296 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
with a story racy and idyllic, abounding in references, historical 
and sacred, and interspersed with touches of humour. The flora 
of Palestine has borrowed from that of the countries around, and 
has a connection also with that of the African lake system. It 
embraces some 3,500 vascular species, of which 500 are common 
to Britain, The vegetation of the western portion is largely 
European, and differs from that of the eastern, where the type is 
mainly Asiatic, and, especially near the Dead Sea, of desert 
character, thorny and hairy. Then the Jordan valley has a flora 
largely its own, rank and luxuriant, Lythrum Salicaria, L., attaining 
there a height of 14 feet. Dr. Macmillan described the fields of 
brilliant red anemones, extending for miles over the plains of 
Sharon, as a gorgeous spectacle. This wild flower is now con- 
sidered to have been the “lily” referred to by our Lord, and, as 
scarlet was the then royal colour, He could very well say that “even 
Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.” The 
fruit trees of Palestine are fewer than one would expect, partly 
owing to the tax imposed on them. In consequence of the dry- 
ness of the atmosphere and soil, the cryptogamic flora of the 
country is but scant, ferns being scarce, and mosses and lichens 
almost absent. (See page 175.) 
Mr. A. Somerville, B.Sc., F.L.S., exhibited specimens of the 
five British species of the Molluscan genus Lima, and read a 
descriptive paper, illustrated by diagrams, giving particulars of 
the distribution of these elegant shells within and beyond our 
own seas, and of their bathymetrical range. He made special 
reference to LZ. hians, Gmel., common in the Clyde estuary, which 
constructs a “nest” out of fragments of nullipore, &c., fastened 
together by byssal threads, and which it attaches to the roots of 
large seaweeds. 
On behalf of Rev. Canon Norman, F.R.S., Honorary Member, 
and Mr. J. T. Marshall, Torquay, specimens were also shown of 
the huge Lima excavata, Fabr., from the Norwegian fiords, and of 
L. Sarsii, Lovén, from Norway and the Mediterranean. 
On behalf of Mr, H. M‘Culloch, there was exhibited a specimen, 
shot at Campbeltown, of the Little Auk (Mergulus alle, L.), an 
inhabitant of the polar area of the Western Palearctic and 
Eastern Nearctic regions. During the recent excessively severe 
weather this bird arrived in considerable numbers, not only on the 
