20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



useless and noxious weeds, to find almost every oat-field sprinkled 

 round tlie border with Avena fatua, a plant that I have never seen 

 in the west, except in a poor, ill-cultivated patch of oats in Arran. 

 The eastern counties rejoice in the presence of Centcmrea Cyanus, 

 which, in the west, never gladdens the eye with its bright blue 

 blossoms, unless from the flower-plot of the cottage garden. To 

 balance this we have in the west Chrysanthemum segetum, a plant 

 that I never observed in the east but once, and that was as an orna- 

 ment in a garden at North Berwick. The Lothian farmers say that 

 Chrysanthemum segetum abounded in their fields at one time, and 

 they boast that they extirpated it by high farming; but how does 

 it happen that they have been so successful with this pest, while 

 the Papaver and Centatirea still defy them? Fapaver, Chrysanthemum, 

 and Centaurea, are essentially corn-field genera; and when we 

 consider the frequent transportation of seed corn from one side of 

 the island to the other, Ave are astonished that the plants of the 

 one district make their appearance so seldom in the other. In 

 reality they do appear here and there every season, but they fail 

 in effecting, a permanent settlement, a sure proof that there are 

 causes at work which we, as yet, have been unable to detect, and 

 telling us plainly that we have much to learn before we can 

 understand those physical laws that regulate the distribution of 

 species over siich a limited area of the earth's surface as that 

 comprehended within our own little island. 



March 25th, 1862. 

 Mr John Gray, Vice-President, in the chair. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



The Secretary exhil)ited a specimen of Megalophus regius (the 

 Royal Great Crest of Swainson), an inhabitant of Guiana and 

 north of Brazil, accompanied by a beautifully executed drawing 

 of the bird, in an attitude of life, by Mr Wm. Sinclair. This 

 specimen, it was observed, was possessed of an unusually fine 

 crest, besides being in other respects a desirable example of a 

 rare species, respecting the habits of which nothing appears to be 

 known. There were also exhibited two other birds, natives of 

 Brazil, not of common occurrence, namely, Aglaia striata (figured 

 in the " Zoology of the Beagle " as Tanagra Darwinii), and 



