1067 



it seems to me that the so-called " ignobile vulgus" show an exam- 

 ple to " the profession : " they find the buckbeans, torraentils, and 

 gentians, which grow in all their moors, equally serviceable, as astrin- 

 gents and tonics, with the Catechus, Kinos, and Quassias of distant 

 lands. It is to be hoped that now, however, medical men, no less 

 than botanists, will see floral treasures in every roadside of our own 

 country. 



Wm. L. Lindsay. 



Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, 

 July 29, 1853. 



Proceedings of Societies, Sjc. 



The Phytologist Club. 



One Hundred and Forty-eighth Sitting. — Saturday, August 27, 

 1853. — Mr. Newman, President, in the chair. 



The President read the following communication : — 



Monstrosity of Medicago maculata. 



" Mr. Sprague, Fellow of St. John's College, has placed in my 

 hands a monstrosity of Medicago maculata, gathered by him, on 

 August 8, near Cambridge. It consists in a change of the usual coch- 

 leated and spinous pod of that plant into one of a falcate shape, and 

 quite unarmed. These pods are about three quarters of an inch long, 

 linear, but narrowing gradually at the end into a subulate beak. 

 They are laterally compressed, have many ovules, and are curved 

 backwards so as to form a segment of a circle of greater or less extent. 



" As some proof is requisite that a plant producing such very diffe- 

 rent pods is really a state of M. maculata, it is a fortunate circum- 

 stance that, in one instance, a single pod of the proper shape and 

 structure belonging to that species is attached to the specimen. It 

 seems to have been one of the first pods produced by the plant, as it 

 is nearly, or quite, ripe, and placed near to the bottom of the stem." 

 — Charles C. Bahington ; August 10, 1853. 



