Miscellaneous. 97 



summer by way of Fontainbleau and Lyons to Vaucluse, with par- 

 ticular reference to the botany of the districts through which he 

 passed, and in the vicinity of the celebrated " Fontaine" and 

 " Chateau de Petrarque." 



Dr Charlton gave a short account of a tour he had made last au- 

 tumn in Denmark, stating that his present object was chiefly to 

 point out the facilities for visiting that country, and the inducement 

 it holds out to the botanist. The expense of living and travelling 

 he described as being extremely moderate, the language as interpo- 

 sing but few difiiculties — and the botany, particularly the Flora 

 around Christiania, as being singularly attractive and interesting. 



Dr Barry incidentally mentioned that the following plants, so in- 

 teresting to the British botanist, had been observed by him when 

 travelling amongst the Alps : — Sonchus alpinus, by the side of the 

 glacier at the source of the Rhone, on the Furca side ; Gentiana 

 nivalis in the ascent from the Grindlewald to the Faulhorn ; and 

 Astragalus alpinus, in the Valley of Rosen-Laui. Mr Percy had 

 also observed SoncJms alpinus on the Brezon, about twenty miles 

 from Geneva, at an elevation of about 3500 feet. 



W. H. Campbell, Sec, 



Botanical Society of London. — April 22, 1837. J. E. Gray, 

 Esq. F. R. S., President, in the Chair. — Several presents were an- 

 nounced, and Members elected ; after which Mr Chatterley, the 

 Secretary, proceeded to read the continuation of his paper, translated 

 from the French of M. Decandolle, on the geographical distribution 

 of plants used for food. The facts adduced tended to show, that 

 cold had little influence in retarding the extension of agriculture, 

 and that by artificial cultivation and temperature any one country 

 might be made to produce nearly all the plants of the earth. The 

 paper contained several important facts, and the original may be 

 found in the 5th Number of the Bibliotheque Universelle de Ge- 

 neve. The President explained the discovery, by a French bota- 

 nist, of cells or little membranous cylinders in the leaves of Ky- 

 lanium, which are filled with little spiculae, and gradually ejected. 

 — A paper was afterwards read from Mr Thomas Hancock, on Za- 

 mium maculatum and album, and on the propriety of their being 

 considered as distinct species. The author was led to investigate 

 the subject, from having seen many specimens of the former species 

 entirely destitute of the longitudinal white patches on the leaves, so 

 particularly insisted on by most authors as its most important spe- 

 cific character ; as well as from having witnessed several with white 

 flowers (although Hooker and Lindley say that they are constantly 



VOL. n. no. 7' G 



