1859.] THlllSK NATURAL HTSTOllY SOCIETY. 151 



rank poison, is reported to prevail mightily against the bitings 

 of serpents and vipers j so have I seen some persons who when 

 they have burned their fingers to go and burn them again to 

 fetch out the fire; and why may not one poyson fetch out 

 another, as well as fire fetch out fire ? and that Nightshade, which 

 carries death in its very name, prevents death by procuring sleep, 

 if it be rightly applied to a fever.^^ S. B. 



THIESK NATUEAL HISTOEY SOCIETY. 

 Botanical Exchange Club. 



The monthly meeting of the Thirsk Natural History Society 

 was held on the evening of Friday, the 8th of April. Mr. J. G. 

 Baker communicated the following notices : — 



Barbarea intermedia, Boreau. — With reference to this plant, 

 M. Crepin, of Rochefort, writes : — ' This species has been misun- 

 derstood in Belgium as in England, and generally taken for B. 

 prcscox. It is six years since I recognized the identity of the 

 plant of our country with that of the centre of France.^ 



" Salix midulata, Ehrh. — This species was figured in 'English 

 Botany^ and takes its place in our Floras and catalogues amongst 

 the naturalized Britons, on faith of its occurrence in osier-grounds 

 near Lewes, in Sussex. It is nearest S. triandra, which it resem- 

 bles closely in general appearance and habit of growth, but it 

 may be readily known from that species by its villose scales and 

 elongated styles. For several years I have had in my collection 

 a specimen with leaves and hermaphrodite catkins, collected by 

 the Rev. W. H. Purchas, on the banks of the Wye, near Ross, in 

 Herefordshire, where he states that it occurs in tolerable plenty. 

 During the early part of last summer I met with it in consider- 

 able abundance by the side of the river Wharfe, between Burley 

 and Otley, in West Yorkshire. Both the plants of Herefordshire 

 and Yorkshire belong to the form with villose ovaries, which is 

 that which is common on the Continent, and was originally de- 

 scribed by Ehrhart (that figured by Smith under the name of 

 lanceolata has the ovaries glabrous) . By Wimmer, S. undulata 

 is regarded as a hybrid between triandra and viminalis, but this 

 hypothesis cannot be regarded as tenable ; for, as pointed out by 



