NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. xlv 



Mr. R. Turner, Vice-President, read an interesting paper en- 

 titled "Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth: a Sketch of his Life and 

 Botanical Work." * 



24:TH February, 1885. 



Dr. James Stirton, F.L.S., President, in the Chair. 



Messrs. Fred. Lobnitz, Clarence House, Renfrew, and William 

 Morton, 25 Dorset Street, were elected Ordinary Members. 



Mr. William Craibe Angus exhibited an albino variety of the 

 Woodcock, Scolopax rusticola, L., shot last winter in Argyll- 

 shire ; also a hybrid between a Blackcock and Pheasant, bred 

 at Loudoun Castle, Ayrshire, on the form and plumage of which 

 he made some remarks, t 



The Chairman referred to recent observations on the relation 

 of albinoism to partial sterility, the result of which seemed to 

 support the theory that among albino varieties there is a ten- 

 dency towards a diminution in the number of offspring. 



The Chairman exhibited a series of eight new forms of 

 Cladonia suhsquamosa ; and in the course of some descriptive 

 remarks he stated that the genus Cladonia is one of the most 

 widely distributed of the lichen genera, being found not only in 

 cold climes, but in the tropics, and extending from the sea-shore to 

 the extreme verge of vegetation on the loftiest mountain ranges. 

 It is found up as far as 17,500 feet on such mountains as the 

 Himalayas, where it grows beneath the snow when that does 

 not exceed three or four inches in depth. He then made some 

 remarks on the new forms exhibited, and referred to the im- 

 portance of chemical reagents in determining forms, which, 

 although closely resembling each other externally, differed 

 materially in their chemical constitution. A somewhat analogous 

 relation had in like manner been shown to exist between the 

 species in some genera of flowering-plants, — Aconitum, for 

 example. Several of the Aconites were extremely poisonous, 

 owing to the presence of aconitine, perhaps the most intense 

 of all poisons; while the others were innocuous, owing to the 

 entire absence of the poisonous element. 



Mr. Donald Farquhar exhibited fertile specimens of Pogona- 

 tum nanum. Dill., collected by him in sandpits near Torrance- 

 of-Campsie. 



Mr. Thomas King exhibited specimens of Encalypta vulgaris^ 

 Hedw., var. pilifera, in fruit. These, Mr. King stated, he had 

 collected at Mugdock, near Milngavie,— the only station in the 

 district where the moss has as yet been observed. 



* Trmsactions, i. 196. fid., i. 260. 



