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Donations to the Museum. 
A donation of some rare plants from Mr. Bentley was announced, 
and some specimens of ergotised grasses from Mr. Blyth. 
Enormous Caudex of Lastrea Filix-mas. 
The President called the attention of the Meeting to the caudex of 
Lastrea Filix-mas, Presl, found by Mr. Shillitoe in Jersey. It was 
growing in a boggy soil and shady position. The specimen was re- 
markable for its great size, being in a dried condition about fourteen 
inches in length, and about a foot in circumference, a size quite 
unusual in temperate latitudes. All the ferns in the same locality 
were stated to be growing in the same luxuriant manner. 
Ergotised Grasses. 
Mr. Blyth read the following paper :— 
“In presenting the specimens of ergotised grasses to the Phyto- 
logical Club, I beg to offer the results of my experience in collecting 
them, so that future observations may either confirm or refute any 
deductions that may be drawn from them. I met with no instance of 
the disease until the middle of the month of August, and then in 
shady rather than in moist places, and found very few indications of 
it (especially directing my attention to marshy and wet places) from 
the sandy soil of Norfolk through the clay of Middlesex, to the marls 
and limestones of the western counties. A month later the disease 
increased so as to become epidemic, first appearing in uncultivated 
grounds, and gradually spreading over the whole country, so that 
towards the end of September, there was scarcely a spot where the 
grasses were not more or less affected. I present eight different 
specimens of grasses so affected, but it appears to prevail most in the 
Lolium and Dactylis; so abundant was it in these species, that a 
plentiful supply might have been collected from the commons and 
hedgerows, but I could not induce any of the herb-gatherers to collect 
it for me, so that I have had no opportunity of examining its chemical 
properties. Many farmers are acquainted with the disease, and 
according to them, its presence in fields is evidence of bad farming. 
Liming the soil has been found to be the best remedy for the evil. 
That draining alone is of little value to get rid of it, may be inferred 
from its having been more abundant in the Regent’s Park than else- 
where, and as if to defy such an enemy, it especially flourished on the 
