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THYMUS OVATUS IN NORTH YORKSHIRE. 



J. G. BAKER, F.R.S., Etc., 



In a paper which appeared in the ' Journal of Botany ' for 1908, 

 page 34, Messrs. Domin and Bruce Jackson distinguished four 

 so-called species of Thyme in Britain, viz., T. ovahis Miller ; 

 T. glaber ^liller ; T. prcBcox Opiz, and T. Serpyllum L. 



T. Serpyllum is distinguished by its narrow leaves, long 

 trailing shoots, and capitate inflorescence, and is, I believe, the 

 common Thyme of Yorkshire. From this, T. ovatus differs by 

 its broader leaves, inflorescence consisting of distinct whorls 

 of flowers, and by the absence of long trailing shoots. Two 

 specimens from North Yorkshire are now before me as I write, 

 one from banks between Sandhutton and Carlton Miniott, near 

 Thirsk, collected by the late Mr. T. J. Foggitt, and a second 

 collected by myself from Kitscrew Wood, near Hovingham. 

 T. ovatus Miller is the plant figured as T. CkamcBdrys by Boswell- 

 Syme in the third edition of ' English Botany,' but is not the 

 true T. Chamcedrys of Fries, which is the same as T. glaber of 

 Miller. This T. glaber of Miller is reported by Mr. G. C. Druce 

 from Widdy Bank, on the Durham side of the Tees, but I have 

 not seen either this species or T. prcecox from Yorkshire, though 

 I note that Mr. Druce (Report of the Botanical Exchange 

 Club ' for 1908) gives T. glaber as a Yorkshire plant. T. glaber 

 differs from T. Serpyllum by its glabrous stem and broader 

 bright green glabrous leaves and short shoof. 



The Annual Report of the Marine Biological Association of the West 

 of Scotland for 1908 shews that good work is being done at the Millport 

 Station, and that it is being encouraged in a practical way. 



Vol, I., No. I of the Journal of the Torquay Natural History Society 



(48 pp.), has recently been issued, and besides the Society's Sixty-fifth 

 Annual Report, contains some original contributions, and some reports of 

 lectures. Some of the latter, particularly those occupyng two or three 

 lines, might well have been omitted. We hurriedly turned to the paper with 

 the tempting title, ' Ancient Phoenician Settlements in Cornwall and 

 Devon,' but only to find the subject dismissed in two and a half lines. 

 Possibly there was a reason for this. Amongst the contributors we notice 

 the names of Messrs. A. J. Jukes-Browne, H. J. Lowe, A. R. Hunt, etc. The 

 longest, and perhaps the most useful contribution, is a list of the Diatoms 

 of the Torquay district, and in this we were pleased to notice that the author 

 had to thank a Hull naturalist for help in determining difficult species. 

 It would have been an advantage if the same person had also read the 

 proofs, as misprints are far too frequent. If a little more margin had 

 been allowed to the pages, their appearance would have been improved. 



igog Nov. i. 



