422 BELGIAN BOTANY. [February, 



Trifolium maritimum, Lotus tenuifolius, (Enanthe pence danifolia, 

 Torilis nodosa, Senecio eruccefolius. Lastly, on the lower parts 

 of the channel we gathered Artemisia maritima and Halimus 

 portulacoides. 



Our boxes overflowing with botanical spoil, we re-entered 

 Nieuport at half-past twelve. At two o'clock the grand meeting 

 was to take place, to which the editor of the ' Stad Nieuport ' 

 had invited all the notabilities of the town, by means of an adver- 

 tisement. The great room of the town-hall had been placed at 

 the disposal of the Society, and on our entry we found it nearly 

 filled. The officers of the garrison with the most influential re- 

 sidents were there, and I hope that they had as much pleasure 

 as we had interest in hearing different points of cryptogamy and 

 phanerogamy discussed. Well-bred, charitable auditors will be 

 gratified by the homage they pay to science, and by the coun- 

 tenance they give to its cultivators, even although they may be 

 no great adepts in the mysteries of structural, physiological, and 

 systematic botany. 



The meeting was opened by a discourse from the President, 

 about Dodoens' influence on botany in the sixteenth century, 

 and on the merits of the remarkable works of L'Obel and Clusius, 

 two other learned Belgians. Curiously enough, a descendant of 

 this last-named botanist assisted at the meeting, in the person of 

 M. De Lescluse, an inhabitant of Nieuport. M. Coemans read 

 a very interesting paper on cryptogamy, and M. Crepin's turn 

 came twice to read different notices. M. Bommer, who has the 

 care of the Society's collections, gave an account of his observa- 

 tions on the use of scales of Ferns. 



The meeting terminated, as a matter of course, by speeches ; 

 could it be otherwise ? Nothing can prosper nowadays without 

 the accompaniments of oratory, music, and good dinners ; and as 

 it is the common-sense and genial way of doing things, we hope 

 our readers will bottle up any sour remarks about the incompa- 

 tibleness of scientific discussion with social enjoyment, and be 

 content to applaud, or at least not to condemn. 



The evening of that day saw us again reunited at the Hotel de 

 I'Esperance. There were nearly thirty of us at the dinner-table, 

 and like the day before, the most perfect cordiality reigned among 

 us all, young and old. 



Having arisen early to arrange our plants of the day before, 



