Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 373 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



April 9, 1846.— Prof. Balfour, President, in the Chair. 



Donations to the library and museum were announced ; particu- 

 larly one from Mr. William Gardiner, jun., Dundee, of his elegant 

 little work on the Mosses, intended as an introduction to the study 

 of that interesting tribe of plants. It seems well-fitted to accom- 

 plish the object in view. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "Botanical Excursions in Upper Styria in 1842," by Dr. R. 

 C. Alexander. 



In this paper Dr. Alexander gave an account of various excursions 

 to the mountainous parts of Styria, during which he visited the 

 Schokel, Lantsch, Leoben, Reiting, YoUing, Klagenfurt, and Saltz- 

 bach ; also of the various plants observed during his tour. He col- 

 lected in all about 900 species, of which upwards of twenty were 

 new to the flora of Styria. The paper was accompanied by a list 

 of the principal plants collected south of the Drave. Specimens 

 from the Society's herbarium, contributed by Dr. Alexander, were 

 produced to illustrate the paper, of which an abstract will appear in 

 these ' Annals ' and in the Society's * Transactions.' 



2. " Remarks on the Claims of certain Species of Plants to be con- 

 sidered indigenous to Britain," by Mr. R. M. Stark. 



Mr. Stark adverted to the progress of Botanical Geography, and 

 particularly to the labours of Mr. Hewett C.Watson. Passing over 

 the instances of shrubs and perennial herbaceous plants found appa- 

 rently wild, but which have undoubtedly escaped from the garden, 

 he directed attention to the large family of annual corn-weeds. 

 Though universally dispersed wherever the plough and the agency 

 of man extended, the fact of their not being found associated with 

 other annuals where the land was waste and uncultivated, seemed 

 to prove that they were the companions of the cereal grains, and 

 with them had been introduced at a very remote period. Some of 

 them are confined to one side of the island, or to certain districts, 

 which showed that, notwithstanding their probable exotic origin, 

 they were more or less subject to the laws regulating the distribu- 

 tion of organic life. He expressed the opinion that it would be de- 

 sirable, both for the interests of science and agriculture, that these 

 plants, and their prevalence or rarity in various districts, should be 

 recorded in our catalogues, local floras, and other works of a similar 

 description. 



Mr. James M'Nab exhibited flowering plants of two species of 

 Ai'um (A. cor datum and A. cornutum), raised in the garden of the 

 Horticultural Society, from seeds sent by William Jameson, Esq., 

 from Saharunpore, in April 1843. The flowering spathe of one was 

 two feet, and of the other eighteen inches in length, both being 

 beautifully mottled with brown and yellow spots. 



