757 



Spinulose Section of Laslreas. 



The President read the following note, from Mr. Lloyd, dated Octo- 

 ber 15, 1852 :— 



" In a former number (Phytol. iv. 22) I gav^e my opinion upon Las- 

 trea uliginosa ; and I never intended to offer any further observations 

 upon the subject until I read Mr. Moore's proposition to unite it with 

 L. cristata and L, spinosa. Now, L. uliginosa, as Mr. Moore truly 

 observes, and as I believe almost all botanists admit, is quite inter- 

 mediate between those two species, and might, I think, without any 

 great violence to Nature, be joined to either of them, were not the 

 other present ; but joining all three together is quite a different affair, 

 especially when we consider them as a part of a most regular grada- 

 tion of forms, from the pinnate frond and pinnatifid pinnaB of L. 

 Goldiana to the highly compound L. multiflora or L. dilatata. 



" The plant which immediately follows L. Goldiana is the North- 

 American form of L. cristata ; and it differs but very little from L. 

 Goldiana, except that it is a little more divided, and may be called 

 sub-bipinnate. It is about half as large again in all its parts as the 

 British form, is a fortnight earlier in its vernation, and is as interme- 

 diate between it and L. Goldiana as L. uliginosa is between it and L. 

 spinosa. It is the North-American, and not the British, form which 

 is exhibited at the flower-shows. I shall make only one remark upon 

 L. uliginosa, viz., that it is much larger tlian either L. spinosa or the 

 English form of L. cristata, and about the size of the North-American 

 form. I shall pass over L. spinosa ; it is well known : but there is 

 a plant, the next in the series, and one that has been much over- 

 looked, which is intermediate between L. spinosa and the smaller L. 

 multiflora or L. dilatata, and forms a connecting link between the 

 glandulose and the eglandulose part of the section. Of the forms of 

 L. multiflora or L. dilatata (if we except Mr. Newman's L. glandu- 

 losa) I never could make more than two ; one with fronds about two 

 feet long, and a very prolific caudex ; and the other with fronds four 

 to five or even six feet long, and an arborescent, upright caudex, 

 which seldom throws out any lateral crowns ; and this plant, I am of 

 opinion, is the Polypodium spinosum of old authors ; and at a future 

 time I shall give my reason for thinking it so." 



Cowslip in Flower in Octoher. 



The President read the following note, from Mr. A. W. Bennett, 

 dated Brockham Lodge, October 16, 1852 : — 



