985 



shoots of the preceding year, and do not flower ; also, there spring 

 from the other axils of these old prostrate parts of the plant, short 

 erect or ascending shoots, which form a linear series, and each of 

 which terminates in a capitate spike, consisting of a very few whorls, 

 and which die back to the base after the seed has fallen. The grow- 

 ing shoot is perennial, but the flowering shoot is annual. In T. 

 Chamaedrys, there is no such manifest separation between the flower- 

 ing and growing shoots. The terminal bud often produces the strong- 

 est shoot, which itself ends in flowers, differing thus from the terminal 

 shoot of T. Serpyllum, which always produces a flowerless shoot. It 

 w:ants the regularity of T. Serpyllum, and presents a dense, irregular, 

 mass of leafy shoots and flowers intermixed. The two species are 

 thus characterized : — 



Thymus Serpyllum, L. Stem prostrate, creeping ; leaves oblong 

 or lanceolate, narrowed into the flat, fringed stalk ; floral leaves 

 similar ; flowering shoots ascending ; flowers capitate ; upper 

 lip of calyx with 3 short, triangular teeth ; lower lip of 2 subu- 

 late teeth ; upper lip of the corolla oblong. 



Thymus Chamadrys, L. Stem similar, diff"use, ascending, bi- or 

 quadrifariously hairy ; leaves broadly ovate, with a flat, winged 

 stalk ; flowers whorled and capitate ; upper lip of the calyx 

 with three triangular teeth ; lower lip of 2 subulate teeth 3 

 upper lip of the corolla semicircular. 



Tour in the Hartz Mountains. 



The first part of a paper intituled ' Notes of a Tour in the Hartz 

 Mountains,' by W. L. Lindsay, M.D., was read. 



The author stated that, with the intention of making a pedestrian 

 tour, for mineralogical and botanical purposes, through the Hartz 

 mountains, he left Holstein (where he had been residing a feyf weeks, 

 engaged chiefly in botanical and geological excursions) on the 23rd 

 of August, 1850, crossing the Elbe, from Hamburg to Haarburg (in 

 the kingdom of Hanover), and proceeding next morning, by rail, to 

 Brunswick and Hartzburg, at the foot of the Brocken. On the even- 

 ing of the 23rd he made the ascent of the Brocken, the weather being 

 very wet, misty, and cold, and passed the night in the ' Brocken-haus,' 

 a rude hotel, perched on the summit of the mountain, at an elevation 

 of 3500 feet above the sea. " The districts of Hanover and Bruns- 

 wick, which are part of the great North-German plain, consist, in 

 great measure, of a series of sand-dunes and sandy heaths, marshes 



