LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XI 



The original vegetation of the colony is being in many places 

 destroyed or rapidly deteriorated by over-stocking and by the ac- 

 cidental introduction of various weeds. Among the most im- 

 portant of the latter is the Xanthium spinosum, introduced from 

 Europe, the achenes of which cling to the wool with such tenacity 

 that it is almost impossible to detach them, and render it almost 

 imsaleable. It spreads with such rapidity that in some parts 

 legislative enactments have been passed for its extirpation ; and 

 where this is not done, it almost usurps the place of the more 

 useful vegetation. 



The President stated that Xanthium has in the same manner de- 

 teriorated the pastures in Queensland ; whilst in the south of 

 Europe, where it is equally abundant, it does not appear to cause 

 such injurious results. Though generally distributed through 

 Europe, the plant is probably of Chilian origin. 



3. Extract from a letter from Osbert Salvin, Esq., F.E.S., to 

 Dr. Hooker, dated Guatemala, Oct. 6, 1873. 



Mr. Salvin is engaged in collecting plants on the slopes of the 

 Volcan de Fuego, 5000 feet in elevation, and within an easy ride 

 of a volcano 13,000 feet above the level of the sea. He hopes to 

 secure all the plants between the elevations of 3500 and 8500 

 feet. Many of the species appear to have a vertical range of as 

 much as from 2000 to 3000 feet. 



January 15th, 1874. 



Geoege Bentham, Esq., E.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



Samuel Jennings, Esq., Calcutta, Dr. George Watt, Calcutta, 

 Eobert Pitzgerald, Esq., Deputy-Surveyor-General of New South 

 Wales, and J. E. M. H. Stone, Esq., were elected Fellows. 



Dr. Hooker, Pres. E.S., exhibited a very beautiful series of spe- 

 cimens of fossil Copal, the product of Trachylohium Horneman- 

 nianum, with a scorpion, spiders, beetles, and other insects im- 

 bedded in it, some specimens of recent Copal from the same plant. 



