REV. MR BAIHD'S ADDRESS. 17 



of the plants collected arid observed in the last excursion. 2. A notice 

 of the shells collected during the same excursion in Dunglass Dean, by 

 Dr Johnston ; and, 3. A valuable and very ingenious paper by Dr 

 Thomson, viz. ; a Register of the Barometer kept at Eccles Manse, du- 

 ring the year 1 832 ; from which the author deduced many curious facts 

 and various conclusions of considerable importance. From the interest 

 with which this paper was listened to, it is hoped that the example set 

 by Dr Thomson, will have led others to institute a similar series of 

 observations, and that, from different situations in the county, we shall 

 have, from time to time, reports connected with this interesting depart- 

 ment. At the same meeting were also read a notice by Mr Brown of 

 two plants new to the Flora of Berwickshire ; and a notice by Dr John- 

 ston of the Great Northern Diver ( Colymbus glacialis) being caught in 

 a salmon-net on Spittal shore, 1 1th May 1833. 



The 17th of July, when the Club met at Holy Island, was a day of 

 unusual beauty. With regard to the excursion of the day, I, unfortu- 

 nately, can say little, not having been present ; but we can all form some 

 idea of its pleasure, when we know that the scene of the excursion was 

 Holy Island, and the day one unrivalled for its splendour. 



On looking over the minutes of this meeting, it appears to have been 

 one of unusual business. Among other papers, we observe a notice by 

 Mr Erableton, of the plants observed during last excursion ; a very in- 

 teresting and valuable notice by Mr Selby, entitled, " Onithological ob- 

 servations made during the excursions of the Club in April and June ; " 

 and the announcement to the Society by Mr Mitchell, of two plants 

 new to the Berwick Flora ; one, the magnificent Osmunda regalis, ob- 

 served at the Routin Linn, near Fenton in Northumberland ; the other, 

 a species of mint, which solicited particular attention, and which has since 

 been ascertained to be the Mentha crispa of Linnaeus. In the minutes 

 of the same meeting, we observe an excellent paper by Dr Johnston, en- 

 titled, " A list of the Invertebrate Animals observed during the walk 

 from Coldingham to Coldingham Loch, St Abb's Head," &c. June 19th, 

 in which he notices, as new to Berwickshire, the Helix cellaria and H. 

 pura, Planorbis fontanns, and Pesidium pulchellum ; and, as an addition 

 to the marine botany of Berwickshire, the Sphacelaria cirrhosa of Gre- 

 ville. At the same meeting was also read an interesting and elaborate 

 paper, by Mr W. Baird, on that very curious animal the Gordius aqva- 

 ticus or hair-worm, an animal by no means uncommon, but the struc- 

 ture, the habits, and the general history of which have hitherto been 

 very little attended to. The public business of the day was concluded 

 by a paper by Dr Johnston on the failure of the Potato crop during the 

 present year, in which some probable reasons are assigned for the fact, 

 but which, we suspect, is still in a great measure unexplained, and still, 

 therefore, open to inquiry. 



Such, then, is a very hurried and, I fear also, a most imperfect, rccapi- 



