Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 213 



out the chief differences between this plant and Bunium flexuosum, 

 Sra. {denudatiim, DcC), with which it appears, by EngHsh authors, 

 to have been confounded. Specimens gathered in July last, be- 

 tween Dunstable and Barton, and others from near Baldock, were 

 exhibited. 



2. Notes on Physospermum cornubiense, and an account of its dis- 

 covery near Tavistock, in Devonshire, by the Rev. W. S. Hore, 

 Stoke, Devonport. Mr. Hore, in collecting this plant at Bodmin, 

 in Cornwall, its original and only known English locality, observed, 

 that it was chiefly in oak coppices that it seemed to be found. In 

 August last he noticed a single specimen of it in a hedge-row be- 

 tween Newbridge and Tavistock, and being induced to enter a neigh- 

 bouring oak coppice in search of it, he there found it in consider- 

 able abundance. The root, he observes, fits it admirably to contend 

 with the brambles and brushwood amongst which it grows. 



3. Notice of a curious variety of Scolopendrium vulgar e, found 

 near Arbroath, by Mr. W. C. Trevelyan. Specimens were pre- 

 sented having the midrib prolonged in a remarkable manner nearly 

 an inch beyond the termination of the frond. 



4. An attempt to ascertain the true Hypericum quadrangulum of 

 Linnseus, by Mr. Charles C. Babington. Mr. Babington was led 

 to make the j^resent inquiry in consequence of specimens collected 

 by the Rev. T. B. Bell, in Arran, having been distributed by the 

 Botanical Society, named Hypericum dubium, which appeared differ- 

 ent from the English plant so called. Much confusion has arisen 

 regarding this species, from its appearing from the Linnsean Her- 

 barium that two species have been included by Linnseus under the 

 name of quadrangulum, viz. H. dubium of Leers, and H. quadrangu- 

 lum of Smith. Mr. Babington, after a careful examination of speci- 

 mens and reference to numerous authorities, proposed that the fol- 

 lowing names should be adopted: — 1. H. quadrangulum, Linn. 

 (Hort. Cliff.); EngUsh Bot., tab. 370, &c., being the plant named 

 H. tetrapterum by Mr. Babington in his Primitia Florce Sarnicce, 

 and in Leighton's Flora of Shropshire. 2. H. dubium, Leers ; En- 

 gUsh Bot., tab. 296, &c., being the plant from Arran before alluded 

 to. 3. H. maculatum, Crantz (Flora Austr. ed. alt.), being the H. 

 delphinense of Villar's Fl. Delph. ; //. quadrangulum of Leighton's 

 Flora of Shropshire, and the plant usually considered //. dubium by 

 English botanists. 



5. On the Geographical Distribution of British Ferns, by Mr. 

 Hewett Cottrell Watson. In the outset of this paper Mr. Watson 

 remarks that, " excepting some spots of small extent, whence they 

 are banished by local peculiarities of surface. Ferns may be said 

 to range over the whole of Britain, from south to north, from east 

 to west, and from the shores of the sea almost to the summits of 

 the loftiest mountains ; from which latter situation they are proba- 

 bly absent rather in consequence of the bleak exposure to wind, 

 than of the diminished temperature incidental to the height of 

 any of our mountains." Assuming 40 as the medium number of 

 the species of British Ferns, and 1400 as that of the Flowering 

 Plants, it appears that 1 to 35 is the proportion which the former 



