Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 351 



as having its exclusive origin from the interior of the earth, and 

 never from the nitrogen of the atmosphere. In regard to these state- 

 ments he made it appear, as there is no evidence of ammonia being 

 thrown forth from the bowels of the earth at all times in quantity- 

 proportioned to the waste of it necessarily sustained at the surface 

 by decomposition, as into uncombined hydrogen and nitrogen, that 

 Liebig's view of ammonia infers the same limitation of the existence 

 of the organic kingdoms to a few thousand years, as is deduced from 

 the hypothesis of organic matter being the food of plants. Here 

 therefore he dissented from Liebig, contending that ammonia must 

 be produced from the nitrogen of the atmosphere *, and showing the 

 probabiUty of what is taught by Professor Johnson, namely, that the 

 nitrogen of nitrates, formed from the atmosphere, is fixed by plants, 

 as w^ell as the nitrogen of ammonia. 



In conclusion, he reviewed the evidence of potassa, the phosphates 

 and the other saline matters of both organic kingdoms being derived 

 originally from the crumbling of rocks, and dwelt on the retardation 

 of vegetable physiology by the long scepticism of botanists on this 

 head, owing, as he believed, to their distrust in the conclusions of 

 chemistry, and went on to show that chemistry must be the ground- 

 work of vegetable physiology in its present stage, and that the fre- 

 quent changes in the aspect and nomenclature of chemistry did not 

 materially affect the facts which it daily affords for the elucidation of 

 the vegetable oeconomy. 



2. A paper by Mr. Kalfs, of Penzance, on the genus Closterium was 

 read. This paper will shortly appear in the ' Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History.' 



3. Mr, M'Nab read a continuation of his Journal of a Tour through 

 part of the United States and the Canadas. The last portion read 

 before the Society gave an account of the journey from Montreal to 

 Kingston, and concluded with an account of a botanical excursion to 

 the eastward of the latter place : — 



The woods to the westward of Kingston appeared very dense, 

 chiefly consisting of stately beeches, growing in rich vegetable soil. 

 Several very remarkable plants were observed, and among others the 

 Monotropa uniflora and M. Hypopitys : the former, which is abun- 

 dant in shady beech woods throughout the country, and always grow- 

 ing from amongst leaves, is known to the inhabitants by the name of 

 Indian pipe or bird's-nest ; the latter is not so plentiful, but found 

 in similar situations. Here also Corallorhiza multiflora and Orohanche 

 virginica were found, and at one place in a dense thicket the rare and 

 curious Pterospora Andromeda. 



Near the confines of the woods in drier situations the white and 

 pink varieties of Phryma leptostachya occurred ; and on the dry lime- 

 stone ridges, which prevail in this neighbourhood, large quantities of 

 Triosteum perfoliatum, Gnaphalium margaritaceum, and Botrychium 

 obliquum were found ; along the margin of Lake Ontario Serpicola 

 verticillata was noticed, its delicate flowers floating on the surface. 



* This has been clearly proved by the experiments of Prof. Mulder : see 

 ' Chemical Gazette ' for Jan. 1, 1845. — W. F. 



