Mat 1892.] THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 429 



MEETING or THE SOCIETY, 



Thursday, May 12, 1892. 



Dr David Christison, President, in the Chair. 



The death of Dr Edguaed von Eegel, Honorary Foreign 

 Fellow of the Society, was announced. 



Presents to the Library, Museum, and Herbarium at the 

 Eoyal Botanic Garden were announced. 



Amongst the presents to the Library was a copy of the 

 " Annual Eeport of the Agricultural Eesearch Association for 

 1891," presented by Mr Jamieson, F.I.C, Lecturer on 

 Agriculture in the University of Aberdeen, in which is 

 published the paper " On Eoot-hairs," read before the Society at 

 its meeting in November 1891 (see page 202). 



Professor Bayley Balfour announced that Dr George 

 Watt, CLE., Eeporter on Economic Products to the Govern- 

 ment of India, who is at present in this country for the purpose 

 of completing the "Dictionary of Economic Products of India," 

 now in course of publication under the auspices of the Indian 

 Government, had offered, and the offer has been accepted by 

 H.M. Board of Works, to present to the Eoyal Botanic 

 Garden, when he returns to India towards the end of 1893, 

 his private Herbarium. "It is comprised in 22 cabinets, 

 weighs 6 tons, is all mounted, named and arranged according 

 to Bentham and Hooker's " Genera Plantarum," and Hooker's 

 "Flora of British India," and represents sixteen years' botanical 

 work conducted over the greater part of India." One feature 

 of it is the large representation of the cultivated and 

 economic plants of India, which Dr Watt hopes " may not only 

 prove of interest to merchants who may have dealings with 

 India, but afford to students of Botany a field for useful 

 investigation into the origin of cultivated plants." The gift 

 is still further enhanced by Dr Watt's promise to add to it 

 from the additional collections he hopes to make on his 

 return to India. 



TRAILS. EOT. SOC. EDIN. VOL. XIX. 2 I 



Lssued December 1S92. 



