154 Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 



Verreaux of Paris, who obtained it in a collection from Santa Fc de 

 Bogota. In size it fully equals, if it does not exceed, O. dentatus 

 and O. speciosusy from which latter it differs in the total absence 

 of any black on the throat. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



November 12, 1857.— Professor Balfour, V.P., in the Chair. 



The Chairman gave an account of an excursion with some of his 

 pupils to Arran. The party collected 500 species of plants, of which 

 l-25th consisted of true Ferns. 



The following papers were read : — 



1 . " Notice of Abnormality in a Flower of Liliunii' by J. Christian, 

 Esq. 



In this Lily there are ten sepals, eleven stamens, and two ovaries ; 

 the petiole is slightly flattened, and appears to be formed of two 

 petioles united. The monstrous flower is undoubtedly formed, not 

 by the growth of additional parts, nor by the splitting of organs 

 during their development, but by the fusion of two flowers into one. 

 According to this view, the number of parts should be as follows : — 

 sepals, twelve ; stamens, twelve ; ovaries, two. Two of the sepals 

 seem to be lost by adhesion, as is indicated by two of them present- 

 ing a slight cleft towards the apex, showing apparently that they are 

 double. Add this number two to the number actually in the flower, 

 ten, and we have the proper number, twelve. There were only 

 eleven stamens. He is unable to account for the missing stamen 

 further than by supposing that it may be due to adhesion or abortion. 



2. "Short Notice of a pecuhar form of Fungus," by James 

 Young, M.D. 



It was found by Dr. Young while assisting Mr. Edwards in the 

 operation of excision of the knee-joint. The patient (an Irishman) 

 was, after the operation, laid on a new and clean bed, Vvith a hair- 

 mattress, which had been previously covered with gutta-percha 

 sheeting. The patient lay in considerable comfort for some days. 

 The bed;, however, became very soon damp, and it was found neces- 

 sary to have him changed. On the fourteenth day after the opera- 

 tion, he was removed from the bed till the mattress was changed, 

 and a new one substituted, when attention was directed to an ex- 

 traordinary appearance on the under part of the bed, where the 

 Fungus was produced in large quantity, growing both from the 

 spar and from the mattress. The bed was thoroughly cleaned ; but 

 in spite of this, at the expiry of nine or ten days, the same appear- 

 ance was again presented, the Fungus being nearly in equal quantity 

 as before. 



3. *' Remarks on the above Fungus," by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 

 M.A., F.L.S. 



The Fungus is an imperfect state of some Coprinus. A similar 

 case is reported in some ItaUan Transactions, and I recollect one 



