president's address. 115 



to any he has tasted, yet these grew in old moi'tar and with 

 no accessible moisture except the vapour of the air. 



The Fifth Meeting was at ChoUerford, September 1 1th, when 

 eight were present. It was a lovely day and the Botanists had 

 a good time. They found Eriniis aljnnus still blooming on the 

 ancient Roman masonry in Chesters Park, and Corydalis lutea 

 in full flower in the same neighbourhood, besides Wall-rue and 

 Black Spleenwort. Four varieties of St. John's Wort, viz., 

 Hypericum pulckrum, qnadrangnlum, hirsutum, and perforatum 

 were gathered, and Mr. Cobb found a curious specimen of Liver- 

 wort, Marchantia polymorpha, with its umbels borne not on 

 green but black stalks. But the find of the day and of the 

 season fell to a visitor, a friend of the President. It was a lovely 

 little ivy-leaved Saxifrage, bearing single pale yellow flowers 

 with a dark yellow patch at the base of each petal, carried erect 

 on a scape with one or more bracts near its base. The leaves 

 were bright green and many were trefoiled. It was identified 

 by the Curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, as the 

 Saxifraga Sibthorpii of Bois, a native of Greece, and found in 

 Great Britain once before only, in Argyllshire, as a garden 

 migrant. It is not easy to see how it could stray from a garden 

 to the spot where it is now growing quite freely and abundantly. 

 From its numbers it must have been established in this habitat 

 some time. I sent my best plant to Kew, but still have a tuft 

 of thriving young ones. 



On reaching ChoUerford Bridge the party divided. Most 

 followed Mr. Thompson to the excavated Roman station of 

 Cilurnum in Mr. Clayton's grounds at the Chesters, and looked 

 with wonder on a walled town that throbbed with life nigh 1500 

 years ago, as seen in its wheel-worn gateways with guardrooms 

 attached ; in its narrow, guttered streets crossing each other at 

 right angles ; in its hypocausts, flues, and cement floors, showing 

 carefully warmed and ventilated houses ; in its Forum and Trea- 

 sury inside, its villas, cemetery, and baths outside the defending 

 walls; in its pottery, glass, and metal- work, drain-pipes and 

 sculptured columns, indicating an advanced civilization, along- 

 side tusks of wild boar, antlers of deer, and weapons of stone. 



