150 Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 



markable of these specimens was an almost entire skull, measuring 

 eight inches in length and five inches across the broadest part of the 

 cranium ; which in the extent of the ossified part of the mandible 

 and its downward curvature, resembled the smaller skull described in 

 a former memoir, and there referred to Binornis. In the structure 

 of the occiput and base of the cranium, this large skull more re- 

 sembled the characters of that ascribed to Palapteryx. The indica- 

 tions of the muscular attachments, and the form and size of the 

 massive beak, bespoke the great power and force with which it had 

 been habitually applied in the living bird. 



Its anatomical characters were minutely detailed. Comparisons of 

 the area of the occipital foramen for the transmission of the spinal 

 marrow with that of the spinal canal in different vertebrae, were made 

 with a view of determining the species to which the cranium in ques- 

 tion might belong ; and the peculiar contraction of the spinal canal 

 in the vertebrae of Binornis as compared with that in the Ostrich was 

 pointed out. The inference deduced was, that the cranium, not- 

 withstanding its great size, belonged probably to the species called 

 Palapteryx ingens, which was the second in point of size. 



A mutilated cranium of a much younger bird, showing all the 

 sutures, but of nearly equal size with the skull first described, might 

 belong to the Binornis giganteus. Two crania, referable to two di- 

 stinct species of smaller birds oi Palapteryx, were described, and sec- 

 tions of the cranium were shown, to demonstrate the form and cha- 

 racter of the brain. In the collection transmitted by Governor Grey, 

 Professor Owen had, for the first time, recognized a portion of a 

 diminutive wing-bone, similar, in the absence of the usual processes 

 for the muscles of flight, to that in the Apteryx, and confirmatory, 

 both by this character and its extreme rarity, contrasted with the 

 abundance of vertebrae and leg-bones that had been transmitted, of 

 the inference as to the rudimental condition of the wings in the 

 Binornis and Palapteryx. 



The memoir concluded with a description of a cranium of the Not- 

 ornisy more perfect than that fragmentary one on which the affinities 

 of that bird to the RallidcB or Coot-tribe had originally been founded, 

 and its generic distinction from PorphyHo established. The speci- 

 men exhibited confirmed the accuracy of the conjectural restorations 

 in the figure of the original specimen in a former volume of the 

 Transactions of the Society. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



Dec. 11, 1851. — Professor Balfour, President, in the Chair. 



Dr. Balfour read a letter from Dr. Dickie, mentioning the occurrence 

 of Carex rigida close by the sea, within reach of the spray, on Down- 

 patrick Head ; also the occurrence of Hieracium nigrescens 1 and of 

 Hypnum rufescens on Ben Bulben. 



The following papers were lead : — 



1 . " Notice of the Hieracium plumheam (Fries) as a British plant," 

 by James Backhouse, jun. 



