CRYPTOGAMIC SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. 



The Ninth Annual Conference of the Cryptogamic Society of 

 Scotland was held in the Gieyfriars' Halls, Dumfries, on Tuesday, 

 Wednesday, and Thursday, 11th, 12th, and 13th September, 1883. 

 Owing to the President of the Natural History Society (Dr Gil- 

 christ) having been elected President of the Cryptogamic Society 

 for the ensuing yeai', and the necessary arrangements for the 

 Conference and Exhibition having been made by the Committee, 

 who acted for the time as the Local Committee of the 

 Cryptogamic Society, it is desirable that notice of the Conference 

 should be recorded in these Transactions. 



Some time jirior to the date of Conference the Local Com- 

 mittee issued circulars to all the landed proprietors in Dumfries- 

 shire and Galloway, requesting that instructions might be given to 

 their gardeners and gamekeepers to gather cryptogamic plants and 

 forward them to the hall for exhibition. A liberal response was 

 made to the circulars, and when the time arrived a supply of 

 Fungi, &c., came to hand sufficient to fill the large hall, which had 

 been reserved for them. The small hall was occupied with dried 

 specimens of Mosses, Lichens, Ferns, Salt and Fresh Water Algse 

 and Fungi, and all the availaMe space (even the walls) was 

 crowded with these. In the large hall, in addition to the Fungi, 

 there were representative specimens of all the local and British 

 Ferns, including many varieties ; a large collection of Seaweeds, 

 and about 100 specimens of Mosses and Hepaticse growing in 

 pots, which presented on the whole a most curious and inter- 

 esting exhibition. The walls of this hall were also covered 

 with dried specimens of Ferns and Water-colour Drawings 

 (by Mrs Gilchrist Clarke) of all the edible Fungi. 



Meetings of the Society. — On Tuesday, the 11th, the members 

 and associates, al)Out twenty in number, assembled at the Dumfries 

 station in time to meet the 9.30 a.m. train for Dalbeattie. On 

 arrival at the latter station, they were met by W. H. Maxwell, 

 Esq. of Munches, who had invited the Society to visit his domains. 

 The party havmg " fungi-hunted" along the hills and dales, through 

 woods and fields, arrived at the Munches about 3 P.M., where 



