183 Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 



at Ilabbics How, indicates an approach to an alpine flora. Habbies 

 How is a narrow cLasm running nearly east and west, bounded on 

 each side by ])recipitous recks, which are seldom exposed to the rays 

 of the sun. It lies at the base of the northern slope of the highest 

 of the Pentlands (here attaining an altitude of about 1800 feet), and 

 it is on the rocks facing the north that the plants occur. 



Professor Balfour read a letter from Mr. Macmillan, in which he 

 stated that he had received a number of Lichens gathered on the 

 Cumbraes, among which were several very rare species, for which 

 no locality had previously been found in Scotland, they being 

 eminently southern species ; such as Parmelia tiliacea and corruyata^ 

 and Opeyrapha Lyellii and dendritica. 



Mr. Macmillan remarks : — " I found in a wood immediately above 

 Inver, near Dunkeld, an immense number of juniper bushes, the stems 

 and branches of which were profusely covered with magnificent speci- 

 mens of the Podisoma juniperi-communiSi a very rare Hypodermous 

 fungus, previously found only, as far as I am aware, in one or two 

 stations in England. Last year, I observed beside the monument in 

 the grounds of Taymouth Castle, a very old juniper bush completely 

 covered with it. In a fresh state, and particularly during damp or 

 rainy weather, it bears considerable resemblance to some species of 

 Clavaria ; growing in the form of a bundle of thick gelatinous stems 

 of an orange colour, and tapering at one extremity — aggregated 

 together on the part of the branch infested, and completely envelop- 

 ing it — and thus giving it an appearance not unlike a pine-apple 

 when seen from a little distance. In an old state, and in hot weather, 

 however, it dries up and becomes hard and shrivelled. 



June 12, 1856.— Prof. Balfour, V.P., in the Chair. 

 The following papers were read : — 



1 . " Elucidation of some Plants mentioned in Dr. Francis Hamil- 

 ton's Account of the Kingdom of Nepal," by Lieut. -Colonel Madden. 



An attempt to determine several of the doubtful species. 



2. "On the Duration of the Life of Plants," by Prof. Fleming. 



3. *' Inquiry into the signs of current Electricity in Plants," by 

 H. F. Baxter, Esq. 



After alluding to the researches of Becquerel, Donne, Wartmann, 

 and Zantedeschi, the author proceeded to detail experiments made 

 on plants by means of the electrodes of a galvanometer. He exa- 

 mined the electric currents in the leaves, roots, flowers, fruits, and 

 tubers, and the following are the conclusions drawn : — 



1st. That when the electrodes of a galvanometer are brought into 

 contact, one ^vith the surface of the leaf, and the other with the sap 

 flowing from the same leaf, an efl'ect occurs upon the needle indicating 

 the surface and the sap to be in opposite electric states. These effects 

 cannot be referred entirely to ordinary electro-chemical actions, but 

 may be referred, in part, to the organic changes which take place in 

 the leaf during vegetation. 



