LOCAL SECRETARIES. Aberdeen-GEORGE DICKIE, M.A., M.D., F. L.S. Berwick-PHILIP W. MACLAGAN, M.D. Birmingham-GEORGE A. PANTON, F. L.S., St Bennet's Hill. GEORGE KING, M.D., Botanic Garden. Cambridge-CHARLES C. BABINGTON, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Botany. Dumfries-JAMES GILCHRIST, M.D. Fife J. T. BOSWELL, LL.D., F.L.S., of Balmato, Kirkcaldy. Glasgow-ALEXANDER DICKSON, M.D., F.R.S. E., Professor of Botany. Kilbarchan-Rev. G. ALISON. London-WILLIAM CARRUTHERS, F.R.S., F.L.S., British Museum. London, Brixton--JOHN ARCHIBALD, M. B., C.M., F.R.C.S.E. Melbourne, Australia-Baron FERDINAND VON MUELLER, M.D. Nashville, Tennessee-GEORGE S. BLACKIE, M.D. Norfolk-JOHN LOWE, M.D., King's Lynn. Nova Scotia-GEORGE LAWSON, LL.D., Dalhousie. Ottawa, Ontario-W. R. RIDDELL, B.Sc., B.A., Prov. Normal School. Perth-W. LAUDER LINDSAY, M.D., F.L.S., F.R.S.E. Saharunpore, India-J. F. DUTHIE, B. A., F. L.S., Botanic Garden. Shrewsbury-Rev. W. A. LEIGHTON, B.A., F.L.S. Silloth-JOHN LEITCH, M.B., C.M. Wellington, New Zealand-JAMES HECTOR, M.D., F.R.S.E. Wolverhampton-JOHN FRASER, M.A., M.D. Zanzibar-JOHN KIRK, M.D., F.L.S. The following Honorary Fellows were elected : : AUGUST WILHELM EICHLER, Professor of Botany, Kiel, Holstein. JOHANNES MARTIN LANGE, Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanic Garden, Copenhagen. The following Candidates were elected Resident Fellows : Commander FRANCIS M. NORMAN, R. N., Cheviot House, Berwickon-Tweed. JAMES BUCHANAN (of Messrs Duncan, Flockhart, & Co.), Oswald Road. Professor Balfour noticed the loss which the Society had sustained since last meeting, in the death of Mr James M'Nab. It was unanimously agreed to remit to Professor Balfour and Mr Sadler to draw up a letter of condolence and transmit it in the name of the Society to Mr M'Nab's widow and family. The following Communications were read : I. Addenda to President's Address (Obituary Notices for 1877-78). II. Letter to Professor BALFOUR from Mr JOHN BUCHANAN, dated Blantyre, Shiri Highlands, Central Africa, 16th August 1878, was read. "The plants which you sent us arrived all safe, and we feel much indebted to you for sending them. The tea plant, the Coffea Liberica, and one of the two C. Arabica have begun to grow and are looking well, the other plant died. The two Ipecacuan plants are alive and looking healthy. The Ipecacuan roots during the transit had made shoots 2 to 3 inches long, but so soft and tender, that though kept in the house for several days and exposed to the light only by degrees, they withered away and have made no new ones as yet, but the roots are perfectly fresh. The coffee seeds were put into a box, but none have germinated yet. Tea and coffee plants would be to us at present of the most importance. If we could get as many as would fairly start us, we would soon increase our stock by propagation. In the beginning of the year a box containing tea, coffee, and cinchona plants was despatched to us, but it has not turned up, and I fear must have gone astray. We would be very glad to get seeds of plants which would yield medicine, spices, cordage, or whatever would be of any service here. We are perhaps too elevated for the finer and more tropical fruits coming to maturity, but we would give any sent to us a fair trial. "A plant of Colutea arborescens is doing beautifully with us; possibly the finer species of Cassia might do also. An order is being sent home for some of the smaller garden fruits, and also for plants of the Caucasian prickly Comfrey. During the dry season there is nothing for cattle to live upon, so we think that by irriga tion we could grow sufficient Comfrey to help the cattle through the dry months. "Through a Mr Crawford in Ceylon we got sent from Mr Thwaites, Director of the Botanic Gardens, a box containing for the most part yams, and seeds of Livistona chinensis and Areca alba, also one plant of Catechu. Yams are said to have been of great service in India. We hope they may be so here also. We have got from Cape Louvand, Grahamstown a number of fruit trees, and also several grape vine plants. Mr Elwes of Preston House, Cirencester, who is also a member of the Royal Horticultural Society of England, at Chiswick, offers to send fruit trees in exchange for bulbs, and Mr Renwick, a nurseryman in Melrose, is also to send us some fruit and forest trees. You see we will soon have a supply of fruit trees, but what we would like is the more useful and economic plants. "I should be glad to give you any information which might be of interest, but at present I can give you little of any importance. During the growing season I am to make observations on the vegetation of this district, and will endeavour to arrange them in a tabulated form. These if of any consequence, I will send to you. If the specimens sent away in June have arrived you will be able to form a better idea of the vegetation of this region than I could give you. I intended sending a collection of the various kinds of timber, but possibly I had better wait until you say whether it would be worth while sending them or not. The following meteorological table may be of interest: III. On the Alpine Plants of Loch Kander Corrie (L. Ceannmor), Glen Callater, Aberdeenshire. By Mr JOHN SADLER. IV. On the Growth of New Zealand and Japanese Plants in the Island of Arran. By Rev. DAVID LANDSBOROUGH, MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 1. Mr W. Evans exhibited a series of beautifully-prepared specimens of some of the more delicate forms of Agaricinæ. 