SCOTTISH SOCIETIES. 



Edinburgh. Botanical Society, Thursday, 13th April.— A. Buchan, 

 M.A., President, in the chair. Professor Balfour noticed the death of 

 Mr. Wm. Wilson, author of the Bryologia Britannica, which took place at 

 Paddington, near Warrington, on 3rd April. He was a Corresponding Fellow 

 of the Society, and contributed to its transactions and herbarium. The follow- 

 ng communications were read : — (1) Notes on the recent Progress of Botany in 

 Denmark, by Dr. Robt. Brown. Dr. Brown gave a review of some of the more 

 important researches made by Danish botanists during the last few years, and 

 published chiefly in the Danish language, in the Transactions of the Natural 

 History Society, the Botanical Society, the Academy of Science, or as separate 

 works. (2) On the Phyllotaxis of Lepidodendron, by Professor Alex. Dickson. 

 Dr. Dickson exhibited, and made some remarks on, specimens of Lepidoden- 

 dron from the coal measures, which, in the arrangements of their scales, or leaf 

 scars, illustrated the same spirals as found in plants at the present day. 



(3) Note on Lilium canadense, L. var. pubcrulum Torr, by Dr. Robert Brown. 



(4) Report on the Open Air Vegetation at the Royal Botanic Garden, by Mr. 

 M'Nab. Since the last meeting of the Botanical Society (March 9), the weather 

 has been excessively dry, accompanied with north-easterly winds. On fifteen 

 mornings the thermometer has been at and below the freezing point, the lowest 

 markings being on the 15th, 17th, and 29th of March, and on the 7th, 8th, and 

 nth of April, falling respectively to 22, 28, 26, 28, 25, and 24 deg. It is re- 

 markable that those plants fixed on for the purpose of recording the dates of 

 their flowering, have this year come within a range of rather less than two 

 months— viz., between February 13 and April 9. The plants enumerated gene- 

 rally extend over a part of four months. The short period this year has been 

 caused by the unusually long winter, which prevented the snowdrop and winter 

 aconite (two of the earliest spring flowers) opening their blossoms before Feb- 

 ruary 13. Some of the latest recorded this month are fully eighteen days earlier 

 than last year. During 1870, the same plants ranged between February 3 and 

 April 30, and during 1869 between January 9 and April 3, shewing a consider- 

 able range in the periods of flowering of the same plants during different years. 



