971 



the pleasure of adding to the Worcestershire Flora, L. latifolium, 

 which I found close to the I'iver Salwarp, where it is crossed by the 

 Wolverhampton Railway, near Droitwich. I first saw some patches 

 of it on the recently-formed railway embankment ; but on further 

 examination I detected some old plants in a muddy place by the 

 river-side, where, perhaps, they have been growing secluded and 

 unnoticed for a long time. L. latifolium is not quite unknown in this 

 western part of the island; for I met with it last July, in some quan- 

 tity, near Britton Ferry, in Glamorganshire, where it has been observed 

 for years. But I am not aware of its having been recorded as an 

 inland plant ; and it is further interesting as another addition to the 

 score of salt-marsh plants which now flourish in the Salwarp Valley, 

 perhaps the relics of an acient marine vegetation, as Professor Buck- 

 man suggests in his ' Ancient Straits of Malvern.'" — J.H. Thompson, 

 B.A. ; St. Nicholas, Worcester, May 4, 1853. 



Epilohium virgatum. 



" Mr. Syme having intimated his belief (Phytol. iv. 933) that the 

 plant sent by me to the Botanical Society as Epilobium virgatum 

 should rather have been labelled E. Lamyi, it may perhaps be 

 satisfactory to the members to know that I used that nfime on Mr. 

 Babington's authority, having submitted specimens of the Here- 

 fordshire plant to him. It is thus undoubtedly the E. virgatum of 

 the ' Manual,' and, as it appears to me, of continental botanists also ; 

 seeing that E. Lamyi is stated by Godron, in the ' Flore de France,' 

 to have no stolons ; while in many of the examples I sent to the 

 Society they are three or four inches long, as is stated to be the case 

 in E. virgatum. I have a specimen with broad-based, decurrent 

 leaves, and no stolons, gathered in Kincardineshire, by Mr. Syme, in 

 1850, and sent to me by the Botanical Society, as E. virgatum. This 

 specimen Mr. Babington pronounced E. tetragonum ; and if it is 

 identical with the Scotch plant spoken of by Mr. Syme, the cause of 

 our difierent nomenclature is at once apparent. Mr. Babington's E. 

 tetragonum is so scarce in this neighbourhood, that I have not been 

 able to study it suflSciently to warrant me in expressing any opinion 

 as to the constancy of its differences from E. virgatum." — W. H. Pur- 

 chas ; Koss, May 21, 1853. 



Remarks upon Polystichum aculeatum. 



" A very general opinion prevails that Polystichum angulare and P. 

 Lonchitis are connected together by a series of forms of P. aculeatum, 



