by Mr. George Lawson. Specimens were exhibited of the principal plants in the list,—and Mr. Lawson made some remarks on the nature of some of the localities mentioned.* Robert Huish, Esq., London, was elected an honorary member. Mr. Thomas Simpson, Beadle, Yorkshire, was elected a fellow. Mr. David Gorrie, Annat Cottage, Eurol, Perthshire, was elected a corresponding member. 212, Perth Road, Dundee, December, 1847. GEORGE LAWSON, P. BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Monday, November 29th, 1847.-Eleventh anniversary meeting. John Reynolds, Esq., Treasurer, in the chair. Donations of British plants were announced from the Rev. G. W. Sandys, Mr. J. D. Salmon, Mr. John Ray, and Mr. French. The Secretary read the annual report of the council, from which it appeared that thirty-two members had been elected since the last anniversary, being a larger number than had been elected in any previous year since the establishment of the Society. In order to carry out to its fullest extent the leading object of the Society, namely, the exchange of specimens, the herbarium-committee had used every exertion to obtain the rarer and more interesting plants, and numerous valuable specimens (including a large number of duplicates) had been received, and would shortly be distributed to the members. The council had deputed Mr. Hewett Watson and the Secretary to prepare a second edition of the 'London Catalogue of British Plants.' The report was unanimously adopted. A ballot then took place for the council for the ensuing year, when J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S., was re-elected President, and John Miers, Esq., F.R.S., and E. Doubleday, Esq., F.L.S., were nominated Vice-Presidents; J. Coppin, Esq., M.A., G. W. Francis, Esq., F.L.S., and J. Parking, M.D., were elected new members of the council in the room of Dr. Cooke, F.L.S., F. Barham, Esq., and J. M. Rich, Esq., who retire in rotation; Mr. J. Reynolds, Mr. G. E. Dennes, and Mr. G. Rich, were respectively re-elected, Treasurer, Secretary, and Librarian.-G. E. D. *The list will appear in an early number of the Phytologist.' A List of Rubi observed near London in 1846-7, with Observations. By THOMAS MEEHAN. THE geographical distribution of the various forms of British Rubi being as yet imperfectly understood, it occurred to me to make notes of the habitats of those I might meet with in my botanical excursions, and to offer them to the readers of the 'Phytologist.' The following list comprises all that I have observed for the two last seasons, but my opportunities of collecting have been few, and I have no doubt that closer examination would discover many which are not inserted in my list, and prove Surrey especially to be as rich in Rubi as Sussex and Hampshire proverbially are. I may also add that several forms are not included, because I was not in a position to determine them with accuracy. R. Idaus (L.). Weybridge, and many parts of West Surrey. suberectus (Ands.). Wimbledon Common. nitidus (W. et N.). Woods, Dorking. corylifolius (Sm.). Surrey; Middlesex plentifully. cordifolius (W. et N.). Wimbledon; Bagshot; Dorking. - discolor (W. et N.). Abundant everywhere. leucostachys (Sm.). Ealing; Esher; Dorking. Dorking. -- B. vestitus (B. Salt.). Woods, Wimbledon and 7. argenteus (B. Salt.). Mortlake. carpinifolius (W. et N.). Wimbledon Common. Radula a. (B. Salt.).. Hedge near Egham. -fusco-ater (W.). Acton. - Koehleri (Weihe). 1. fuscus (Bab.). Near Esher. hirtus (W. et N.). Road-side between Wandsworth and Wimbledon Common. -glandulosus, v. rosaceus (Bell Salt.). Wimbledon Common. -Wahlebergii (Arot.). Foot-path between Brentford and Ealing. -casius (Linn.). Plentiful in hedges. The above nomenclature is that adopted by Babington in his Synopsis. R. corylifolius presents various appearances in different situations. There are several forms of R. discolor in this part of Surrey, but I confess I can make nothing of them. R. rosaceus and hirtus are not plentiful. It is to be regretted that so much indisposition to study this genus of British plants should exist. Perhaps few tribes afford such abundant opportunities of examining the vexed question of the nature of species as this, and yet this very fact is made an objection to their study! "They are so changeable," is a common expression, "my opinion is that there is not a dozen good species," is generally the encouraging stimulus the student of Rubi receives. But the question still remains, what is a species? and what is a variety? I do not clearly understand what Mr. Babington's ideas of species and varieties are, as exemplified in his Synopsis. I believe that the varieties of the Synopsis are principally dependent on their aptability to approach some other (normal) form when growing in the same soil and situation with it. I believe this was the reason for deciding R. vestitus of the 'Rubi Germanici,' and R. villicaulis of Babington's Manual, as mere varieties of R. leucostachys (Sm.). I find this "var." argenteus growing in a wet ditch by the side of the Thames at Mortlake, and exactly agreeing with a specimen gathered in a dry wood near Ryde. If argenteus is R. leucostachys, and merely varying through difference in its place of growth, whence the circumstance I have related? or will different situations produce the same result? We gardeners, who are in the habit of raising