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leaves of P. minus, P. mite, and P. dubium, also perianths 
and ripe nuts of the same. 
Mr. Hardy remarked that Mr. Hunt's paper was an able 
resume of the characters of the allied species of Polygonum, 
but so far as he could perceive it added nothing to our 
knowledge on the subject. With respect to the more 
immediate purport of the paper, viz., the disputed identity 
of the Mere Mere and Jackson’s Boat plants, with the P. 
minus of Hudson, it would appear from Mr. Hunt’s remarks 
that besides Mr. Baker, two at least of our oldest and most 
able botanists had failed to differentiate P. minus, and P. 
mite, when specimens were before them. In support of 
what was stated at the previous meeting of the Society, as 
quoted by Mr. Hunt, Mr. Hardy read the following extract 
from an article in the old Phytologist (vol. 2, p. 332), by 
Mr. H. C. Watson, “ On the Polygonum mite of Schrank 
and allied species ” : — “ Cheshire specimens (of P. mite) are 
in the Herbarium of Sir W. J. Hooker, sent by Mr. William 
Wilson, under the name of P. minus (1828) ; I have also 
European specimens of the same species, sent with the names 
of laxiflorum ( Weihe ), dubium (Braun ), Braunii ( Bluff and 
Ping.), and mite (Persoon).” Mr. Hardy declined to accept 
Mr. Hunt’s dictum that the relative size of the nut furnished 
the only good character by which to separate the two plants, 
believing that the size of the flower and the habit of growth, 
when occurring side by side, as these specimens did, ought 
not to be passed over; the leaves, too, of the Mere Mere 
specimen in particular were actually more broadly lanceolate 
than those of the Oxford and Surrey specimens traced by 
Mr. Hunt ; and both the nuts and flowers larger than any 
of the other selected minus exhibited by Mr. Hunt, and 
doubtless correctly named. The presence or absence of 
glands was, he believed, an important character, but it was 
requisite, for the observation of these, that the specimens 
should be freshly gathered. 
Mr. Hunt’s localities for P. mite in Britain are all southern, 
but Mi*. Baker, in his “North Yorkshire,” gives no less than 
four localities for P. mite ; two in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of the city of York, and one as far north as Thirsk. 
