Dr. Graham^s Description of New or Rare Plants. 181 



. at the base, tapering to a point at the apex. Corolla large and very hand- 

 some ; lowest petal pale lilac, white in front near the claw, obcordate, pen- 

 dulous, shortly spurred ; the other petals erect cr reflected, elliptical, 

 somewhat oblique, the two centre ones, and nearly the upper half of the 

 side ones, dark velvet-purple, behind all the petals are pale lilac, nearly 

 uniform. Stamens free, and anthers nearly without pollen in the spe- 

 cimen described, the two lowest longer than the others, apices oblong, 

 blunt, concave on the inside, orange-yellow. Pistil equal in length to 

 the lowest stamens, everywhere glabrous ; germen conical, green ; style 

 clavate ; stigma obliquely truncated, very sliortly rostrate. 

 This plant is extremely different in its apj)earance from the specimen fi- 

 gured in Botanical Magazine, t. 89, but I do not find any characters by 

 which it can be considered specifically distinct. It is probably the va- 

 riety mentioned by Pursh as having a handsome corolla, variegated with 

 pale blue and dark j)urple velvet ; but this is quoted by De Candolle, 

 on the authority of Kufinesque, as his /3, which has a pubescent pistil, 

 . whereas in this it is perfectly glabrous. I have quoted Viola ranunculi- 

 folia with a slight degree of doubt, merely because it is described as 

 glabrous, which this is not on the surface of the leaves. . The plant is 

 extremely beautiful, and highly deserving of cultivation. It was intro- 

 duced by Mr Drummond from Georgia into the Botanic Garden, Glas- 

 gow, from whence we received it in 1832. ' "With us, it produced in the 

 greenhouse a succession of flowers in the beginning of October 1833, and 

 it is now (10th December) about to flower again. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE EOYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBCHGH. 

 (Continued from Vol. IV. p. 402.) 



March 18. — Professor Russell, Vice-President, in the 

 Chair. The following communications were laid before the So- 

 caety ; — 



1. Observations on the Anatomy of the Rorqual (a Whale- 

 bone Whale. of the largest magnitude), drawn up from the 

 dissection of a specimen found dead off North Berwick. 

 By Robert Knox, M. D., F. R. S. Ed. 



This paper, composed chiefly of anatomical >tletails regarding the 

 anatomical structure of the Rorqual, scarcely admits of abridgment. 

 The author has described the skeleton of the cavity for receiving the 

 brain and the mechanism of the larynx at greatest length. The en- 

 tire length of the whale, measured by a straight line, drawn on the 

 sand from the nose to the middle part of the tail, and making a slight 

 allowance for the curved position in which the animal lay, was 80 

 feet. Length of the head 23 feet. The girth of the carcass at the 

 pectoral extremities (though the animal had been ten days on the 

 beach, and was much collapsed) 34 feet. Breadth of the tail from 

 tip to tip 20 feet. The author describes the appearance of the mouth. 



