PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 53 



species already i-ecorded from the collections of Mr. Robert Brown, and the 

 Danish botanists, were two hundi'ed and sixty-eight. Several of Giesecke's 

 names were now donbtful, as his list was formed prior to the microscopic era 

 of lichenology. III. On Dr. Gray's Arrangement of the Ilepaticcc. By 

 Benjamin Carrington, M.D. The author remarked, that Seemann's ' Journal 

 of Botany ' for 1865 contained an article of great interest by Mr. Camithers, 

 claiming priority for the classification of the Hepatica, proposed in Gray's 

 'Natural Arrangement of British Plants' (1821). Mr. Carruthers deserved 

 the thanks of English botanists for enabling them to rectify an act of injustice. 

 Fifty years ago, priority of nomenclature was a matter of much less considera- 

 tion than in our time. Thus, about the time when Gray's work appeared, two 

 other botanists publislied arrangements of the Hepaticce, Raddi (1820) and 

 Dumortier (1822). Singularly enough, each seems to have been ignorant of 

 the other's work. Subsequent writers have shown little more regard for the 

 work of their jjredecessors, so that the genus Jungerviannia, wiiich Hooker 

 (1816) left intact— a little oasis in scientific botany where synonyms where 

 unknown — now abounds with these objectionable appendages. An objection 

 has been offered to Dr. Gray's names, the masculine terminology of his genera, 

 which renders them rough and uncouth to our ears, accustomed to the softer 

 feminine. Thus, although more correct, who would exchange Hookerius for 

 Hookeria, or Linnsens for Linnsea ? Dr. Carrington concluded by contrasting 

 Dr. Gray's system with the system now adopted. IV. Miscellaneous Commu- 

 nications. Professor Dickson, Glasgow, made some remarks regarding the 

 formation of the fruit of IIippop?la.erhamnoides,&^aAel^.\lh\\.eA preserved speci- 

 mens. He stated that Mr. Sadler and he had paid a visit to Tynninghame 

 last month, where they found the plant fruiting in the greatest profusion on 

 the shore. Dr. Dickson also exhibited a flower of Tropceolmn (Indian Cress), 

 having two spurs. Mr. Gorrie exhibited cones of Picea Cephalonica and Cu- 

 pressus Lambertiana, produced at St. Fort, Fifeshire. Duncan Forbes, Esq., 

 presented cones of Picea Cephalonica, taken from a tree at CuUoden House, 

 15 feet 8 inches high. Mr. Fowler, gardener. Castle Kennedy, sent cones of 

 Picea Pindroio, P. Webhiana, and Abies orientalis, produced there. Mr. 

 Bissett presented cones of Picea Cephalonica, produced at Moncrieffe, Perth- 

 shire. Mr. M'Nab exhibited cones of Ticea Nordmanniana from the Cambridge 

 Botanic Garden. Professor Christison presented tlie fruit of a species of 

 Strophanthus, which yields an arrow poison used by the African natives on the 

 Shire. Donations to the herbarium were announced from Mrs. Millar, plants 

 from the Cape of Good Hope ; Dr. James Cox, Australian plants ; D. L. 

 Beckingsale, Esq., rare English plants ; Mr. Sim, plants naturalized on the 

 banks of Tay ; Rev. Thos. Bell, specimens of Brosera longifolia, collected on 

 Benhar Moor, near Whitburn. 



Thursday, December 9. — Sir Walter Elliot, the newly-elected President, in 

 the chair. — The following communications were i-ead : — I. On the Structure of 

 a Lignite from the Old Red Sandstone. By W. R. M'Nab, M.D., Edinburgh. 

 The longitudinal sections exhibit at certain parts peculiar punctated discs. 

 The external disc is slightly oval, closely resembling the circular discs of the 



