1859.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 157 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



The publication of the following is particularly requested, — 

 A New British Fern. 

 {To the Edito?- of the ' Phytologist.') 



During last summer, whilst on a visit to Mrs. , for the pm-pose of 



seeing her Ferns, which were collected in Scotland in the summer of 1856, 

 I immediately detected one new to my eyes as British, and which she 

 thought was a beautiful variety of BlecJmum spicans {Spicant), but which I 

 informed her was B. alpinum (Lomaria alpina), and hitherto not found 

 north of the Equator. I at once thought there must be some mistake, and 

 that, unknown to her, the British and other Ferns had got mixed. But 



Mrs. soon dispelled all my doubts, by telling me the exact spot in 



which, she found it, and only took it up because she thought it a beautiful 

 variety of B. spicans {Spicant). Neither the gardener who had potted all 

 the Ferns, nor herself, knew anything of B. alpinum until I made it 

 known to them. However, my sceptical manner on the following day, 

 brought a letter, of which I give an extract : — 



" I cannot resist the satisfaction of telling you, that my husband con- 

 firms aU I told you about the ambiguous Feni ; he is certain that it is the 



Fern I gathered about a mUe from , on a wall running alongside a 



nishing mountain- stream. I was charmed with it, or rather with myself 

 for discovering anything so imlike what I had ever seen, that I can re- 

 m'ember the spot ; and the Fern so exactly comes up before my mind's eye 

 as this identical Fern, that I cannot yet quite submit to thinking that it 

 cannot be, even though you say it." 



Bleclmum alphium, found in the crevices of an old stone wall, by the 

 side of a mountain-torrent, not far from Loch Tay, Perthshire, Scotland, 

 June, 1856. Geo. B. Wollaston. 



Doubts of its Origin. — 1. Why only a solitary plant ? 2. Can it have 

 been planted ? 3. Has a mistake been made ? 



Chiselhv/rst, Dec. 6, 1858. \ 



Allium at Southend. 



About three years since, when at Southend, I found, just beyond the 

 village, on the left-hand, amongst the grass and bushes, in many places, a 

 species of Allium. I brought home several specimens, but accidentally 

 forgetting them, when I went to the case nothing was to be distinguished 

 but the bulbs ; these I planted, but they never made their appearance. 

 Do you know what species it is ? [Possibly Mr. Salmon, or some Southend 

 botanist, could tell us which Allium the above is. Several years ago, Mr. 

 Syme saw one in an inaccessible place below Gravesend, which he conjec- 

 tured was A. oleraceum.'] 



POTENTILLA OPACA? 



Mr. Sim, of Perth, the valued and indefatigable correspondent of the 



