NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. xlvii 



able for having affinity with scarcely any group except the Myricece 

 or order to which our Bog-myrtle belongs. The flowers are diclinous, 

 but in some species they are monoecious, while in others they are 

 dioecious. In one of the specimens shown, the long lax spikes were 

 well seen ; and it was stated that owing to the brown colour of 

 thousands of these pendent spikes, the tree from which the specimens 

 were taken presented a somewhat scorched appearance. The male 

 flowers, as well as the female, are achlamydeous, and possessed of 

 one stamen only. The female flowers are said to be capitate at the 

 tips of the branches, being seated in the axil of a bract. The ovary 

 is one-celled, containing two ovules, and there are two styles. The 

 ripe fruit is a strobilus or cone, of woody bracts and bracteoles, each 

 pair of bracts opening at maturity and discharging a samara-like 

 caryopsis or grain. The species usually attain to the size of trees. They 

 have a habit in some respects resembling that of the Equisetacew, 

 as their branches are whorled, jointed, and furrowed. As in that 

 order, too, the leaves are replaced by striate toothed sheaths sur- 

 rounding the nodes of the branches. The timber is not of much 

 value, being alike hard, heavy, and somewhat brittle ; but it is used 

 bv the Pacific Islanders for making war-clubs. Mr. Somerville 

 remarked that the trees, when growing in a tropical climate, remind 

 one of some species of Pine ; and many a time, when looking at the 

 handsome examples growing in the Public Park at Calcutta, had 

 his mind been carried from the sweltering heats of latitude 23° to 

 the breezy hillsides of Scotland. 



Mr. Peter Ewing, Vice-President, read a report on an excursion 

 made to Ben Lawers, and other mountains of the Breadalbane 

 range, on loth- 19th July, with remarks on the condition of the 

 Alpine plants observed.* 



He also exhibited specimens of the following plants from Ben 

 Lawers and other mountains of the Breadalbane range : 



Arabis petrcsa, Lam., var. hispida, 

 DO. (along with a specimen of 

 the type from the Island of Mull). 



Draba rupestris, R. Br. 



Erophila inflata, Hook. 



Arenaria sulcata, Schlecht. 



Sagina Linncei, Presl. 



S. nivalis, Fr. 



Rosa subfflobosa, Sm. 



Juncus castaneus, Sm. 



Eriophorum angustifolium, Roth , 

 var. elatius, Koch. 



Carex pulla, Good., a pale variety 

 with whitish glumes and light- 

 green perigynia. 



Phleum alpinum, L. 



Festuca capillata, Haeck. 



Mr. John Smith, Corresponding Member, exhibited a dried 



* Transactions, vol. ii., p. -S23. 



