156 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
Botrychium Lunaria (Smith) ; var. laciniatum (Mei). 
Ireland—Kilnasantan, Co. Dublin. 
England: 
N.B.—I have referred here, in doubt, the incised leaved form of the moonwort. 
BRITISH SPECIES REPRESENTED IN FOLLOWING : — 
Eupteris 
Dissectum . 
None. 
Sinuatum. 
One. 
Laciniatum. 
One. 
Truncatum. 
One. 
Lomaria 
One. 
One. 
One. 
One. 
Notolepeum 
None. 
One. 
None. 
Rone. 
Phyllitis 
One? 
One. 
One. 
One. 
Amesium 
One? 
None. 
One. 
One. 
Asplenium 
Two. 
Two. 
Two. 
One. 
Athyrium 
One? 
One ? 
One? 
One? 
Polystichum 
None. 
None. 
Two. 
Two. 
Lophodium 
One. 
Two ? 
Five? 
Three? 
Hemestheum 
None. 
None. 
One. 
One. 
Gymnocarpium ... 
None. 
None. 
One. 
None. 
Cystopteris 
One. 
None. 
None. 
None. 
Osmunda 
None. 
None. 
One. 
One. 
Botrychium 
Ctenopteris 
None. 
None. 
One? 
None. 
One. 
One. 
One. 
None. 
UNREPRESENTED:— 
Dissectum and Sinuatum.—Adiantum, Eupteris, Polystichum, Hemestheum, 
Gymnocarpium, Osmunda, Botrychium, Ophioglossum, Trichomanes, Hymeno- 
phyllum, Pseudathyrium, Allosurus, Gymnogramma. 
Laciniatum and Truncatum.—Adiantum, Cystopteris, Pseudathyrium, Allo¬ 
surus, Gymnogramma, Ctenopteris, Hymenophyllum, Trichomanes, Ophioglossum. 
Mr. Andrews said that the specimens exhibited, and the forms illustrated, by Dr. 
Kinahan exemplified the numerous varieties of the fronds, and their departures 
from the original type that occurred even among the Ferns of this country. In 
England some botanists had so multiplied these subforms that it was difficult to 
arrange and to reconcile such alterations of species. Dr. Kinahan has proposed 
a classification for all these forms (among which some are really beautiful) ; and as 
he has so industriously shown the multitudinous forms of several of the genera of 
the Ferns of this country, Mr. Andrews considered an arrangement of the kind < 
desirable, in order to place those departures from the original type into such divi¬ 
sions as their several gradations seemed to authorize. It is shown that, when Ferns 
exhibit extremes of monstrosity of growth, the venations become changed and con¬ 
fused, the character of the frond greatly altered, and a barren state sometimes con¬ 
sequent, which is seen in one of the forms this night exhibited, the Polypodium 
cambricum. In some instances the absence of fructification is supplied by bulbillse, 
and the development of young plants continued. In others, as in Asplenium or 
Camptosorus rhizophyllum (walking Fern), a viviparous action of the apex takes 
root, and produces young plants. In Adiantum capillus veneris, Dr. Ball pointed 
out a singular vegetating principle, affecting the termination of the pinnules ; and 
in Woodwardia radicans, young plants are produced from the backs of the fronds, 
and extend their range of growth similar to the Asplenium rhizophyllum. It is 
characteristic of these forms that most retain those deviations under cultivation. 
In the phsenogamous plants such rules likewise occur, as are instanced in the 
Saxifrages, that present such variations both in foliage and inflorescence, and 
which they retain in garden culture. Some that have imperfect fructification, 
bulbillse form in the axils of the branches, as in the case of Saxifraga leucanthe 
mifolia, and which led Dr. Robert Brown to name an Artie species Saxifraga 
foliolosa. 
Mr Andrews then exhibited specimens of Elymus Europseus, of Linneeus, 
Hordeum Sylvaticum, of Hudson, which had been sent to him by Mr. Bain, of the 
Botanic Gardens, Trinity College. Mr. Bain discovered this grass in the woods at 
Mount Merrion, the seat of the Right Hon. Sydney Herbert, and he at once de¬ 
tected it as new to the flora of the country. It grew in some abundance, and being 
of no value as an agricultural grass, it is not likely to have been introduced. It is 
