NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. XXlll 



He was appointed a Member of Council in September, 1871; and 

 on 25th September, 1877, he was elected an Honorary Member 

 of the Society. 



To his eminent scientific attainments, and energetic business 

 habits, were united a uniform courtesy of manner and kindness 

 of disposition which secured for him the friendship and respect 

 of his associates in this Society; and his untiring personal 

 efforts and wide influence, exerted during the long period in 

 which he acted as Secretary, were largely instrumental in 

 promoting the success which has attended the course of the 

 Society's existence. 



Mr. Gray was a Vice-President of the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, the Secretary of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, 

 and a prominent member of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 



Mr. D. A. Boyd exhibited specimens of the following Mosses 

 from North Ayrshire : 



Brachyodus trichodes, W. & M.— Noddsdale, Largs; in fruit. 



Ditrlchum jiexlcaule, Schwg. — Greeto Glen, Largs; barren. 



Barbula aloldes, Koch.— Glenhead, West Kilbride; in fruit. 



Barbula tortuosa, L. — Greeto Glen, Largs; barren. 



Fontinalls squamosa, L. — Greeto Glen, Largs; barren. 



Neckera complanata, L.— Southannan Glen, West Kilbride; in 

 fruit. 



Brachythedum Mildeanum, Schpr. — South Kilrusken, West 

 Kilbride ; in fruit. 



Mr. Thomas King, Vice-President, showed a specimen of the 

 Jew's-ear, Hlrneola Auriculu-Jiuhc, Berk., found on an elder 

 bush at Crookston Castle. 



Mr. King also read an interesting paper entitled, "A com- 

 parison of the views of Darwin and of Vines on the irritability 

 of plants." He remarked that on the publication of Mr. Darwin's 

 work On the Poiver of Movement in Plants, the views which it- 

 contained, based on the author's original observations and 

 experiments, were regarded by naturalists as so remarkable as 

 to be admissible only after a careful process of examination and 

 verification. These views, however, had now been tested, 

 especially by the experiments of German botanists, and were 

 generally accepted. Mr. Vines, in his recently published 

 Lectures on the Physiology of Plants, while agreeing with most 

 of Darwin's conclusions, differs from him on certain points. 

 From the constant motion of the young growing parts of 

 plants (such as leaves, twigs, radicles, &c), Darwin infers that 

 the growing parts of all plants are in motion. The movements 

 of the growing points of shoots, &c, was described by Sachs 

 under the name of "revolting nutation"; but Darwin applies 

 to it the term 4l circumnutation," and bases upon it his com- 



