103 



Gelehrte Gesellschaften. 



Linnean Society of London. 



Meeting of December 15, 1881. 



Mr. G. Busk, F. R. S. in the chair. — Mr. G. S. Boniter brought 

 before the meeting a set of lai-ge ijapier-mache models of insectivorous plants 

 made at Breslau by Herr Brendel under the superintendence oiPx-of Cohn. 

 Mr. B u 1 g e r explained their adaptation for teaching purposes , and made 

 special reference by a diagram to the various stages and physiological 

 distinctions of these plants , viz. from simple viscidity of surface to the more 

 complex apparatus in Dionaea and Aldrovanda. — A paper was read by 

 Dr. M!ixw<'ll Mnslers, dealing with a new species of cotton, Gossypium 

 Kirkii from East Tropical Africa. It has an interest historically from being 

 probably the origin of very numerous cultivated varieties. It was obtained 

 by Sir John Kirk growing wild at Dar Salam. Dr. Masters regards it 

 as most nearly allied to G. barbadense, which is most commonly cultivated 

 in tropical Africa ; though along the Nile valley G. herbaceum is that usually 

 in cultivation. Acording to authorities , cotton was not cultivated in Egyjit 

 in ancient times, and the fact that the varieties now grown there are for 

 the most part forms of G. herbaceum, suggests the idea that India is the 

 source whence Egypt has derived the cotton — a notion confirmed by various 

 other considerations. The wild form of G. herbaceum , Dr. Masters has 

 previously shown, is probably G. Stocksii Mast., a native of Scinde. — A note 

 on Abies Pattonii, Jeffrey MS. 1851 by Prot. W. R. McNab, was then read. 

 The author mentions that the trees known as A. Hookeriana and A. Pattonii 

 have been a source of confusion to botanists and horticulturists. Andrew 

 Murray, in 1855, in describing a New North-American pine, mixed up the 

 leaf of A. Pattonii Balf., from Mount Baker, with the cone of A. Hookeriana 

 from Scots Mountain, Oregon, originally collected by Mr. John. Jeffrey. 

 Dr. McNab, in unravelling the error, proposes that as Jeffrey's No. 430, 

 from the Cascade Mountains, named by Balfour A. Pattonii in the Oregon 

 Circular, was unpublished, it should now be referred to Tsuga Hookeriana, 

 and the Mount Baker tree be regarded as T. Pattoniana.*) 



Socîetà adriatica di Scienze natnrali, Trieste. 



Montag den 9. Januar 1882 legte Herr Dr. C. v. Marcliesetti , Director 

 des städtischen Museums, einige Exemplare von Muscari Kerneri, M. giganteum 

 und Melica speciosa als neue , von ihm be.stimmte Arten vor und besprach 

 sodann die Flora des der Stadt anliegenden Campo Marzio (Marsfeld), hier 

 Brassica persica und Centaurea calolepis als jedenfalls durch Schiffsladungen 

 eingeschleppte fremde Arten erwähnend. Solla (Triest). 



In London hat sich eine neue naturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft unter 

 dem Namen „North Middlesex Natural History Society" gebildet, welche 

 wöchentliche Sitzungen abhalten , ein Museum herrichten und Excursionen 

 unternehmen wird. 



« 

 Atti della Soc. Toscana di Sc. nat. residente in Pisa. Memorie. Vol. V. Fase. 1. 



8. Pisa 1881. 

 , deir Accad. pontif. de' Nuovi Lincei, compilati dal Segretario ; anno 



XXXIV, sessione IIa del 16 gennaio 1881 e sessione Illa del 20 febbraio 



1881. 4. Roma 1881. 

 Bulletin de la Soc. de Borda ä Dax. Année VI. 1881. Trimestre 4. 8. 



p. LXXIII— XCII et p. 259—346. Dax 1882. 



•") From .Nature". Vol. XXV. No. 635. p. 211, 212. 



