74 Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 



for the season took place, — Dr. Ncill, President ; Professors Christi- 

 son, Graham, Balfour, and D. Stewart, Esq., Vice-Presidents. 



Professor Christison then submitted to the Society a highly inter- 

 esting communication on the Assam Tea Plant, illustrated by spe- 

 cimens. The author stated that the different kinds of tea were pro- 

 duced by different modes of preparation, and showed, by a series 

 of examples of the preserved tea-leaf, that the various forms were 

 merely varieties of the same plant. A specimen of tea, of a yellow 

 colour and of a remarkably strong flavour, was exhibited ; also tea, 

 in the form of small rolls, sent to this country about twenty years 

 ago, as a present from the Emperor of China to George IV. 



iVlr. Goodsir then read a paper by Charles C. Babington, Esq., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., entitled " Observations upon a few Plants, concern- 

 ing the claim of which to be considered as natives of Great Britain, 

 Sir W.J. Hooker expresses doubt in the 5th Ed. of his ' British 

 Flora,' with a few notes upon other species contained in that work, 

 with reference to the Edinburgh Catalogue of British Plants." The 

 object of this paper was to show upon what evidence the authors 

 (Professor Balfour, Mr. Babington himself, and Dr. Campbell) of 

 the Botanical Society's Catalogue of British Plants had included in 

 it the species concerning which Sir W. J. Hooker expresses doubt. 

 " I cannot allow this opportunity to pass," says the author of this 

 paper, " without expressing the great satisfaction which it gives me 

 to see that so distinguished a botanist as Hooker has considered tlie 

 Catalogue deserving of quotation throughout his work, as I must con- 

 sider it as a proof that the compilers of the Catalogue of British 

 Plants have not produced a work discreditable either to themselves 

 or to the Society that entrusted its preparation to them." 



Mr. Brand afterwards read to the Society a " Notice of the pre- 

 sence of Iodine in some Plant? growing near the Sea," by G. Dickie, 

 M.D., Lecturer on Botany in the University and King's College, 

 Aberdeen. The author found, by chemical examination of specimens 

 of Statice Armeria from the sea-shore, and of others from the inland 

 and higher districts of Aberdeenshire, that the former contained 

 iodine, and that soda was more abundant in them, while potass pre- 

 vailed in the latter. Iodine was also found in Grimmia marithna ; 

 and Mr. P. Grant of Aberdeen has found it in Pyrethrum maritimum.. 

 An analysis was made of examples of Statice Armeria, Grimmia nia- 

 ritima, Lichina confinis, and Ramalina scopulorum, all growing near 

 the same spot, and occasionally during storms exposed to the sea- 

 spray ; and all these plants, with the exception of the lichen, con- 

 tained iodine. The sj)ecimens having been washed previous to 

 analysis, the iodine could not have been derived from saline incrus- 

 tation. All these vegetables were healthy, and the author of the 

 paper has been led to conclude that marine algae are not the only 

 plants which possess the power of separating from sea-water the 

 compounds of iodine and of condensing them in their tissues, and 

 this without any deti-iment to their healthy functions. 



