32 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
APRIL 20th. 
J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 
Mr. Chatterley read a continuation of his Paper, translated 
from the French of M. A. Decandolle, on the geographical 
distribution of plants, used as food. This portion of the 
paper contained several facts connected with the dispersion, 
according to the climate and temperature, of the Gramineae, 
and the several uses to which they are applied by the people 
of different nations. 
The President afterwards communicated to the Society, the 
recent discoveries of a French Botanist, read before the Aca- 
demy of Sciences at Paris, in March last in the leaves of 
Kylanium. From each of the spiculae, a number of membra- 
neous cylinders Avere found to be constantly projecting, which 
afterwards became contracted ; and by the aid of a powerful 
glass, this may be seen in specimens preserved for forty years. 
The President stated that he had since performed the experi- 
ment with success. 
Mr. T. Hancock then read some notes on “ Lamium Macu- 
latum of which the following is an extract : — 
Having seen many specimens of this plant, entirely des- 
titute of the large white spots, so particularly insisted on by 
authors as its most important specific mark of distinction, — 
as well as from having seen several with white flowers, and 
approaching so closely, nay, almost running into, Lamium 
album , as to be hardly distinguishable from it, — I have been 
induced to pay some little attention to the subject, and the 
results are contained in the following remarks. 
This plant, Lamium maculatum, is exceedingly rare in 
both Somersetshire and Gloucestershire. My friend, Mr. 
Thwaites, last year forwarded me a specimen of the white 
variety, which he obtained at Retland Court, six or seven miles 
from Bristol, and which, he said, was the only habitat for it 
near that city, with which he was acquainted. I have since 
seen other specimens of the white flower variety, closely 
approaching in habit and general appearance to L. album, 
but having fewer whorls ; and in none have I found the 
