
PROCREDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 149 
3lst Avucust, 1897. 
Mr. Robert Kidston, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., President, in the chair. 
Reports on excursions to the Botanic Gardens (see page 125) 
and Cartland Crags (see page 128) were read. 
Mr. William Stewart exhibited the skull of a Hare and the 
lower jaw of a Boar, lent by Mr. J. M. Campbell, F.Z.S., illus- 
trating the law of growth in the teeth. The Hare, which was shot 
near Lincoln, had, as the result of an accident, developed incisors 
of an abnormal size, curving spirally outwards ; while in the jaw 
of the Boar one of the canine teeth had curved backwards until it 
had forced its way into the jaw again, in an almost circular 
direction. The latter specimen came from the South Seas, where 
the natives, who value such teeth for bracelets, assist the growth 
by the withdrawal of the opposing upper tusk. 
Mr. Peter Ewing, F.L.S., Vice-President, exhibited a number 
of plants from the Forfarshire and Perthshire (Breadalbane) 
Mountains. He stated that for the past twenty-nine years he 
had regularly visited Ben Lawers, and every year he finds the 
status of its characteristic plants altering, and evidence of change 
in the configuration of the mountain. A large patch of Cystopteris 
montana, Bernh., formerly inaccessible to most botanists, is now 
comparatively easily got at. A way has also recently been 
opened up to the place where Woodsia is abundant. Sazxifraga 
cernua, Linn., and Draba rupestris, R. Br., were only to be seen 
this year as very small plants, but that might be owing to the 
backwardness of the season. Gentiana nivalis, Linn., is not so 
plentiful in many places as it used to be, and it is becoming quite 
rare on some of the rocks above Loch-na-cat, Sagina nivalis, 
Fr., is almost, if not altogether, a thing of the past. Splachnum 
vasculosum, Linn., has disappeared from three places where it was 
formerly abundant. <Alsine rubella, Schrenk, seems to be disap- 
pearing, as the plants are very small compared with those 
formerly obtainable. Phlewm alpinum, Linn., is never seen now 
in the western ravine, and on the rocks above Loch-na-cat it is 
extremely rare. Juncus castaneus, Sm., has disappeared from 
some of its stations; in one of these a single plant being 
found where hundreds could have been collected some years 
ago, 
