\)'Z Mr. C. C. Babington on Hj'pericum anglicum. 



myself understand how it has been formed, and cannot find any 

 one who can tell me, I have thought a notice of it might interest 

 some of your readers who may be better able to explain the 

 matter. 



Fig. 1 represents the outside, and fig. 2 the inside of the shell. 



It is obviously a single valve of some bivalve shell, not unlike 

 that of an Oyster, formed upon and partly made up by one 

 valve of a Pholas Candida. 



There is a faint muscular impression about the middle of the 

 concave part {a, fig. 1), and the hinge appears to be represented 

 by a triangular depression, immediately within the beak {b, fig. 2) . 



The whole shell is of a light brownish colour, and the inner 

 surface is perfectly smooth and continuous throughout. The 

 outer surface of the Pholas valve is covered by a thin transparent 

 coating — like varnish — of shelly matter, through which the 

 worn (?) surface of the original valve is plainly seen. 

 I am, Gentlemen, yours obediently, 



George Busk. 



IX. — On Hj'pericum anglicum. By Charles C. Babington, 

 M.A., F.R.S. &c.* 



Since the publication of my remarks upon the supposed Hype- 

 ricum anglicum, found near Cork by Dr. Balfour (Ann. and Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. Ser. 2. xi. 360 ; Edin. But. Soc. Trans, iv. 169), I 

 have received additional information concerning it, and have also 

 been favoured with a specimen of an Hypericum gathered upon 

 the cliffs above Falmouth harbour in Cornwall, which agrees 

 very exactly with Bertoloni's description of his H. anglicum. It 

 appears thei'cfore proper to publish the results of the further 

 study which I have been led to give to the subject, more espe- 

 cially as my opinion has undergone a change. 



In my former paper it was stated to be doubtful if the plant 

 there called H. anglicum ought to be separated specifically from 

 H. hircinum, and I am now strongly disposed to believe that they 

 are indeed one species. At the time of that publication I had 

 been led to suppose, that the plant found near Cork was wild 

 there ; but am now informed by Mr. Isaac Carroll of that city, 

 that the station noticed by Dr. Balfour closely adjoins, and, in- 

 deed, one side of it forms the " boundary of Lota Wood, whence 

 many half-naturalized species have been recorded by Dennis 

 Murray, such as Geranium plicmm, Atropa Belladonna, &c., 

 plants by no means native there ; and from this place," Mr. Car- 

 roll thinks that the Hypericum in question has migrated. It is 



* Read before the Edinburgh Botanical Societv, Dec. 14th, 1854. 



