402 Observations on a Mygale Spider. [Sess. 



The Bamboo, one of the most useful of all grasses, serves 

 many purposes. In China and the East it is the principal 

 building material. Bamboos are arborescent grasses, some 

 species growing as much as a hundred feet high. The stems 

 are very siliceous, and consequently strong. 



In the manufacture of paper the Gramineee are called into 

 requisition. In the very common kinds of brown wrappers 

 the stem of wheat, oat, and rye is taken, but the principal 

 grass used is Esparto (Stipa tenacissima), which is imported 

 from Spain and Africa. Two grasses, Elymus arenarius and 

 Ammophila arundinacea, are valuable for binding the loose 

 sand on our sea-shores. 



There are many grasses cultivated for decorative purposes. 

 Deschampsia caespitosa and Briza media, or quaking grass, for 

 example, are very beautiful. Our rarest native grass is 

 Hierochloe borealis, or Northern Holy grass, found in this 

 country on the banks of the Thurso river in Caithness. This 

 grass was originally found by Don in the Clova mountains, 

 Forfarshire. It derives its name of Holy grass from being 

 strewn on church floors in some countries. 



The order Gramineae does not furnish any marked medicinal 

 plants. We have only one grass reputed poisonous, and that 

 is a species of rye-grass — Lolium temulentum or darnel. It 

 is sporadic in growth, but is to be found in this district at 

 Leith Docks and near Slateford. 



IX.— OBSERVATIONS ON A MYGALE SPIDER 

 (PSALMOPCEUS CAMBEIDGII POC). 



By Mr JAMES ADAMS. 



{Read April 2 4, 1907.) 



The large Mygale spider (Psalmopoeus Gambridgii Poc.) now 

 exhibited was found on the 15th of September 1905 on a 

 bunch of West Indian bananas, in a fruit shop in Dunferm- 

 line. It is a female, and has reached maturity. I have now 

 kept it in confinement for nineteen months, during which period 



