404 THIRSK NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. [April, 



THIKSK NATURAL HISTOEY SOCIETY. 

 Botanical Exchange Club. - 



The monthly meeting of the Thirsk Natural History Society 

 was held on the evening of Wednesday, the 3rd of March. Mrs. 

 Alban Atwood, of Knayton, N. Yorks., was duly enrolled as a 

 member of the Botanical Exchange Club. 



Mr, J. G. Baker read the paper of Mr. Babington on the 

 Gormire Epilobium, given in the March number of the ' Phyto- 

 logist/ and furnished the following further notice of the plant : — 



"I am very glad that Mr. Babington has taken in hand the 

 Gormire Epilobium, and must apologize for omitting in my 

 former note upon it (Phyt. n. s. ii. 18) to make mention of his 

 paper in the ' Annals/ which indeed I have not had the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing, and only knew through the notice of it which 

 occurs in the last edition of his ' Manual/ where no allusion is 

 made to the Gormire plant. 



" The hypothesis of the hybrid origin of the plant I have no 

 doubt he would abandon as untenable if once he saw the station. 

 If that theory were correct, one might expect to find only a few 

 stems of ligulatum scattered amongst a profusion of obscurum 

 and palustre. The facts of the case are, that ligulatum grows 

 for some distance along the shore of the lake in that degree of 

 plenty that I have at different times brought away a moderate-, 

 sized vasculum-full without incurring any risk of damaging the 

 locality, and that neither obscurum nor palustre occur there at all. 



'^ With the theory of hybridity, the idea of two forms, one pro- 

 duced by the action of the pollen of E. obscurum, the other by 

 that of E. palustre, of course falls to the ground. I cannot say 

 that I have ever been able to recognize two different forms of the 

 plant, or to trace between different individual specimens of it any 

 further variation than might fairly be attributed to difference of 

 season and situation. The little lake is almost entirely supphed 

 by rain, and drained by evaporation, and is, consequently, sub- 

 ject to considerable variation of level, so that the plant, as is "the 

 case more or less with almost all plants of damp places, leads a 

 life of hygrometric vicissitude. The leaves vary in width, the lines 

 of the stem in prominence, the nod of the buds in decision ; but 



