of Edivihurgh, Session 1880-81. Ixiii 



3. Dr Clegliorn called attention to Mr Clement ]\[arkham's new- 

 book " On the Introduction of Chinchona Cultivation into British 

 India," characterising it as an exhaustive treatise on the subject. 



Thursday, l-ifh April 1881. — Alexaxdee Buchan, Esq., 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The following Candidate was elected a Xon-Eesident 

 Fellow : — 



Daniel Scott, Wood Manager at Darnaway Castle. 



The following Communications were read : — 



I. TJie Structure and Division of the Vegetable Cell (Part I.). 



By J. M. Macfaelaxe, B.Sc. 



II. Eemarhs on the Becent Weather. By Alexander Buchan, 



M.A., F.Pi.S.E. 



jMt Buchan intimated tliat he had found it necessary to postpone 

 a paper he had undertaken to furnish on dates of flowering of the 

 spring plants in the Eoyal Botanic Garden in relation to the 

 weather of the years 1876-81. Last January, he remarked, was 

 unquestionably over the whole of Scotland, excepting a bit of 

 Caithness and Sutherland and the northern jDart of the Hebrides, 

 the coldest month, on the mean of the month, of which we had any 

 record. This great cold was confined to the period from the 5 th to 

 the 29th. The year opened with a temperature 4 t o 6° or 7° above 

 the average. During the week from the 7th to the 13th of January, 

 however, very low temperatures rided, the mean of that week being 

 10° below the average of those days. The following week, 14rth to 

 20th, showed 14° "3 below the average of those days. The follow- 

 ing week, again, showed 12* '3 below the average of that week. So 

 that there were three weeks, January 7 to 27, in which the tempera- 

 ture was 12° '2 below the average of that part of the year. His 

 desire was to see the effect upon the spring vegetation of the 

 Botanic Garden of this xmwonted state of things. There was a 

 period of warmth about the average in the first week of February. 

 The next week, 11th to 16th, was about 5° below the average. The 

 period from February 19 to March 6 was considerably below the 



