1863.] BOTANICAL NOTES^ NOTICES^ AND QUERIES. 415 



near its summit, and about the middle of the wood. Its discovery was 

 quite accidental and unexpected. His ol)ject that day (if I mistake not) 

 was chiefly collecting Mosses, and, in passing through the wood, his atten- 

 tion was arrested by its liandsoraely-cut foliage and pinkish-red blossoms ; 

 he collected two or three sprigs, and gave me one to compare with the 

 Rubi in my herbarium, but neither in my collection nor in his own had we 

 a similar species. The business was now — what Riibus is it? After much 

 searching and inquiry, we have determined it to be Rnbus lacbiiatus, not 

 recorded in any of our works on British botany, but not the less likely to 

 be a British plant, though unobserved hitherto by the compilers of our 

 British floras. Ill health has prevented me from visiting the locality, which 

 is just about a mile from my house, but I know the spot, and shall (D.V.) 

 visit it personally as soon as able. Mr. White says he observed about five ov 

 six thriving bushes (plants) of it ; the locality is about five hundred feet 

 elevated about the Tay. 1 do not wonder that it has never been dis- 

 covered here before, as the north side of the hill is quite uninteresting in a 

 botanical point of view; it is the sou'Ji side, from the summit downwards, 

 that contains the many rarities already recorded in the pages of this 

 Journal, from which J see that this Rubus has been already observed in 

 other parts of Great Britain. John Sim. 



Bridge End, Perth, October, 1862. 



Forms or Lasteea Filix-mas. 



Ft has been obvious to me for many years that some of the forms of 

 Ladrea FiUx-mas, now known only as varieties, are fully entitled to the 

 rank of species, and I would suggest to j^teridologists the following specific 

 names and characters as being appropriate : — 



Lastreu Filix-mas . . to be called L. Filix-mas. 

 'Yax'.'jj'n I I'/ir ('/■/, ]M. *~~~ ,, '"~~ L. p _seudo-vias, W, 

 var. (dihreviuta, MT" ,, L. proinnqiia, W. 



Diagnostics. — Lastrea Filix-mas. — Partly deciduo7is, lying pro- 

 strate in winter ; fronds lanceolate, bipinnate, attaining nearly five feet in 

 length ; pinnae elongate deltoid, pinnate, pinnulse oval, serrate, very 

 slightly uuricleJ^ the lowest pair being rather longer than the rest ; in- 

 dusiuin when young subpeltate (or like an inverted soup-plate), not em- 

 bracing the spore-cases, partially evanescent. 



Lastrea pseudo-mas (VV.).* — Snbevergreen, not prostrate in winter, 

 coriaceous ; fronds lanceolate, bipinnate, attaining full five feet in length ; 

 pinnae elongate, deltoid, or pyramidal, pinnate ; piunulaj paralleloid or 

 linear-obtuse, not anricled, serrulate, the first anterior and posterior pair 

 scarcely longer than the rest ; indusium when young embracing spove-cases, 

 persistent, subrotund, depressed. 



Lastrea propinuua (W.). — Z>mc?«o«5, subalpine ; fronds ovate lan- 

 ceolate, bipinnate, attaining but rarely four feet in length ; pinnae pinnate, 

 pyramidal, inciso-lobate ; pinnulse biserrulate, crisped, strongly auricled, 

 basal pair stipitate, much longer than the rest ; indusium embracing the 

 spore-cases. B. 



Chiselhiirst, October 2,1th, 1862. 



* See ' Phytologist,' new scries, vol. i. p. 172 ; remarks on name, spores, etc. ; 

 jnnnuLr nscfl instead of pinnules. " M.," Moore. "W.," Wollaston. 



