1003 



sent me was a wild one, and agreed in every way with Sir J. E. Smith's 

 description in ' English Flora.' Its larger, stouter, and every way 

 fuller habit, being apparent at the first glance. C. alpina, Mr. Shep- 

 herd said was a Swiss specimen: it had been cultivated for some years 

 by him from plants sent him by Mr. Otto. Now though alpina was a 

 cultivated specimen, and had had full chance of becoming "vigorous" 

 in the gardens, and although regia was wild — " struggling," " we are 

 bound to suppose," for existence — in a place where it is most proba- 

 ble it is now extinct ; yet the latter is by a very great deal the stouter 

 of the two. Being but a novice in botanical research, and incapable 

 of forming an opinion on so difficult a matter, I have been induced to 

 refer the matter to you, hoping that after you have examined the en- 

 closed specimens, you will let me know the result in ' The Phytolo- 

 ^sV—^ James Lowe ; Twycross, April, 27, 1844. 



Art. CCXXI. — Proceedings of Societies. 



LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



February 20, 1844. — The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in 

 the chair. Read, a further portion of Mr. Griffith's memoir on Root- 

 parasites and their allies. 



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



Wm. Hopkins Milne, Esq., was elected a Fellow. 



Read, a paper " On Spiranthes gemmipara." By C. C. Babington, 

 Esq., M.A., F.L.S., G.S., &c. Two specimens of this very rare plant 

 were first found by Mr. James Drummond, in or about the year 1810, 

 near Castletown, Bearhaven, in the county of Cork, " opposite the 

 western redoubt, growing in a salt-marsh near the shore." One of 

 these was communicated to Sir J. E. Smith, who published it in his 

 ' English Flora' under the name of Neottia gemmipara, with a de- 

 scription furnished by Mr. Drummond. Within these few years the 

 plant has been again discovered near to, but probably not in exactly 

 the original spot, by Dr. P. A. Armstrong, who, on the 30th of Sep- 

 tember, 1843, conducted Mr. Babington and Mr. E. Winterbottom to 

 the station, where they saw about twelve specimens, several of which 

 had been destroyed by cattle, and all were in a rather advanced state 

 of flowering. Mr. Babington has given a detailed description of the 

 plant from the specimens then collected, and has subsequently iden- 

 tified it with specimens of Reichenbach's Spiranthes cernua, from N. 

 America, in Sir W. J. Hooker's herbarium. It differs in some parti- 

 culars from the other European species ; the most remarkable discre- 



