Miscellaneous. 69 



scientific society that attendance which they were able to bestow on 

 professional societies and meetings. During last session, they had 

 also felt a great blank in the absence from their meetings of their 

 former distinguished president, Dr. Graham, whose long and painful 

 illness had, for many months previous to his death, precluded his 

 taking any part in their proceedings. Dr. Maclagan felt it to be un- 

 necessary in such a meeting to eulogise the character of Professor 

 Graham. They all not only knew him to be a zealous cultivator and 

 successful teacher of botany, but they had individually found in him 

 a kind, upright and sincere friend. His affable manner, conjoined 

 with his highly honourable deportment, had procured for him the 

 respect and esteem of all who had the pleasure of knowing him. 



It was a gratification to find in Dr. Graham's successor the gen- 

 tleman to whose zeal and activity the Botanical Society of Edin- 

 burgh owed its origin. He congratulated Dr. Balfour on his return 

 to his native city, and expressed the hope and expectation that in 

 his new position he would materially support and advance the inter- 

 ests of the Society. 



The following communications were read :— 



1. *' Contributions to the Physiology of Fecundation in Plants." 

 By George Dickie, M.D., Lecturer on Botany in the University and 

 King's College of Aberdeen. (See p. 5 of the present Number.) 



2. " Remarks on some forms of Rubus." By T. Bell Salter, M.D., 

 F.L.S., Ryde, Isle of Wight. (See 'Annals,' vol. xvi. p.361.) 



Mr. James M'Nab exhibited a specimen of silk cotton {Bombax 

 Ceiha), and mentioned that this substance was under trial in this city, 

 with the view of its being employed in the manufacture of hats. 



Specimens oiBarkhausia setosa, gathered near North Queensferry, 

 by Andrew Dewar, Esq., Dunfermline, were placed on the table. 



MISCELLANEOUS. , 



Additional note on the Belted Kingfisher , Alcedo Alcyon, Linn., obtained 



in Ireland. 



The communication on this subject, which was published in the De- 

 cember Number of the 'Annals,' p. 430, was despatched immediately 

 on receipt of the information, more especially that Mr. Yarrell (like- 

 wise informed to the same effect) might as early as possible be in 

 possession of it for the second edition of his ' History of British 

 Birds,' then just being concluded. It was consequently deficient in 

 some few points, to which the attention of my correspondents in 

 Dublin has since been directed. It was desirable to know the re- 

 spective dates on which the birds were met with in Meath and 

 Wicklow, that we might thus guard against the possibility of " one 

 and the same " bird being noticed as two individuals. Mr. Warren 

 replies, the Belted Kingfisher was shot by Frederick A. Smith, Esq., 

 at Annsbrook, county of Meath, on the 26th of October, and that 

 the statement of Mr. Latouche's gamekeeper on the 20th of Novem- 

 ber was, that the bird seen by him fishing at the river between Lug- 



