910 



November 21. ^E. Forster, Esq., V.P., in the chair. 



Read the conclusion of Mr. Griffith's * Analysis of Rhizantheae,' 

 and his 'Description of Sapria, a Himalayan genus related to Rafflesia.' 



December 5. — E. Forster, Esq., V.P., in the chair. 



Read, ' Observations on Cytineae, and on the genus Thottea of 

 Rottboll,' in continuation of Mr. Griffith's memoirs on Root-parasites. 



December 19. — E. Forster, Esq., Y.P., in the chair. 



Mr. J. T. Lay, Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, presented a box of 

 specimens of the Keih-seen-me, a species of Alga related to Nostoc, 

 and eaten as a delicacy among the Chinese. 



Read, a paper ' On Carex saxatilis (Z.), and an allied species,' by 

 Francis Boott, M.D., F.L.S. &c. 



The allied species was found in 1832, in Glen Phee, Clova, by the 

 party accompanying Dr. Graham on his annual botanical excursion 

 to the Highlands, and was considered a form of C. saxatilis, L. ; but 

 Dr. Boott's attention having been called to it by Mr. W, Wilson, 

 he has been led to regard it as a distinct species, and has named it 

 C. Grahami. The following characters are given : — 



Carex Grahami. Spikes 4 — 5, cylindrical, ferruginous; barren spikes 2 (rarely 1), 

 slender, acute ; fertile spikes 2 — 3, rather remote, stout, obtuse, the lower ones pe- 

 dunculated, without sheaths, somewhat nodding: stigmas 2: perigynium oblong-ovate, 

 inflated, nerved, somewhat erect, ferruginous (rarely straw-coloured), pale at the base, 

 twice the length of the glume, beak bifurcate ; glumes ovate, acute, brown, white at 

 the apex, with a pale nerve. 



Carex saxatilis. Spikes 2 — 3 blackish purple; barren spike 1 (rarely 2), cylindri- 

 cal, pedunculated ; fertile spikes 1 — 2, rounded or ovate, the lower one more or less 

 pedunculated, bracteated, without a sheath, erect: stigmas 2 — 3: perigynium some- 

 what globose or ovate, with a notched beak, stipitate, spreading, nerveless, blackish 

 purple, paler at the base, longer than the glume ; glumes ovate, rather obtuse, black- 

 ish purple, white at the apex, nerve concolorous. C. saxatilis, L. Fl. Lapp. 259 (1737). 

 C. puUa, Good, in Linn. Trans, iii. t. 14 (1795). Hab. Alpine districts of Scotland, 

 Norway, Lapland, Sweden, Iceland, and the Faroe Isles, 



The author critically examines the original authorities which show 

 the C. pulla of Goodenough to be identical with C. saxatilis, X.; he 

 also points out the origin of the confusion of the latter with C. rigida. 

 Good. The characters distinguishing C. Grahami and C. saxatilis are 

 then more minutely examined, and the author adds that he should not 

 doubt their specific distinctness, but for the observations of Drejer, 

 who, in his ' Revisio critica Caricum Borealium,' under the name of 

 C. pulla, ^.fuscay describes specimens from Iceland and Greenland 

 closely agreeing with C. Grahami, except that no mention is made of 

 the nerves of the perigynium, and remarks that the Greenland speci- 

 mens arc so very variable that they would scarcely be thought to be- 



