Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 151 



u It grows ou Falcon Glints, in Teesdale. Having had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining specimens of the Norwegian Hieracia during the 

 past summer, partly by collecting personally, and partly through the 

 kind assistance of Professor Blvtt, of Christiania (from whom I have 

 received a large dried collection), I am able satisfactorily to identify 

 this plant, which has all the appearance of a good and distinct species. 

 It is most nearly allied to II. ccesium, but differs strongly in having 

 more truncate involucres, with broad based acuminate apicidaie scales 

 of a dark colour margined with green; also, in the involuercs, and 

 peduncles being almost or entirely destitute of stellate pubescence. 

 H. ccesium from the same place, and from Cronkley Scar, Teesdale, 

 has narrow, acute, involucral scales, and usually a large amount of 

 stellate down on the peduncles and involucres. H. plumbeum flowers 

 very early (say about July), while //. ccesium is in perfection or nearly 

 so in September. I have the plant in cultivation from Falcon Clints, 

 and under these circumstances it becomes still more dissimilar. It 

 agrees well with my Norwegian specimens, and still better than thev 

 do with the description in Fries' s Monograph." 



2. An extract of a letter from Dr. Gilbert M'Nab, dated Ja- 

 maica, 1st November, 1851 : — "Some time ago, I sent some dried 

 specimens of a small plant, which I supposed was a floating aquatic 

 fern, but I have now discovered what it is. In the water-tank in my 

 garden is a very large and luxuriant plant of the Xymphcea ampla 

 which seeds very freely ; the seeds are surrounded by a spongy-look- 

 ing arillus, winch floats to the surface all those that get disengaged 

 from the mud, where the capsule is ripened, and whilst floating on 

 the surface they there vegetate, and after a time sink and take root 

 in the mud ; the small leaf-looking bodies are the submersed leaves 

 of the plant ; they are of a similar shape, but totally different in 

 texture from the floating leaves. I also notice in the N, ampla what 

 I have never seen in any of the family, that it produces as many 

 purely male flowers as it does hermaphrodite. I have not yet seen 

 any pure female flower, although I dare say I shall. I was thinking 

 of putting some up in brine, as they may be interesting." 



3. An extract of a letter from Mr. John Goldie, Ayr, Canada 

 West (late of Ayrshire) : — 



" I observe, that at one of your botanical meetings there was a dis- 

 cussion about what kind of trees were generally struck bv lightning. 

 One morning no less than four trees were struck by lightning within 

 three miles of this place : all were gigantic specimens of the Weymouth 

 pine, Pinus Strobus. I do not recollect seeing any other sort of tree 

 which had been injured by lightning in this part of the country. In 

 all the cases which I have examined, the electric fluid proceeded from 

 the top to the root, following the grain of the wood, and cutting out 

 the bark 2 or 3 inches in breadth all the way, as if it had been 

 scooped out with a gauge." 



4. Mr. M'Xab laid before the Meeting a list of the Temperatures 

 observed in the Botanical Garden, from 1st November to 9th instant. 



5. " Notice of a new British J'iola" by Charles G. Babington, M.A. 



