Don's specimens in his possession retains the particles of mica, showing that it came from a wild site. C. frigida. Mr Sadler has kindly given to the Herbarium the original specimens of this plant, and I have added several sheets of cultivated specimens taken from a plant brought home by him, more fully to illustrate the species pending its re-gathering. There will also be found in the folio a sheet of three specimens with the label of W. H. Campbell, saying: "C. binervis Sm., (?), Clova mountains, comm. Wight, 1834," and a memorandum in the MS. of Prof. Graham: "If C. binervis it is a very strange form; I doubt it." Dr Boswell confirms me without hesitation in calling two of these specimens C. frigida, the third appearing doubtful to both of us. I am afraid it will be impossible to ascertain their history, and in botany guess-work is anything but desirable. C. Grahami.-Opinions differ considerably about this plant. "Lond. Cat." enters it with a ? as a variety of C. pulla, Good. Babington calls it a species. Syme, “E. B.” gives it as a sub.-species of C. saxatilis, Fries, and Hooker in "Student's Fl." makes it a variety of his C. vesicaria proper. Our specimens are-Glen Dole, 1832 (Greville); Glen Fee, 1834 and 1872 (Balfour); and perhaps Ben Crupen, Killin, Aug. 1837 (Greville). Chamagrostis minima.-" Fl. Edin." says: "Sandy shore near Gosford. Introduced." We have no specimen thus localised, but there is one ex herb. Knapp, with a note in the MS. of the late Mr W. M'Nab, saying: "A specimen of a curious little grass from Dirleton Common, now naturalised there." According to Topog. Bot." p. 456, Dr Knapp is supposed to have sown the plant, and we learn that it was extinct before 1868. I can safely say that he received seed of it from Jersey. Psamma baltica.-1872, W. Richardson and Dr Philip Maclagan; 1875, A. Brotherston. Agrostis interrupta.-Dirleton Common, June and July 1867 (Sadler), and 1876 (Webb). It has in the interim. fallen off in luxuriance. Entered in "Fl. Edin." ed. ii. as "probably introduced," but I don't think it has been purposely introduced. Glyceria fluitans, pedicellata, and plicata.-On 9th TRANS. BOT. SOC. VOL. XIII. H Nov. 1846 Mr F. Townsend read a paper to the Society on a supposed new species of Glyceria, but for the purpose of adding further observations, publication was withheld. In Dec. 1849 he contributed another paper describing the novelty under the name of G. pedicellata ("Trans." iv. p. 27). We have specimens illustrative of the first of these, and have recently received from the Bot. Exchange Club a set of the three plants above named, distributed by Mr Townsend after an interval of 27 years, and showing that his opinion remains the same. Poa cœsia, (Smith). No wild specimens of this are known to exist. Dr Boswell says of a specimen in our collection that it is more like the true plant than any he had seen. This specimen was gathered by Professor Balfour in Glen Isla, Aug. 6, 1846. Poa Balfourii.-The descriptive portion of Dr Parnell's "Grasses of Scotland" had passed through the press when the author received from Professor Balfour specimens of a grass gathered near the summit of Ben Voirlich, on the rocks above Loch Sloy, which proving undescribed, received from him the name of P. Balfourii-an extra page being added to the book, and a figure given on pl. 66. We possess several specimens, with tickets in Professor Balfour's MS. stating that they were obtained 15th July 1842. Dr Parnell's preface is dated 26th Sept. 1842. Our alpine Poa's were used by Dr Boswell in the preparation of vol. xi. of "E. B." ed. iii., and are annotated by him. Asplenium germanicum.—We have a very fine specimen of this, with nine fronds, from Stenton Rock, three miles from Dunkeld (Dr Knapp in herb. Greville). Other good specimens from same place from Messrs W. Gorrie, T. B. Bell, and G. M'Nab, the whole apparently collected in 1835–6. Three fronds labelled "Ochills-Dewar, 1836" (Professor Balfour's MS.). Two strong fronds from Hill of Barf, Cumberland, Mr Mawson, Aug. 1869 (J. Sadler MS.). TRANSACTIONS OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY. SESSION XLII. 8th November 1877.—Sir WyVILLE THOMSON, LL.D., The CHAIRMAN delivered the following opening address: Although I am happy to be able to say that the health of your venerable president, Sir Robert Christison, is greatly restored, he does not yet feel it prudent to take an active part in evening meetings. I have accordingly been requested to occupy the chair this evening in his place, and to congratulate you upon the commencement of . another session of the Botanical Society. I ought probably, under the circumstances, to have prepared for you to the best of my ability a general resumé of the progress of botanical science during the present year. You are aware, however, that I am greatly occupied with other matters, and have had but little time for preparation. I must therefore ask your indulgence if, instead of attempting to run over the whole range of botany, I direct your attention for the few moments at my disposal to a curious subject of inquiry to which important contributions have been made even since we last met. We are in the habit of teaching that while the differences between living and inert matter are definitely marked, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, TRANS. BOT. SOC. VOL. XIII. I |