Tare PuyToLocicaL CLuB 
(In connexion with the Pharmaceutical Society.) 
November 7, 1853.—R. Bentley, Esq., President, in the chair. 
Donations to the herbarium were announced ; viz., parcels of Bri- 
tish plants from Messrs. Deane, Muskett, and Reynolds, of London ; 
Mr. A. W. Bennett, of Brockham ; Mr. Payne, of Bridgewater; Mr. 
Penney, of Swanage; Mr. O. Corder, of North Shields ; Mr. Morgan, 
of Liandilo ; Messrs. Baxter, Moss, Walker, Tovey, Houlton, Med- 
ley, and Gissing, of Worcester. 
Mr. T. Baxter, of Worcester, sent an account of his discovery, in 
August last, of Anacharis Alsinastrum in the Valley of the Severn ; 
which has already been recorded in the ‘ Phytologist’ (iv. 1101). 
Medical Property of Osmunda regalis. 
R. T. Bywater, Esq., M.R.C.S., of Coniston, communicated a note 
upon the popular use of Osmunda regalis. In Westmoreland, and 
also the adjoining division of Lancashire known as Lancashire North 
of the Sands, the rhizomes of Osmunda regalis are in high popular 
esteem as a remedial agent. The plant is vulgarly known under the 
name of “bog onion.” It is used in the following way, as an exter- 
nal application for bruises, sprains, &c. :—The rhizomes are beaten, 
and being covered with “cold spring water,” allowed to macerate all 
night, the resulting thick starchy fluid is then used to bathe the 
affected parts. 
Impatiens Noli-me-tangere at Ambleside. 
Mr. Reynolds, in presenting specimens of Impatiens Noli-me- 
tangere from its well-known station at Ambleside, took occasion to 
allude to the doubts which have been thrown upon its claim to be 
considered native, both there and in other localities. Botanists who 
have given an opinion upon the Ambleside station for the plant, have 
usually done so in an uncertain manner, and probably have con- 
sidered that the peculiar property of its seed-vessels required the 
exercise of such caution, in the absence of direct evidence proving its 
indigenous character. Such evidence, however, exists in the fact that 
the locality is recorded by Ray upwards of 160 years back. In his 
Synopsis (1690) it is thus mentioned :—the synonymes are given and 
afterwards it is said—‘ We observed it on the banks of Winander- 
mere near Ambleside. By the cloth-mill in Saterthwaite parish, 
Lancashire, and in many places of Westmorland, Mr. Lawson,” (p. 
