156 PEOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIKS. 



age ; then one below the average, and so on — the last six years 

 having had warm Julys. There was here, then, the same fluctuation, 

 but no permanent thinning away of heat. As a statistician, he should 

 say that before any positive opinion could be pronounced as to a per- 

 manent change having passed on our climate, they must have the 

 averages for at least a thousand years. Mr. Buchan went on to sug- 

 gest that while there might be no excess or defect of temperature on 

 an average, in recent years as compared with the past, alterations 

 might occur with greater frequency and intensity, and occasion an 

 amount of mischief which was not due to general defect. He quoted 

 figures showing the number of times that certain stages were reached 

 in different periods ; and in conclusion, submitted that the prevalence 

 of intense cold or heat was quite local, and that when there was 

 great cold in one place, there was great heat contiguous to it. " Re- 

 port on open-air vegetation in the Koyal Botanic Garden," by James 

 McNab. Deciduous trees and all vegetation were very far behind, 

 owing to the long continued low temperature of February. " Notes on 

 the effects of the late frost on trees and shrubs at Caiiowrie," by K. 

 Hutchinson. The past winter has proved more destructive than any 

 since 1860-61. " An abstract of Pringsheim's researches into chloro- 

 phyll," by J. F. Duthie (see p. 114). — A specimen of Orolanche 

 minor in flower was exhibited which had grown on the roots of a 

 Pelargonium in the greenhouse of a nursery.* 



April 8. — Sir Eobert Christison, Bart., in the chair. The follow- 

 ing communications were read: — 1. jS^otes on the Discomycetous 

 Fungi in the Edinburgh Herbarium, by M. C. Cooke, LL D., com- 

 municated by J. Sadler. This collection is interesting from the fact 

 that it includes a set of the Scleromycetes Suecicce, published by 

 Fries, in addition to specimens by the late Dr. Greville and by Klotzsch, 

 as well as contributions from more recent mycologists. The author 

 gave a most elaborate and valuable paper of critical notes on the 

 species under the genera and sub-genera in the order of their arrange- 

 ment in the collection, which is practically that of Fries. He is of 

 opinion that the system so much in vogue amongst certain continental 

 mycologists of splitting up large and very natural genera such as those 

 of Pezha and Sphceria into a host of smaller ones, without regaid to 

 external characters, on the basis of the fructification alone, is highly 

 prejudicial to the interests of science, and calculated in the end to 

 create great confusion. On the other hand, he was convinced that in 

 its main features the Friesian system is the best that has yet been 

 proposed. — 2. Report on the open-air vegetation at the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, for the /month of March, 1875. 3. On Hybrids 

 between Wheat and Rye, by Alexander Stephen Wilson, of 

 North Kinmundy. The author described a large number of experi- 

 ments he had made, with the view of testing whether hybrids could 

 be produced between wheat, spelt, rye, barley, oats, &c., by the usual 

 method of placing upon one plant the pollen of another. When the 

 ears which had been dealt with were ripe they were collected for 

 examination. Many had produced seeds; many were barren. Only 



* See Syme, Eng. But., ed. 3, vol. vi., p. 200, for a similar case. 



