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Edinbuegh Botanical Society. — April Mth, 1870. — Sir Walter Elliot, 

 K.S.I., President, in the chaii'. The following communications were read : — 

 I. " On the Flowering and Fruiting of Aucuha Japonica." By Mr. P. S. 

 Robertson. The author had observed that recently introduced female plants of 

 Aucuha from Japan, grown in a coalpit, came into flower in January and 

 February, while the male, grown in the same circumstances, never came into 

 flower till the middle of March. Yet he had every year obtained a crop of 

 young seedlings from the seeds produced, although the female flowers were quite 

 shrivelled up before the male ones expanded. He found that the common 

 spotted variety, long grown in this coimtry, does not flower till May or June, 

 although grown in the same house or pit with the others, and only begins to 

 open its flowers when the males are getting past ; yet it never fails to bear 

 abundance of berries with perfect seeds. He thought that in this case the pollen 

 must lodge for some time in the scales of the unexpanded flower-buds, or 

 reaches the pistil before tlie flower oj^ens, but he was at a loss how to account 

 for the fertilizing of the early flowering varieties. This year he had forced on 

 the flowering of the male plants by placing them in strong heat, and had all 

 the varieties of the male and female plants in full flower at very nearly the 

 same time, and accordingly anticipates a much larger production of berries than 

 in former years, when tlie plants were left to the ordinary course. He exhibited 

 a branch bearing numerous berries containing perfect seeds ; "yet when that 

 plant came into flower, there had not been a male plant in the house where it 

 grew for upwards of a month previous. [What proof is there that the male 

 variegated Aucuha and the female Aucuha which bears fruit are the same spe- 

 cies ? — Ed.] Mr. Sadler stated that the pollen had been collected and kept in 

 paper until the female flowers were ready for fertilization, when it was applied, 

 and fruits with perfect seeds had been invariably secured. He thought that 

 by grafting the male plant on the female, or vice versa, the two sexes might be 

 made to expand their flowers nearly at the same time. II. " Remarks on 

 Orimmia pruinosa, Wilson's MSS." By Mr. William Bell. Mr. Bell stated 

 that the specimens of the Moss whicli he now exhibited were collected in April 

 1869, on Arthur's Seat, and that after careful examination by Mr. Sadler and 

 himself, he had come to the conclusion that it was very different from any de- 

 scribed in 'Bryologia Britannica.' He had seen specimens of the same Moss 

 in the University herbarium, collected by Dr. Greville in the Queen's Park in 

 1847, named in Mr. Wilson's handwriting, " Schistidium confertum, var. inca- 

 num." Mr. Wilson, in reply to a letter from Mr. Bell, stated that Dr. GrevUle 

 sent him specimens in 1856, and that it is Grimniia pruinosa, Wilson's MSS., 

 founded by him on specimens found by Mr. Howie on Largo Law, Fife, in 1864, 

 subsequent to the publication of the ' Bryologia.' Dr. Greville was the ori- 

 ginal discoverer, having collected it twenty-three years ago. Mr. Wilson is 

 undecided whether this Moss, or that known to British Muscologists as Schis- 

 tidium confertum or Grimmia coiiferta, be the typical conferla. Mr. Bell 

 thought that if the genus Scldstidium is to be retained (practically a matter of 



