Ixxvi Proceedings of the Botanical Society 



to bo accounted for by tlio uniform severity of the winter, which 

 kept them wholly witliin-doors, whereas in an ordinary season many 

 of them were tempted out by mild weather to be destroyed by a 

 sudden change. 



III. On a Plant of Primula vulgaris, vnth a green corolla. By 



Professor Dickson. 



Professor Dickson exhibited a plant of Prirmda vulgans, with a 

 green corolla, he had obtained from Mr Maclean, one of his students. 

 The plant was grown in the garden of Miss Eedpath, at Gilmerton, 

 but its previous history was unknown. 



IV. On Recent Additions to the University Herlarium from 



Shire Highlands, Central Africa. By Mr Tayloe. 



Mr Taylor exhibited dried specimens of plants recently sent to 

 the Herbarium by Mr John Buchanan, Shire Highlands, Central 

 Africa, and at the same time some living plants grown from seeds 

 and bulbs, also sent by him to the Garden. The dried specimens, 

 of which there were 150, had been provisionally named by Professor 

 Oliver, who wrote in commendatory terms of the pains taken 

 by Mr Buchanan, specially in collecting fruit as well as flowers. 

 Figures of several of the new genera and species will soon appear 

 under the direction of the Kew authorities. One of the living 

 plants on the table raised from seed sent with the specimens, 

 the ^schynomene Schimperi, H., a beautiful papilionaceous genus, 

 several varieties of which Mr Buchanan sent home, had been 

 hitherto noted as peculiar to Nileland or Southern Africa. Again, 

 the Oxalis sensitiva, called by the natives " His Father has Died," 

 had been found in the mountain district of the tropics. So, too, 

 have a composite, Dioscorea Schimperiana, a Yam, and Lapeywusta 

 abyssinica, both eaten in the Shire, only in famine times, but known 

 generally over Africa. A species of Thesiam, used as a native cure 

 for sore eyes, must have been brought here by emigrant tribes, as 

 the genus finds no place in Oliver's " Flora of Tropical Africa." 

 The like reasoning covers the appearance on the table of Datura 

 alba and Cucumis melo, though Rliynchosia caribcea, Dec, also ex- 

 hibited, is known at the Cape as well as tropical America ; but an 

 Oxtjanthus in the parcel, used by the natives to sharpen the scent 

 of hunting-dogs, seems confined to the specific habitat, as is also 

 Cadalvena spectahilis, a lovely Iris with yellow flowers, whose 

 leaves, usually four, spread square on the ground. The Sanseviera 



