PROCEEDrNGS OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF LONDON. 443 



tralia, including a numerous list of birds, &c., recently brought from 

 tlie JN'orthern Territory, by Dr. B. Ninnis, surgeon to the Beatrice. 



March IGtJi, 1865. 



The following papers were read : — 1. " Notes on Lichens, col- 

 lected by Sir John Eichardson in Arctic America." By the Eev. "W". 

 A. Leighton. — 2. On the " Palms of East Tropical Africa." By Dr. 

 J. Kirk. — 3. "Descriptive List of Plants of the Anamallay Hills, 

 in the Madras Peninsula." By Capt. E. H, Beddome, Officiating 

 Superintendent of Forests. 



April 6th, 1865. 



The follo\\ang papers were read : — 1. *• Notes on the Plora of the 

 Desert of Sinai." By E. Milne Eedhead, Esq. — These notes were 

 collected during a tour in the East, in Eebruary, March, and April, 

 1864. The paper contained some very interesting remarks on the 

 plants observed during the journey, but does not admit of extract. 

 At Cairo everything was then suffering from recent severe frost, a 

 most unusual occurrence. The plantains and sugar canes were almost 

 destroyed. The desert was generally devoid of vegetation, while in 

 the sandy wadys, which in rainy seasons are water courses, a variety 

 of plants appeared more or less profusely — among them the Eetem, 

 {Spartium monospermum), supposed to be the Juniper bush of the 

 prophet. Near a pool of bitter water, called 'Ain el Hawara, and 

 supposed to be the Marah of Scripture, where a few Palms and thick 

 tufts of a prickly shrub, the Nitraria tridentata, the Ghurhud of the 

 Arabs, which produces small oval scarlet berries, with a sub-acid fla- 

 vour. The camels eat this plant greedily. At night the air was laden 

 with the delicious perfume of Mathiola odoratissima. As regards 

 Perns, Adiantum Capillus-veneris was stated to grow abundantly at 

 the Pools of Solomon, in an old well on the Mount of Olives very 

 luxuriantly, also at Aceldama ; Ceterach officinarifm on rocks and 

 walls near Bethlehem ; Cheilanthes fragrans in profusion at Beth Jala 

 and in the valley of Hinnom near En Eogel ; NothochlcBiia lanuginosa, 

 on rocks between Jaffa and Jerusalem ; Gymnogramma leptophylla on 

 Mount Grerizim, and Lastrea Filix-mas at Bamas — making in all six 

 species seen in Palestine. 



2. " On the Vegetation of the Western and Southern Shores of 

 the Dead Sea." By B. F. Lowne, Esq. Communicated by Dr. 

 Hooker. 



