difference in the more or less deeply cut serratures of the foliage, he had always found 

 the calyx to be fringed with stalked glands, as well as the flower-stalks. The tube is 

 generally but sparingly so, or even naked. It is abundantly covered with glands in 

 this variety. In some manuscript observations on the species, made in 1836, Mr. L. 



