of Edinhurgh, Session 1879-80. vii 



three of tliem, in fact — 1726, 1727, and 1728 — years of dearth 

 about as bad as 1877 and 1879, with this difference, that in the 

 former years there were no facilities for importing grain snch as we 

 now possess. About 1775 there occurred six or seven years of the 

 very finest weather, such as there had been experienced no approach 

 to except in 1826. 



II. Mr James Blaikie, F.E.S.E., one of Her Majesty's 



Inspectors of Schools, read an account of a Visit to the 

 Engacline, and exhibited a fine collection of nearly 

 300 Alpine plants chiefly collected in that district. 



III. A Letter toViofessor BALFOUR/>-om Mr John Buchanan, 



Mount Zomba, Central Africa, ivas communicated by 

 Mr Sadler. 



This localitj^ is midway betwixt the Zambesi and Shire rivers, 

 and is about fifty miles from Lake Shirwa, which the natives state 

 was in October last little better than a sheet of mud owing to the 

 aridity of the season. The district much resembles the Blantyre 

 Mission station, where IMr Buchanan was previously located. 

 Maize is not so extensively cultivated, but lice is grown, as weU as 

 a species of sorghum, likewise cassava, bananas, and plantains. 

 Several species of palms grow on the mountains, one of them ]\Ir 

 Buchanan thinks is the wild date ; also very fine tree ferns — one 

 of them is 8 feet high, having a spread of fronds of at least 20 feet 

 in diameter. The natives use cord for net-making apparently made 

 from fibres of Hibiscus canncdnnus. They cultivate a species of 

 croton, with oil from which they anoint their bodies, without any of 

 the effects on the system peculiar to Croton tiglium. 



IV. Report for January on the Open- Air Vegetation at the 

 Royal Botanic Garden. By Mr John Sadler, 

 Curator. 



MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



1. A notice of the death of General Munro, C.B., a non-Eesident 

 Member of the Society, was laid on the table. 



2. ]\lr Symington Grieve gave in a note on the Island of Colonsay 