2. Mr Robertson Munro exhibited what was supposed to be a grafted potato from Mr G. Donaldson, Keith Hall, but on a section being made it was found that there was no organic connection of the two tubers. 3. Mr Sadler noted the rediscovery of Curex frigida, All., in several new spots above Loch Kander, also the collecting of Salix Sadleri, Bos., in the same locality where he discovered it as new to science in August 1874. Among the other plants noted as being gathered by him in the same locality were Carex rupestris and Mulgedium alpinum. Thursday, 9th January 1879.-Dr T. A. G. BALFOUR, The following Communications were read: I. On the Envelope of the Grass Embryo. By Mr A. STEPHEN WILSON, North Kinmundy. II. Notice of a Trip with the Scottish Alpine Botanical Club, in July and August 1878, to Braemar. By Mr W. B. BOYD. The meeting for 1878 was held at the Invercauld Arms Hotel, Braemar, during the last week of July and first of August. After leaving Edinburgh, early on the morning of the 29th July, we proceeded by rail to Blairgowrie, where we breakfasted; afterwards drove to Braemar, by way of Spittal of Glenshee, and arrived at the Invercauld Arms in time for dinner. 30th July, Tuesday.-The first day's excursion was to Glen. Callater and Corrie Kander. After driving as far as Loch Callater, we proceeded up the glen by the side of the loch, to the point where Corrie Kander branches to the right; here the party divided, one half taking Corrie Kander, the other proceeded up Glen Callater proper, with the view of covering as much ground as possible in the limited time we had at our disposal. The principal object of search for those who undertook to botanise Corrie Kander, was if possible to rediscover Carex frigida and Salix Sadleri, two plants which were gathered there in 1874, for the first time in Scotland, by Mr Sadler. After a long and careful search, and much severe and dangerous climbing, it was found, upon comparing notes, that neither of the plants had been gathered, which, after all, was not wonderful, considering the extent of the Corrie, and the difficulty of climbing to many of the higher portions of it. They were, however, both of them, rediscovered about a week afterwards by Mr Sadler himself, who was unable to be present on this occasion. Although unsuccessful in the main object of the excursion, the party were fortunate in finding a new station for Mulgedium alpinum. This was the first time the plant had been gathered in the Corrie it was seen in considerable quantity and in fine flower; but mostly growing in almost inaccessible places. Most of the other plants known to grow there were gathered; among them I may mention Carex rupestris and Grimmia atrata, both rare plants. The other party in Glen Callater gathered C. vaginata, C. aquatilis, C. rariflora, C. capillaris, a curious dentate leafed form of Caltha palustris, and a very pretty depauperated variety of Athyrium Filix Fomina, and many varieties of Willows. Both Glen Callater and Corrie Kander are wild rocky gleus, so steep that it is positively dangerous to go to some parts of them, and it is not at all unlikely that there may still be some undiscovered species lurking in some of the crevices out of sight and reach. I believe the station for both C. frigida and Salix Sadleri is upon a very inaccessible part of the cliff for ordinary climbers, and not to be reached by a single person alone. The next day's excursion was to Little Craigendal and Ben Avon, and as this walk lay entirely in the Deer Forest, belonging to Colonel Farquarhson of Invercauld, we were much indebted to the good services and kind permission of Mr Foggo, factor at Invercauld, who supplied us with Mr John M'Hardy, head forester, as our guide. After crossing the Dee in a boat, we kept to the west for a mile or two, then turned due north to Little Craigendal. A long gradual ascent brought us to the top of the hill, and about half-way up we gathered Betula nana creeping along close to the ground, and among the heather, and is, I believe the smallest birch tree known. When near the top we came to the well known station for Astragalus alpinus, which with that in Glen Dole is the only spot in Scotland where it is at present known to grow; near the same place we gathered Dryas octopetala and Carex rupestris, the last apparently very rare. From this point we had to go to Ben Avon, but in order to do so we had to descend into the valley in a westerly direction, a very steep and unpleasant scramble. Along the valley we wound for a couple of miles before beginning the ascent of Ben Avon. This mountain is 3843 feet high, and tries well the lungs and muscles of the botanist, which on this occasion were fairly tested, as the day was warm and the pace fast. The top of Ben Avon is |