Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 373. 
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 
April 9, 1846.—Prof. Balfour, President, in the Chair. 
Donations to the library and museum were announced ; particu- 
larly one from Mr. William Gardiner, jun., Dundee, of his elegant 
little work on the Mosses, intended as an introduction to the study 
of that interesting tribe of plants. It seems well-fitted to accom- 
plish the object in view. { : 
The following communications were read :— 
1. “Botanical Excursions in Upper Styria in 1842,” by Dr. R. 
C. Alexander. 
In this paper Dr. Alexander gave an account of various excursions 
to the mountainous parts of Styria, during which he visited the 
Schékel, Lantsch, Leoben, Reiting, Yolling, Klagenfurt, and Saltz- 
bach; also of the various plants observed during his tour. He col- 
lected in all about 900 species, of which upwards of twenty were 
new to the flora of Styria. The paper was accompanied by a list 
of the principal plants collected south of the Drave. Specimens 
from the Society's herbarium, contributed by Dr. Alexander, were 
produced to illustrate the paper, of which an abstract will appear in 
these ‘ Annals’ and in the Society’s ‘ Transactions.’ 
. 2. “Remarks on the Claims of certain Species of Plants to be con- 
sidered indigenous to Britain,’ by Mr. R. M. Stark. 
_ Mr. Stark adverted to the progress of Botanical Geography, and 
particularly to the labours of Mr. Hewett C. Watson. Passing over 
the instances of shrubs and perennial herbaceous plants found appa- 
rently wild, but which have undoubtedly escaped from the garden, 
he directed attention to the large family of annual corn-weeds. 
Though universally dispersed wherever the plough and the agency 
of man extended, the fact of their net being found associated with 
other annuals where the land was waste and uncultivated, seemed 
to prove that they were the companions of the cereal grains, and 
with them had been introduced at a very remote period. Some of 
them are confined to one side of the island, or to certain districts, 
which showed that, notwithstanding their probable exotic origin, 
they were more or less subject to the laws regulating the distribu- 
tion of organic life. He expressed the opinion that it would be de- 
sirable, both for the interests of science and agriculture, that these 
plants, and their prevalence or rarity in various districts, should be 
recorded in our catalogues, local floras, and other works of a similar 
description. 
Mr. James M‘Nab exhibited flowering plants of two species of 
Arum (A. cordatum and A. cornutum), raised in the garden of the 
Horticultural Society, from seeds sent by William Jameson, Esq., 
from Saharunpore, in April 1843. The flowering spathe of one was 
two feet, and of the other eighteen inches in length, both being 
beautifully mottled with brown and yellow spots. 
