Dec. 1907. ] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 307 
The following were elected Non-Resident Fellows :— 
J. W. Bews, M.A., B.Sc.,and Marr. Y. Orr, B.Sc. 
The following communication was read :— 
ON THE Roor Cortex oF Vellozia eqywisetoides, Baker. By 
Rev. JAMES WATERSTON, M.A., B.Se., B.D., with exhibition 
of living plant and photographs. 
Mr. JAMES FRASER exhibited specimens of the following 
alien grasses found by him in the neighbourhood of Edin- 
burgh, all of which are new records for Britain, viz. :— 
Elymus canadensis, Linn., a native of North America ; Phal- 
aris angusta, Nees, a native of the Western States of South 
America; and Bromus marginatus, Nees, a native of 
Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and other parts of the 
Western United States, which has also been found as a 
casual on wool-waste heaps in Maine. When grown in 
cultivated soil this plant seemed to agree very closely with 
Shear’s B. marginatus var. latior. 
On behalf of Mr. E. M. Hotmgs, F.L.S., the President 
exhibited living roots of an undetermined species of 
Kempferia known as “Sherungulu” by the natives of the 
tropical Northern Zoutspansberg, Transvaal. The root was 
said to be fragrant when dried, and it had been suggested 
that it might be of use for perfumes. 
On behalf of Mr. E. M. Hotes, F.LS., the President 
exhibited a herbarium specimen of Acokanthera venenata, 
Don. The plant is used in South Africa as an arrow poison, 
the bark being pounded by the bushmen between stones, and 
a decoction made and boiled to an extract in which the 
arrow tips are dipped. The plant was one of three or four 
so-called species, differing chiefly in length of flowers and 
leaves, and occurring all down the Great Rift valley from 
Arabia to the Cape of Good Hope. The Northern forms are 
A. Schimperi and A. Deflersii, and the Southern A. venenata 
and A. spectabilis. The plants owe their poisonous effects to 
a glucoside Ouabain, which when taken into the stomach is 
