498 Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 



doubtless have been swallowed with the leaves, fruit, or bark of 

 trees, upon which, I conceive, it feeds entirely. 



Unless caught young, it is very difficult to induce these reptiles to 

 feed in confinement, and particularly when watched. Their dispo- 

 sition is sulky and savage, and I have known some of them die in 

 confinement from starvation rather than feed. This has caused me 

 to try the following plan, which I find very successful, of affording 

 them nourishment. I hold them by the lower part of the bodyvnth 

 one hand, and with the other I irritate them, until they open their 

 mouths and attempt to bite, when I insert food ; and by amioying 

 them in this way, I have not only made them eat their natural food, 

 but I have killed some of them by forcing them to eat corn, and 

 leaves which appear to have disagreed with them. 



This Iguana has a small rounded heart, reddish lungs, an oblong 

 gall-bladder, a large dark-coloured flat liver, and a white, and very ex- 

 tensible oblong stomach. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



April 10, 1851. — Professor Balfour, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. M'Nab exhibited, from the garden of Dr. Neill, a large speci- 

 men of Gentiana verna, in full flower in a pot. The patch was eight 

 inches in diameter, and the number of flowers was 106 ; when first 

 brought into the room all the flowers were closed, but under the in- 

 fluence of gas-hght they opened, and in the course of an hour they 

 were fully expanded. Mr. James Thomson (Dr. Neill's gardener) 

 was requested to make a few experiments on the effects of light and 

 heat upon the plant ; the following particulars have since been fur- 

 nished by him : — 



1. On 11th April, the Gentian was placed in a warm plant-stove, 

 the temperature of which was about 63°, and the flowers soon opened 

 (in the absence of hght) and continued open so long as exposed to the 

 high temperature. 



2. On the 12th April the plant was removed to a cool room (tem- 

 perature 48°) in which a jet of gas was burning. In this situation 

 the flowers likevrise opened about an hour after the plant was put in. 



3. On 14th April, about mid-day, the plant, in full bloom, was 

 taken to a cool dark cellar, where the flowers closed almost imme- 

 diately. 



4. On the 15th April it was placed in a cold dark place, from six 

 A.M. till two P.M., during which period the flowers were all partially 

 closed : the plant being then exposed to light, the flowers expanded 

 in about half-an-hour. 



Mr. M'Nab exliibited a flowering specimen of Lathrcea squamaria 

 from Dr. Neill's garden at Canonmills, where it has been blooming 

 since the beginning of March. The plants were placed on the roots 

 of pear, filbert, and hazel ; on the latter only did it succeed, and it 

 now covers a space of ground three feet in diameter, annually pro- 

 ducing numerous flower-stems, as large and perfect as in its native 

 locality. 



