16 REV. MR BAIRD's address. 



beautiful station, two new plants, new I mean to the Flora of Berwick- 

 shire, were gathered by the Eov. John Baird. The one was the 

 Chn/sofiplenium altermfolium, occurring mixed with the more frequent 

 species, — Chr. oppositifolmm ; the other was the Marchantia conica, 

 growing on moist banks in considerable abundance, and in fine fruit. 

 Various species of land shells were also gathered in the sheltered 

 recesses of the dean. Among the communications read at this meeting, 

 we have to notice, with much pleasure, several interesting discoveries 

 by our indefatigable member, Dr Johnston. The first of these is the 

 addition of a rare fish to those previously described by him, as occur- 

 ring in Bei'wick Ba}^, the Syngnathiis (squorens of Montagu. The second 

 is a new Zooph}i;e, a species of the genus Plumularia, which its dis- 

 coverer, with a projiriety that will be felt by every member of the Club, 

 has named the Flumularia Catharina. The third is the Conferva coccinea 

 of DiUwyn, many specimens of which had been procured in Berwick 

 Bay during the past winter, and which, in the words of its discoverer, 

 " forms a beautiful addition to the list of our marine algse." These 

 communications were succeeded by a list of the Cirrhipedes of Berwick- 

 shire, also by Dr Johnston ; and an interesting account by Mr Embleton 

 of the Trigla hvvis, or smooth gurnard-fish, which was cast ashore at 

 Newton, after a severe storm, from the south-east. The account of 

 this fish was principally interesting, from the circumstance that, 

 hitherto, it has been chiefly observed on the coasts of Devonshire and 

 Cornwall, and that, in all probability, a further examination will prove 

 this species and the BJiruyido to be the same. At the same meeting, 

 Dr Johnston mentioned that he had lately received from the Eev. Mr 

 Campbell a specimen of the pochard duck {Anas ferina Linn.) shot 

 near Coldingham Loch ; — while the pleasure of the meeting was still 

 farther increased by the presence of Captain Alexander, 42d Eoyal 

 Highlanders, a traveller of some celebrity. 



The fir-st summer meeting of the Club, which took place at Colding- 

 ham on the 19th of May, was distinguished by a heavy rain, which, 

 with occasional intermissions, lasted the w^hole day, and lessened very 

 much the comfort, as well as hindered very materially the success, of 

 the expedition. Yet some plants of considerable rarity, several birds, 

 and many insects and worms, were observed and collected ; — while by 

 those who then for the first time beheld the splendid scenery of " the 

 Head," the excursion, I am sure, with all its drawbacks, will be long 

 remembered with dehght. The loch, so pleasing in its general charac- 

 ter, and so remarkable for its situation ; — the wide spread moors so 

 finely imdidating, and so elegantly carpeted with their thousand different 

 wild-flowers ; — the magnificent precipices which form the mountain 

 promontory of St Abb's, with their thousand times ten thousand 

 feathered visitants ; and far beneath, and wide around as eye can 

 stretch, the dread expanse of ocean, — these, altogether, form a scene 

 than which a richer in natural phenomena, or one more striking for 



I 