seedlings of florists' flowers, generally understand a variety to be a form produced from seed, and capable of reproducing seed, differing in some respects from its parent, in contradistinction to a mule or hybrid, which is not capable of reproducing seed. If this be the true definition of a variety, can these so-called varieties of Rubi be considered as truly such? The various varieties of the apple, the gooseberry and other fruit-trees still retain their several characteristics, although grown in the same soil and situations together, and why should not true varieties of Rubi? Kew, December 17th, 1847. THOMAS MEEHAN. Occurrence of Adiantum Capillus- Veneris in Derbyshire, Asplenium germanicum in Borrowdale, and Lycopodium annotinum on Bow-Fell. By H. ECROYD SMITH, Esq. SOME of the readers of the 'Phytologist' may be interested in hearing of the following localities for one or two of our rarer ferns. On recently revising my hortus siccus, I was reminded of a habitat of that rare and lovely little species Adiantum Capillus-Veneris,—at once novel, singular, and interesting (at least, as regards Britain), viz., the Peak of Derbyshire. I believe it had not been previously noticed except in sea-caves on the coast of two English counties, Devon and Cornwall; but here we meet it under a peculiar aspect, flourishing in the very heart of the island, and in a wild and bleak situation. I found the plant in 1844, and though only seedlings were obtained, others matured, may be ready to repay a more diligent search than I was able to undertake at the time. The Asplenium germanicum has been noticed in my present neighbourhood; and, as far as I am aware, this is the first recorded English locality. It was found in the summer of 1846; by Wm. Greaves and Jos. Flintoft, the latter of whom executed the celebrated model of the Lake District; it was growing in the cleft of a rock in the wilds of Borrowdale. On a recent visit to Bow-Fell I met with Lycopodium annotinum in several places on its sides, where the rocks are heaped in the greatest confusion, and twining among shady boulders carpeted with Hymenophyllum Wilsoni. Bay Cottage, Ambleside, December 23rd, 1847. H. ECROYD SMITH. On the Organogeny of irregular Corollas. By F. BARNEOUD. Extracted from the Comptes Rendus' for August 16, 1847, as translated in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for December, 1847. IN the memoir which I have the honour of submitting to the Academy, I have described the results of further researches on the organogeny of irregular corollas. I shall briefly indicate the principle in this abstract. In the monocotyledons the study of the develop ment of the flower of the Canneæ afforded direct proof that the stamina only metamorphosed into petals in a more or less complete manner from their first appearance, which impart to the corolla its irregular aspect. The two outer ternary verticils are always developed one after the other, precisely as the calyx and corolla of dicotyledons. This law, which I have verified in more than ten families, appears to be very general among monocotyledonous plants. In the dicotyledons, the adult corolla of the Acanthaceæ, Globulariæ, Gesneriaceæ, Bignoniacea and Goodeniaceæ, which is frequently far from regular, presents itself on its first appearance in the form of a small cupule with five very equal and rounded teeth at the border, but this state is more or less ephemeral according to the genera and species. Very soon the unequal elongation of the divisions of the corolla, their different degrees of adhesion or their partial atrophy, determine a very marked irregularity. The same applies with respect to the flower of Centranthus in the Valerianeæ, to that of the Lobeliacea and of the Scrophulariaceæ. In this last family the corolla of the Calceolariæ, one of the most anomalous of the vegetable kingdom, is reduced at its origin to a scooped-out cupola, which is very regular and furnished with four equal minute teeth; the nascent calyx likewise presents but four divisions. The highly remarkable floral envelope of Begoniacea likewise appears, at the period of its formation, as regards both male and female flowers, in the form of a continuous ring, and exhibits at its circumference five very equal small segments; but there are some of them, especially in the male flowers, which disappear entirely or which become in part atrophied, so as to give to the coloured envelope that peculiar structure which forms its principal character. From the facts detailed in my two memoirs and derived from the study of genera with irregular flowers from twenty-five natural families, I feel justified in deducing the following consequences:— 1. The simple theory announced by De Candolle as early as 1813, according to which the irregular flowers should be referred to regular types from which they appear to have degenerated, must be admitted as true, although conceived à priori, and solely from the attentive examination of some cases of Peloria, or of flowers which have become regular at the adult age. But if in the actual state of science, organogeny affords us a direct demonstration of this important principle of botanical philosophy, I must add, that the symmetry of an irregular flower even at its very origin does not always strictly exist; it is frequently merely indicated by empty places where the absent organs |