January 2^th, i^pp.] PROCEEDINGS. xi 



of this plant. Hooker (jF/. BnV. India, V., p. 5), under the name 

 Chenopodhmi Blitum, places it in his third (Indian) section of 

 that genus, owing to its baccate fruit. Boissier (Fl. Orientalis, 

 IV., p. 905) assigns it to the genus Blitum, associated with 

 Chenopodium Bonus-Henriais L. and C. rubrimi L. 



Nyman {Cotispect. Fl. Eur., p. 623) gives two species, 

 B. capitatum L. and virgatum L., the distribution of both being 

 much the same as far as Northern and Western Europe are con- 

 cerned, ranging from Norway and Sweden to Germany, Helvetia, 

 France, etc., but the latter (^. virgatum) extends also to 

 Transylvania, Servia, Roumania, and Russia. Its geographical 

 distribution in the East seems also extensive (Boissier /. c), 

 including both Asia Minor, Armenia, Transcaucasia, Persia, 

 M. Libanus, and Afghanistan. It is also reported from 

 N. Africa, e.g., Algeria (Munby). B. capitatum merely 

 seems to be a large-leaved and fruited variety, with occasionally 

 leafless spikes as well as axillary inflorescence, and, as the plant 

 is connected with the typical Chenopodia through intermediates 

 such as the above-mentioned C. rubrmn L., it is no doubt the 

 wisest course to sink the genus Blittim in the larger assemblage 

 of Che7iopodium. I may add that I have in my herbarium a 

 North American sheet of this plant (of the form B. capitatum L.) 

 from Gilpin County, Colorado, collected by R. W. French 

 in 1874, and I have also specimens from a few other localities in 

 the United States. 



The President also read a note " On the order Ilicinece." 

 The Order Ilicinese comprises trees or shrubs, for the most 

 part evergreen, smooth, eglandular, the leaves being in all cases 

 alternate, without stipules, shiny, coriaceous, often margined, 

 crenulate or spiniferous. Certain of the sub-genus Prinos of Ilex 

 are serrate, deciduous, tender. The inflorescence is either 

 axillary or terminal or both, occasionally solitary. Flowers 

 regular, dioecious or unisexual, usually white. Calyx mostly four 

 to six-partite. Petals, in Ilex Aquifolium four (occasionally, in 

 other species, five), hypogynous, imbricate. Stamens usually 

 the same in number as the petals. Filaments subulate. The 



