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 28 PROCELDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

largely, and most of them end in corymbose clusters of capitula, which are raucli larger than in the first two forms. In this case there are no elongated, naked, or few-flowered scapes, but stolons bearing heads of flowers. Tlie rhizome is creeping and stoloniferous, and the leaves are obovate-obtuse. Some of the stolons, however, do not flower at tliis stage, but strike root at their extremities, and form independent plants, a few of which flower in October and Noveml)er, forming No. 4 ; others do not flower till the succeeding June, Nos. 1 and 2. This is a near approach to the //. stolonijlomm of Fries, in his Monograph of Hiera- cium, and it may be the Jlaf/iUiirc of Willdenow. In the month of October, we meet with form No. 4. In this we have the condition de- scribed in the ' Transactions,' or the stolonijlornm of Fries. Here we have a cluster of obovate-obtuse leaves at the base, with a single scape often monopihyllous, rising directly upwards, and bearing few heads, gene- rally two, of a larger size than those of the otlier forms mentioned ; and from the crown of the root proceed several young stolons, bearing nume- rous leaves, but no flowers. These stolons are those which flower the ibllowing year, as seen in No. 3. Mr. Sadler made some remarks on specimens of a form of Centaurea nigra, which he collected in September last on the Achil Hills, near Forgandenny, in Perthshire. It is the C. pratemis of French authors. A note was read from Mr. I. F. Duthie, regarding two forms of Pi/rus in Arran. Dr. Boswell Syme considers thera both as P. scandica, the one with the lower pinnpe separated being P. scandica, var. pi)matifida. Mr. Duthie stated that he tasted the fruit of the Arran P. pinnatifida, and found it quite sweet ; whereas, ac- cording to Fries, the fruit of P.fennica is acid. Professor Dickson exhi- bited a plant of the Chinese Primrose having stamens and style of the same length (short), although in this species, as in the other dimorphic Primroses, they are usually of different lengths. This form is interesting, inasmuch as in an abnormal Cowslip, described some years ago by Mr. John Scott, the stamens and style, although of the same length, were both long. "Colonel Drummontl recorded the finding of Bidomus iimhd- latus in large quantity on the banks of the Tny, near Seggieden, Perth- shire. •

LlTERAUy AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER. — Nov.

1th, 1S70. — J. Baxendidl, Esq., in the chair; " On the Hawthorns of the Manchester Flora," by C. Bailey. Characters were given of the three segregates of C. Oxyacantha, L., found in Great Britain. — The prevailing form in the district is the C. monogynn, Jacq. ; it is that of which all the quickset hedges are made, and is said to flower a fortnight later than the third subspecies. The second form, the C. kyriostyla of Fingerhuth, I collected on the 25th May, 1867, in Botany Bay Wood (Mersey Province, County No. 59 of Watson), on the path from Barton Moss to Worsley, where it forms several handsome trees. It attracted my attention at once by the large proportion of its flowers which possessed two styles, and Ijy the comparative large size of the corymbs ; its fruit 1 have not been able to examine, as the ground in which it occurs is preserved by the Earl of Ellesmere, and is accessible only by a written order. The addition of the third subspecies, G. oxyncanthoides, Thuill., to our flora, is due to Mr. John Hardy, who detected a single bush of it on the 27th August last, at Marple (Mersey Province, County No. 58), on the right-hand side of the

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