Feb. 1891.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 57 



where we found it, except through the agency of birds that 

 frequent both shore and mountain, since it has never been 

 found in fruit in this country, and the fruit is extremely rare 

 on the Continent.'"' 



Dr R. Braithwaite suggests that the moss is M. tortuosa 

 var. h. fragilifolia of Juratzka, of which I have not 

 seen the type specimen, nor has Dr Braithwaite. I have, 

 however, seen the plant which the latter calls by this name, 

 through the kindness of Mr C. P. Hobkirk, who sent me a 

 portion of the same specimen that he gave to Dr Braithwaite. 

 This was gathered by Dr Stirton on walls at Killin, and 

 possesses the crisped character of the leaves of Mollia 

 tortuosa, but the fragile tips of and papillose cells of M. 

 fragilis, and might well be considered a hybrid between the 

 two species (except for the fact of the rare production of 

 fruit of both plants), as M. fragilis grows near by on Ben 

 Lawers. Dr Stirton, however, has described it as a distinct 

 species under the name of Tortula thrausta. It is not 

 identical with the Tent's Muir plant, from which it differs in 

 its crisped leaves, with margins obviously undulated when 

 the plant is moistened. 



The following papers were read : — 



Commentaries on British Plants, No. 1. — The Coarse 

 Anatomy of the Wood of Trees and Shrubs (con- 

 tinuation). By Professor Bayley Balfour and Dr J. 

 MuiRHEAD Magfarlane. (With lantern illustration of 

 structure.) 



In continuation of their account of the structure of the 

 wood of trees and shrubs indigenous or naturalised in Britain, 

 the authors described and projected on the lantern-screen 

 sections of the wood of the following plants: — Genista anglica, 

 G. tindoria, Ulex europmus, Cytisics Scoparius, Prunus com- 



* At the same time, but in a different spot, we were fortunate enough to 

 meet with Bryum calophyllum, R. Br., and Br yum JVarneum, Bland., and 

 B. lacustrc, Bland. These mosses are easily distinguished in the fresh state 

 by the naked eye, but by no means so easily when dried. We also met with 

 Riceia crystallina. Bryum Marratii also grows there, but is not in fruit until 

 October or the end of September. 



