396 



had been imported from Ceylon under the name of cassia-bark, and 

 stated his reasons for believing the greater part of it to come from Can- 

 ton. He also made some remarks on the plants from which the bark 

 is produced. 



Read, A Communication from Mr. T. Edmonston, jun., Balta Sound, 

 Shetland, " On the native dyes of the Shetland Islands." 



After some remarks on the materials formerly used for dying in the 

 Shetland Isles, the author observes that the colours now made are on- 

 ly hrown, red, yellow and black, to produce which the following plants 

 are used. Brown ; Parmelia saxatilis, called Scrottyie. Red ; Le- 

 canora tartarea, called ^or^aZe^^. Black; Spiraea Ulmaria. Yellow; 

 Stachys palustris, the die is called Hundie : Galium verum is said to be 

 used for the same colour in the parish of North Mavin. Besides these, 

 the juice of the berries of Empetrum nigrum fwxm^h a beautiful pur- 

 plish-blue. The mode of using these different materials was explained. 



February 11. Read, Notice of the discovery of the cones of Pinus 

 Mughus [Jacq.), in peat bogs in Ireland. By Mr. Charles C. Babing- 

 ton, Cambridge. The specimen sent to the Society was found under 

 " six feet of solid peat bog at Burrishoole, near Newport, Mayo." 

 Prof. Don was of opinion that it was a "cone of Pinus Mughus, Jacq., 

 which, however, he considered a variety of P. sylvestris, but quite dif- 

 ferent from any of the varieties now native in Scotland." 



" It is interesting to find that a tree which must have formed at least a portion of 

 the native forest of that wild part of Ireland, in which a tree is now scarcely to be found, 

 should be thus proved to belong to a form of Pinus not now native in Britain, but con- 

 fined, I believe, to the Austrian Alps. The native forests of that part of Ireland have 

 now been totally destroyed for about two hundred years, one clause in the original 

 grants to English settlers having required their destruction and employment in the 

 smelling of iron. Professor Don states, that these cones agree exactly with others that 

 he has seen from the bogs of Armagh." — p. 126. 



March 25. Read, a Notice of the disappearance of plants from par- 

 ticular localities. By Mr. J. Just, Bury, Lancashire. The first plant 

 mentioned is Lepidium Smithii, Hook., of which, in the summer of 

 1840, the author could not find a single specimen in a locality where 

 it had previously abounded, although there was no apparent cause for 

 its disappearance. Orchis maculata and the white-flowered variety of 

 Orchis mascula are other cases mentioned. The white-flowered va- 

 rieties of Myosotis sylvatica and Geranium robertianum, were intro- 

 duced into a garden and allowed to shed their seeds, the plants from 

 which show a disposition to revert to the original colour. 



