of Edinburgh, Session 1880-81. Ixvii 



MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



1. Dr Gunning, of Brazil, asked to lay before the Society a 

 proposal that the magnificent " Iconographia das Orchidos," by Dr 

 Joao Kodrigues, one of their foreign members, be published in 

 Edinburgh. A project to print this magnificent work at the 

 expense of the Brazilian Government fell through, because it was 

 supposed it had been forestalled by the previous book on the 

 subject published in Germany by Henrique Eeichenbach, and the 

 subsidy of £5000 anticipated from the Brazilian Parhament Avas 

 withdrawn. But the German monograph was executed at a 

 distance, from deteriorated specimens, and is only adorned with a 

 few uncoloured engTavings. Rodriguez has minutely described and 

 coloured each species from specimens collected by him ere they lost 

 the glory of their native forests. The figures are painted by him- 

 self, and considered very tine. Sir Joseph Hooker has pronounced 

 the *' Iconographia " eminently worthy of publication. So charmed 

 was Eeichenbach himself with the MS. volume that in 1877 

 he offered to publish it ; but this was declined. Meanwhile 

 Kodrigues has succeeded his friendly competitor in monograph 

 writing as a contributor to the " Flora " edited by Dr G. Eicliler. 



2. Dr Cleghorn exhibited a stem of the common broom 12 feet 

 long and 8 inches in girth at 1 foot from the ground, which had made 

 this growth at Stravithie, near St Andrews, since 1870, and was 

 cut down just before the meeting. The usual height of the broom 

 in this country is from 3 to 6 feet, or even 12 feet, according to 

 soil and situation, though in the woods of Galicia it attains the 

 height of 20 or 30 feet or upwards. According to Loudon the 

 broom in Spain and the south of France attains a timber-like size, 

 and the wood, being finely veined, is much sought for veneering ; 

 the best vine stakes are also made from its branches. 



3. Mr John Campbell, Ledaig, Argyllshire, sent seventeen 

 plants from his garden, mostly in bloom. They included Kerria 

 japonica, Dielytra spedahilis, Nai'cissus poeticus, Orchis viascula, as 



weU as the lilac, apple, pear, and strawberry. A fresh specimen 

 of Aster argyropliyllus showed it to have withstood the winter. 



4. Mr John Sim, associate, Perth, sent a paper on the " Transmu- 

 tation of Species " in which he controverted the more advanced 

 views recently promulgated on this subject, dwelling specially on 

 the difficulties of thus accounting for the origin from the wild state 

 of our cereals aud culinary vegetables. 



5. A collection of alpine and other plants in flower, grown in 



