875 



satisfactory evidence that such a plant did formerly exist. Sprengel, 

 in his work on the Cryptogamia (Koenig's translation) thus character- 

 izes the species. AsiyicUumfragrans. With bipinnate frond, the pri- 

 mary leaflets ovate-lanceolate, the secondary very narrow, sharp- 

 toothed, and their lower surface thickly clothed with scales, and with 

 the involucres of the spots of the capsules. The stem about one foot 

 long is closely beset with broad chaffy scales. Now Sprengel was 

 acquainted with this species from specimens, which he states he re- 

 ceived from Alton, who observed it was a native of England. A plant 

 answering to the description did then exist at the time, and most pro- 

 bably in the Kew garden, although it is not introduced into the ' Hor- 

 tus Kewensis.' Sprengel could not have confounded this fern with 

 Aspidium (Lastraea) rigidum, which he describes in the work from 

 which this description is taken, and much less with Aspidium Oreop- 

 teris, for he expressly censures Bolton for considering Hudson's P. 

 fragrans as identical with his (Bolton's) Polypodium Thelypteris (Asp. 

 Oreopteris). The last species smells exactly like orange-peel, whilst 

 Sprengel's Asp. fragi'ans is stated to smell like raspberries, and to be 

 a Siberian as well as British species. — Henry Oxley Stephens ; 78, 

 Old Market Street, Bristol, January 12, 1844. 



446. Note on Cystopteris montana. Cystopteris montana, recently 

 described in ' The Phytologist ' as a newly-discovered British plant, 

 (Phytol. 671), is stated by Sprengel to have been found in Wales by 

 Plukenet, who figured it in his ' Phytographia,' tab. 89, fig. 4, but I 

 have not seen the figure. — Id. 



Art. CXCVIT. — Proceedings of Societies. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



November 17, 1843. — J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S., President, in tlie Chair. 



Dr. Broinfield presented a specimen of a species of Calamintha, new to the British 

 Flora, discovered by him in the Isle of Wight, (Phytol. 768). 



Read " Notes of a Botanical Excursion in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Wales, 

 and Ireland," hy Mr. S. P. Woodward. The first week, spent by Mr. Woodward in 

 Worcestershire, afforded him very little scope for botanizing, the interest of the coun- 

 try being chiefly geological. The only ferns met with near Birmingham, were Athy- 

 rium Filix-femina and Lastraea dilatata, on the borders of Edgbaston pond ; and in 

 the vicinity of Kiddeiminster Mr. W. could not find even these. On the Clint hills 

 Malva moschata and Campanula patula were the only conspicuous flowers in the hedge- 

 rows. These hills are of trap rock, but as they present no escarpments, and have no 

 rills or ponds, they are entirely destitute of ferns. The limestone hills of Dudley-cas- 

 tle and the Wren's nest, appear to be in the same predicament, not even the Polypody 

 grows there, and on the old castle one solitary bit of Ruta-muraria was all Mr. W. 

 could discover : Cuicus eriophorus is very abundant about the castle. Lastraea dila- 



