72 Botanical Society of Ediiiburgh. 



with a soft down, but the animal's health did not seem at aU aiFected, 

 and he believed it was still alive ; nor was the affection communi- 

 cated to other fishes which were put for some time in the same 

 vessel with it. Mr. Bennet also stated the result of some micro- 

 scopical obsen'ations made by him on Mr. Goodsir's fish, chiefly with 

 reference to the condition of the animal under the invasion of its 

 vegetable foe. 



4. Remarks on the affinities subsisting among Viola lutea, ai'vensis, 

 and tricolor, by Alexander Seton, Esq., of Mounie. — Mr. Seton says, 

 that not having been able to discover any definite or permanent di- 

 stinction between the plants which had been termed V. lutea and 

 tricolor, his attention was directed to their comparative appearance 

 and habits in native situations ; and having found all gradations of 

 form, colour, and habits between the extreme characters of the per- 

 ennial plant called lutea and the annual called tricolor, he had 

 come to the conclusion that thej^ are originally from the same stock 

 or species. As to the form of the stipules, and the different degrees 

 of ramification or divarication in the stem, which Smith, Hooker, 

 and other writers have adopted as distinguishing marks, they are so 

 varying as to be totally unsuitable for that purpose. On the other 

 hand, the Viola, which has been by some termed V. arvensis, but 

 has for the most part been considered as a variety of V. tricolor, is 

 so different, and so constant in its general character, that he is in- 

 clined to consider it a separate species, though in most particulars 

 extremel}^ similar. It is completely annual, and he has never found 

 it with that multiplicity of stems arising from a .^^preading root and 

 radicating at their base, which are usual with the two others when 

 they have remained for any length of time undisturbed. It is also 

 taller and more succulent in the herbage than V. tricolor, even 

 when the latter is in a rich and congenial soil ; and it maintains its 

 characteristics when propagated by the seeds, without those grada- 

 tions of variety which obliterate distinctions of species ; for having 

 observed it growing in corn-fields and by way-sides along with 

 V. tricolor, not only in this kingdom, but also in France, Italy, and 

 Germany, (in all of which countries both species are common,) he 

 uniformly found it retaining its own peculiarities, unblended with 

 those of its congener. But though the habits and general appear- 

 ance of the plants are considerably different, yet their various parts 

 are so much alike, that he is unable to find any other descriptive di- 

 stinction than the proportion between the caljTc and corolla. Mr. 

 Seton also notices some remarkable variations in form and habit, 

 obviously arising from soil or locality, in several other plants, such 

 as Trifolium pratense, Plantago lanceolata, &c. 



5. Notice respecting some late Additions to the Flora of Jersey, by 

 Joseph Dickson, Corresponding Secretary. — The chief interest of this 

 paper consisted, as in the case of No. 2, in the contrast afforded with 

 the vegetation of other parts of Britain ; and the author promised 

 to take an early opportunity of extending his observations on this 

 subject. 



