twenty years ago, who still foster the old traditions as to the virtues of herbs and "simples," and who, in the intervals of daily toil (like Hobson, Nowell, and Bolton),have done so much to extend our knowledge of cryptogamic distribution.

Pl. XVII., fig. II. Jung. Nevicensis.-1, shoots natural size; 2, upper portion of shoot x 20; 3, leaves and portion of stem x 64; 4, leaf from the terminal bud, enclosing a younger leaf × 64; 5, 6, 7, leaves from different portions of the stem x 64; 8, apex of one of the lobes × 200.

JUNG. MYRIOCARPA, Carr. (Pl. XVIII. fig. Iv.-Exstipulate; creeping at the base, rhizomatous shoots entangled, flexuose, polished, resembling pale-brown horse-hair; stems terete, ascending, rigid, interrupted, repeatedly innovant, ramuli springing from one or both sides of the old axis, either barren and setaceous or ferile and with rapidly accrescent leaves. Leaves on the lower portion of the shoots and flagella distichous, approximate, erect and appressed to the stem so closely as to be readily overlooked, ovate, carinateconcave, cleft for half their length into two lanceolate lobes, sinus acute, texture thin, chitinous, polished, punctate-areolate, cells sub-quadrate, colour golden-brown. Involucral leaves much larger, vertically patent, lobes shallower and more obtuse half hiding the colesule. Colsule at first turbinate, when mature roundish-ovate, ventricose, obtusely-trigonous below, mouth contracted, bicristate in front, in older specimens multiplicate, minutely denticulate. Hepat. Brit. Exs. Fasc. II., n. 96.

Hab.-Creeping among spongy peat-like soil, in moist crevices of the rocky stream from Ben Venue, running in the direction of the Trossachs Hotel. Growing in company with Jung. laxifolia (July 1876).

If there is anything unsatisfactory about the position of J. Nevicensis, there can be none respecting the present species, which is one of the most interesting and distinct accessions recently made to our flora. In size it resembles J. divaricata, but its true alliance is with Jung. minuta, of which it might be accounted a microscopic form.

Owing to the rigid chitinous texture of J. myriocarpa, the stems, and even colesules, decay very slowly, so that it is not uncommon to find five or six colesules, one above another (fig. 2), representing the growths of so many seasons. This gives the plant a very characteristic appearance, when it is remembered the shoots are rarely more than from 2 to 4 lines in length.

The same proliferous habit is not uncommon in Jung. minuta, and it shares with it another peculiarity, viz., the perianths were invariably abortive, and the pistillidia barren and undeveloped.

The young colesule looks like that of a Frullania (fig. 9), it is bi-cristate on the upper half of each aspect, and contracted to a point where the crests meet.

From Jung. rigida, Lindb., which it also resembles in habit, it may be known by its much smaller size, fasciculate ramification, rapidly accrescent leaves, the lobes of which are equal, and the different form of the colesule; whereas, in J. rigida, the shoots are terete from the closely imbricated uniform leaves, the lobes of which are unequal.

Measurements.*-Stems (fig. 2) from 2 to 7 mm. long by 75 in diameter. Leaves irregular in size (fig. 5, 8), those of the barren shoots 175 broad x 21 mm. long. Involucral leaves 45 × 475. Colesule (fig. 9) ·34 in breadth by 4 high. Leaf-cells translucent sub-quadrate, arranged in transverse concentric rows (fig. 7, 8), 015 x 01, 0175 × 0125, the walls are thick but translucent, many cells contain 4 to 6 greenish oblong granules.

J. myriocarpa was very difficult to collect, the majority of specimens growing in wet holes in the rock among a soft spongy mass of confervæ and diatoms, slipping through the fingers like an actinea! The leaves of the barren shoots (fig. 4) remind us, in the closely appressed, acutely bifid lobes, of Anthelia julacea.

PL. XVIII. fig. IV., Jung. myriocarpa.-1, shoots natural size; 2, fertile shoot showing the innovant habit × 16; 3, 4, portions of barren shoots x 64; 5, stem leaves x 64; 6, part of stem and leaf showing reticulation x 200; 7, apex of leaf x 200; 8, apex of

A scale will be found on Pl. XVIII. giving th's mm. under different objectives.

TRANS. BOT. SOC. VOL. XIII.

2 H

fertile shoot with old colesule x 64; 9, young colesule, the two crests are shown, but the mouth, from pressure, is a little too open × 64.

LEJEUNIA DIVERSILOBA (Gottsche), Spruce (Pl. XVII. fig.1.). Epiphytic on Frullania and other corticolous species. Shoots filiform, rigid, irregularly ramose, branches divaricate; leaves incubous, approximate, vertical, larger lobe oval or ovate, obtuse, slightly concave, pellucid, entire, lobules variable in form, so that on the same branch we may find them nearly equal to the upper lobe, or half the size, or absent altogether, they are sub-quadrate in form, inflated at the base, the upper border inflexed and notched at the outer angle, so as to form a rather blunt tooth. Stipules not broader than the stem, bifid for more than half their length, segments narrow acute incurved, sinus lunate, sometimes they are obsolete, or replaced by fascicles of very short rootlets (haustoria). Inflorescence diœcious; & spikes lateral, composed of few leaves, the lobes of which are equal; ? shoots lateral, sessile, involucral leaves larger, the lobes ovate-oblong, obtuse, and the lobules lanceolate; colesule (?).

