43 



vegetation in Scotland, he had journeyed to Haslemere, and 

 found the sallows in full bloom and well attended by insects. 

 The darkening in Mr. Merrifield's experiments showed the 

 influence of two factors very strikingly, — the absence of a 

 period of any great heat, and the slow development in 

 a long - continued comparatively low temperature. Mr. 

 Carrington had found sallows in Scotland in full bloom in 

 the middle of March, some even being over. The time of 

 flowering varied much with the altitude and the topography 

 of the district. At Rannoch the date varied from March to 

 the end of June. In parts some species were more forward 

 than in England, and in many districts there were never 

 any severe frosts, the climate being very moist. Mr. South 

 concurred in the view that curtisii was an older form of the 

 species than that which was considered typical. Mr. 

 Carrington said that there were many instances to show us 

 that evolution was still going on, and that fresh conditions 

 often caused a return to or a re-development of an ancestral 

 form. 



Mr. Step sent for exhibition specimens of the plants Glaux 

 niaritima and Silene maritima from Portscatho, and commu- 

 nicated the following note : 



" Glaux maritima, L. Sea-milkwort or black saltwort. 

 This pretty member of the order Primulaceae is the sole 

 representative of the genus GlaiLx. It does not appear to 

 be very well known even among coast plants, although it is 

 sufficiently plentiful. In this neighbourhood, Portscatho, 

 Falmouth, it is abundant among the rocks a little above 

 high water. The creeping rootstock makes its way between 

 the laminae of the slaty rocks, and eventually becomes quite 

 woody, their smaller fibres penetrating deeply into the 

 rocks. The large specimen exhibited will give some idea of 

 its performances in this direction. To secure it I had to 

 prise off a great sheet of slaty rock which had been loosened 

 by root expansion. The round smooth stems grow erectly 

 to a height of four or five inches. The narrowly oval leaves 

 are opposite or very nearly so, glossy, and their surface 

 minutely pitted. The flowers are all axillary. There are 

 no petals, but the five-parted bell-shaped calyx is coloured 

 pink, with five streaks and dashes of crimson along the 

 edges and towards the base. The flowers have been out 

 a fortnight or nearly. I found plenty on May 2nd, whose 

 condition convinced me they had been open quite a couple 

 of days. My record for 1895 is first week in May. The 

 books say June and July. 



