74 Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



November 8, 1855. — Professor Balfour, President, in the Chair. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. "On the Batrachian Ranunculi of Britain," by C. C. Babing- 

 ton, M.A., F.R.S. (See Annals, vol. xvi. p. 385.) 



2. " Note on Linaria sepium, Allman," by C. C. Babington, M.A., 

 F.R.S. (See Annals, vol. xvi. p. 449.) 



Professor AUman remarked that he found some difficulty in allow- 

 ing the plant to be a hybrid, as represented by Mr. Babington, but 

 that, from a recent examination of specimens at Bandon, he believed 

 it to be only a variety of L. repens. 



3. "On the Influence of Last Winter on Trees and Shrubs at 

 Aberdeen," by G. Dickie, M.D., Professor of Natural History, 

 Queen's College, Belfast. 



4. "Notice of the Flowering of the Victoria regia in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, Glasgow," by Mr. Peter Clarke, Curator of the 

 Garden. 



5. "On the Structure of Victoria regia, Lindl.," by Mr. George 

 Lawson. 



The lower surface of the Victoria leaf is somewhat peculiar. It 

 exhibits no stomata, but is thickly clothed with flexuous hairs, con- 

 sisting of cylindrical cells, and arising each from a small round basal 

 cell, very distinct both from the other cells of the hair and those of 

 the epidermis, which latter are filled with diffused colouring matter, 

 mostly red, but some blue, and a few without colour. These hairs 

 average about the 5^^^ P^^^ ^^ ^^ mch. in length, by the 4^0^^^ ^^ ^^ 

 inch in breadth. There are seen scattered over the surface, in ad- 

 dition to the hairs, numerous round cells, precisely similar to those 

 which form the bases of the hairs ; these apparently indicate non- 

 developed hairs. The arrangement of these cells (taking together 

 those which form the bases of hairs and those whose hairs are abor- 

 tive) is so strikingly similar to the arrangement of the stomata on 

 the opposite surface of the leaf, as to suggest the question whether 

 these cells are not homologous with the stomata — are, in fact, the cells 

 from which stomata would be evolved if they were produced. This 

 idea is strengthened by the fact that a trace of chlorophyll is seen in 

 these cells, while it is entirely absent in the ordinary epidermal cells, 

 but present in well-defined globules in the cells of the true stomata. 

 Whatever be the homological relationship between the hairs and the 

 stomata, there can be no doubt that the cells to which I have alluded 

 represent undeveloped hairs. 



6. " Notice of some of the Contents of the Museum of (Economic 

 Botany in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden," by Professor Balfour. 