Lejeunia diversifolia, Gottsche in "Mexikan Leverm.,” p. 227, n. 57.

Lejeunia cucullata, S. stricta, “N. L. and G. Syn. Hepat.," p. 390.

Lej. minutissima, B. major, Carringt. Irish Cryptogams, "Trans. Ed. Bot. Soc." 1863.

Lej. diversiloba, Spruce in "Journ. of Botany," July and August, 1876.

Hab.-Not unfrequent about Killarney, growing on Frullania germana and other prostrate mosses and hepatica, June 1861. Dr Spruce states that some years ago he found it growing with L. microscopica, collected by him. in company with the late Dr Taylor. Since the name appears to be pre-occupied by Mitten ("Indian Hepat. Jour. of Linn. Soc.," 1860), Dr Spruce in the "Jour. of Botany," p. 235, 1876, recommends the change from L. diversifolia to L. diversiloba, which has the merit of expressing the peculiarity of the species more correctly.

Although the present plant has been known for some years under the name of L. cucullata, no figure has, I

believe, hitherto been published, so I have ventured to supply the deficiency.

It occurs in straggling patches, of a pale yellowish-green, sometimes nearly white. The shoots (fig. 1, 2) are very long (" to ") and rigid considering their diameter, ramuli distant, produced without order, and diverging from the stem.

The main characteristic, however, is the remarkable variability in the form of the lobules of the leaves (fig. 1, 2, 3, 4). The upper lobes (fig. 3) are ovate or elliptic, with the apex obtuse, divergent when moist, but decurved and more concave when dry, near the summit of the branches they are often as round and equilobed as in Lej. minutissima. Fructification appears rare on Irish specimens. I could only meet with two or three imperfect involucra (fig. 4), and Dr Gottsche in "Mexican Hepatica" does not appear to have found the colesule. On one shoot I found what seems to be the spike (fig. 3), but I could not discover antheridia.

The leaves are translucent, with large well-marked areolation (fig. 6), the marginal cells sub-quadrate, and the remainder hexagonal (to mm.).

Dr Gottsche (1. cit.) states, "Differt a Lejeunia cucullata, Nees, forma foliorum et amphigastriorum tam caulinorum quam involucralium, textura clariore et tota ramificatione. Lejeunia crenulifolia, Gott.,ex Insula Trinitatis, foliora forma accedens, foliis margine crenulatis diversa est." Probably the specimens 274 Musc. Allig. Sullivant, from Virginia, belong to the latter rather than L. cucullata. The stems in it are very minute and tender, the leaves of uniform size, rather distant, nearly plane, elliptic-ovate, apex obtusate, without any trace of lobules. Texture thin and translucent, cells minute, those of the margin convex, so that it appears crenate; whole plant of a delicate amber colour.

Among British species it comes nearest in size to Lej. ovata, but in it the leaves are ovate-acute, the lower half beneath the junction with the lobule gibbous.

I am surprised that Professor Lindberg did not meet with this species in the south of Ireland, it has far more reliable characters than the two he described in the "Hepatica Hibernica." L. flava, Sw., is identical with the form I noted in Irish cryptogams (1861), as L. serpyllifolia, var. thymifolia, and I have several fine patches in my collection.

pro

Dr Spruce (1. cit. p. 198) remarks, that L. flava bably grows in all tropical countries, and the eastern L. thymifolia is certainly not distinct." This, however, and L. patens, Lindb., are not likely to be confounded with L. diversiloba, the difficulty being to distinguish them from L. serpyllifolia, which they approach in size and habit.

Pl. XVIII. fig. 1., Lejeunia diversiloba.-1, stems, natural size; 2, shoot × 30; 3, portion of same x 120, showing † spike; 4, summit of fertile stem, with young involucre × 65; 5, stipules × 120; 6, leaf-cells × 200.

XI. Report on Temperatures during the Winter of 1878-79 at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; Effects of the same on Open-Air Vegetation at the Garden and in other parts of Scotland; Table of Dates of Flowering of Spring Plants. By Mr JOHN SADLER, Curator.

My predecessor in office reported regularly to this Society for the last twenty-eight years the progress of vegetation at the Royal Botanic Garden. It is needless for me to say that it will be my endeavour to continue these reports to the best of my ability, for it is, as you know, only by a long series of such that we can ever expect to draw any valuable and trustworthy deductions. I could have wished, however, that, in presenting my first Report to you, I had had a more favourable season to begin with; but, unfortunately, the winter of 1878-79 has been the most protracted within my memory. From the last week of November to the second week of February the ground was frozen so hard that no cultivation or transplanting could be carried on, the frost having entered the ground from 16 to 18 inches in depth. At the February meeting of the Society in 1868, my predecessor exhibited fresh flowers of upwards of a dozen spring plants, which were then in full bloom in the open air, whereas, at the same date this year, not a single flower was to be seen. True, about the beginning of February, snow-drops were out, but only in one spot, which cannot be called an open border as it is close to the palm-house where little or no frost ever occurs. The Christmas roses about the middle of February were in full bloom, having been retarded by the frost but protected