516 



Botanical Society of London. 



May 6.— John Edward Gray, Esq., F.R.S., &c, President, in the 

 Chair. 



The following specimens were exhibited and presented to the So- 

 ciety : — Leskea pulvinata (Wahl.), on willows by the Ouse near York, 

 and Dicranum spurium (Hedwig), Stockton Forest, collected by Mr. 

 R. Spence. Desmidium mucosum and D. Swart zii, collected near 

 Penzance in December last by Mr. J. Ralfs. Mr. W. Gourlie, jun. 

 presented the following -.—Jungermannia stellulifera (Taylor), collect- 

 ed at Critch, Derbyshire, by Mr. W. Wilson. Gymnostomum Horn- 

 schuchianum (Araott), collected at Cromaglown in July 1840, and 

 first discovered by Dr. Taylor. Jungermannia valuta (Taylor), found 

 at Gortagonee in March 1841 by Dr. Taylor. Specimens of Junger- 

 mannia Lyoni (Taylor), collected at Dunoon, Argyleshire, by Mr. J. 

 G. Lyon. Mr. T. Sansom exhibited specimens of the following 

 mosses, collected by the Rev. C. A. Johns, F.L.S. : — Bryum Tozeri 

 (Grev.), Swanscomb, Kent. Hypnum catenulatum (Schwaeg.), from 

 Eelsham, Kent. Tetraphis pellucida (Hedw.), Abbey-wood, Erith, 

 Kent. 



A paper was read from Dr. Spencer Thomson " On the Anatomy 

 and Physiology of the seed of Phaseolus vulgaris" The paper was 

 accompanied by drawings. 



May 20. — J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S., &c, President, in the Chair. 



The following donations were announced. A specimen of Sugar- 

 cane from Madeira, by Mr. James Halley. Bupleurum tenuissimum, 

 found at Highgate, by Mr. W. Mitten. A paper was read from 

 Edwin Lees, Esq., F.L.S. , &c, " On the Flora of the Malvern Hills, 

 Part 3, being a Sketch of the Cryptogamic Vegetation indigenous 

 to the Chain." 



Notwithstanding the limited extent of this narrow chain of hills, 

 scarcely exceeding nine miles in length, and only rising to 1500 feet 

 in altitude, yet they offer almost every variety of aspect and condi- 

 tion favourable to the development of cryptogamic vegetation. In 

 fact, the Malvern Hills, when considered only as a ridge without re- 

 ference to the country around them, are far more remarkable for their 

 acotyledonous than their vascular productions. 



Commencing with the northern termination of the hills in Cow- 

 leigh Park, several miniature syenitic spurs here appear abrupt and 

 rocky, yet prettily shaded with wood amidst deep glens and shaggy 

 defiles, overtopped by lateral steeps of limestone, amidst whose gul- 

 lies, streamlets are there gushing with musical intonation. From 

 the " Happy Valley " a verdant park-like glacis leads the wanderer 

 up among the exposed treeless turf, and rugged, jutting-out and 

 lichened rocks of the End and North Hills, those of the latter being 

 more precipitous and remarkable than those of any other hill of the 

 chain, and boasting a great number of lapideous lichens. Between 

 this hill and the Worcestershire Beacon a deep and winding valley 

 extends, watered by bubbling streamlets, and abutted by moist drip- 

 ping rocks on the southern side, where several species of Junger- 

 mannia shelter ; but it must be observed that, excepting in this place 

 and in the " Gullet," as it is termed, of the Holly Bush Hill, almost 

 all the other Malvern rocks are without exception dry and bleached 



