166 
REVIEW.-REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
Drainage and cultivation have, however, greatly modified all thia district. 
Still, we now and again find evidences of former ericetal surroundings in 
Gnaphalium sylvaticum, Solidago Virgaurea , Centime ulus minimus, Carex prcecox, 
and many other plants ; whilst Pulicaria dysenterica , Carex paniculata, C. 
acuta , C. vesicaria , Veronica scutellata, Menyanthes trifoliata, and Eriophorum 
angustifoliurn are the lingering remains of former bogs and marshes. Many 
of the plants enumerated in the list are of recent origin—the result of culti¬ 
vation, being brought with seeds, &c. Some have been purposely introduced, 
and several are merely waifs or strays from present or former gardens ; and to 
be properly appreciated the list requires to be analysed, and following the 
plan adopted in “ The Flora of Warwickshire,” page 467, I find that the 723 
plants recorded in the “ Rugby Plants,” may be thus classified :— 
Natives of England . 589 
Colonists or weeds of cultivation . 36 
Denizens, i.e. , originally introduced but now apparently 
established. 14 
Aliens, i.e., plants of undoubted foreign origin .. .. 25 
Casuals, i.e., chance stragglers from cultivation .. .. 25 
Ambiguities, i.e., misunderstood or misrecorded .... 6 
Varieties. 28 
Total . 723 
The ambiguities are Silene gallica, Sium latifolium, Hieracium crocatum , 
Veronica triphyllos, Lamium intermedium, and Salix stipularis. 
In “ The Flora of Warwickshire ” fifty-one species and varieties are 
recorded from the Rugby district that are not included in the list under 
notice, and in this list is the record of a plant new to Warwickshire, Poly¬ 
gonum mite. Mr. Wait has done his work well, and the list of plants recorded 
is very creditable to the society he represents. 
A slight mistake in the physical geography occurs in the introductory 
remarks. Here it is stated “ Rugby is on an elevated plateau, forming 
in part the watershed between the Thames and the Severn, our largest 
river the Avon, with its tributary the Swift, finding its way into the 
Severn at Tewkesbury ; while the smaller Rainsbrook or Learn belongs 
to the Thames, being a tributary of the Cherwell, which joins the 
great river at Oxford.” This is scarcely correct. The whole of the 
plateau on which Rugby lies drains into the Avon or its affluents. The 
Learn rises in the Marston Hills, receives its tributary the Rainsbrook, 
near Woolscott, its tributary the Itchen near Marton, and joins the Avon 
near Emscote. 
The remaining pages of the Report are occupied by the reports of 
sections, containing meteorological, botanical, and other reports, and are 
evidences of the real good work still being done by the Rugby School 
Natural History Society. J. E. Bagnall. 
Itprls of Varieties. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY. —Sociological Section. The session of this Section which 
closed on June 8tli lias been a most interesting one. On March 7th, Professor 
Allen, M.A., President of the Section, gave the first part of an introductory 
address on Mr. Herbert Spencer’s “ Psychology,” entitled “ Modus Operandi 
of the Nervous System,” and this was followed on March 23rd by a paper on 
Chapters 2 and 3 of “ Ceremonial Institutions,” by the Hon. Sec. of the 
Section, Mr. Phin. H. Levi. On March 28th, a large audience met to hear a 
paper on “ Tennyson’s Ethics,” by Mr. J. Cuming Walters, and the eloquent 
July, 1893. 
