Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 233 



From these dimensions it will be seen that, with the characteristic 

 large size of the unhatched young, in the genus Apteryx, the chief 

 peculiarities of the remarkable external form of the bird had been 

 acquired. The feet were very completely formed mth well-developed 

 claws, the small back claw presenting its characteristic proportions, 

 and the integument of the naked part of the foot its well-marked 

 dentations. The little wing- rudiments had their terminal hook. 

 The tail presented the form of a short bifid prominence. The beak 

 being comparatively soft, had become distorted and bent in the bottle 

 of spirits in which the specimen was transmitted to the Professor, 

 but it showed its characteristic shape, the terminal nostrils, and the 

 shght terminal expansion, which forms the end of the crutch in the 

 mature bird. The eyehds, with their cilia, and the orifice of the ear 

 opening obhquely upwards, were rather larger in proportion than in 

 the adult, according to the usual law of the precocious development 

 of those organs of sense ; and the same remark appKes to the entire 

 cranium. The neck is relatively shorter and thicker. 



The young bird must be excluded unusually well developed, with 

 a complete clothing very like that of the parent, and capable of using 

 its Hmbs and beak for its own safety and support. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



January 12, 1854. — Professor Balfour, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. G. Lawson exhibited specimens of Bryum toameum from the 

 Tents Muir Sands, on the east coast of Fife, where it was discovered 

 by Mr. W. M. Ogdvie, on the 27th of August last. It was associated 

 with Bryum ccesjiitithim, to which it bears a resemblance. The spe- 

 cies is new to Britain, and appears to be rare on the Continent. It is 

 described and figured by Bruch and Schimper in the ' Bryologia Eu- 

 ropaea,' fasc. vi. t. 5. 



The following papers were read : — 



1 . " On Diatomaceae found in the Mull Deposit," by Professor 

 Gregory. 



Having continued the study of this deposit for more than a year, 

 Professor Gregory detected in it more than 150 species, a number 

 three times as large as has hitherto been observed in any other de- 

 posit. Of these, he mentioned on the present occasion about 140, of 

 which about 1 20 were known and admitted already as British species. 



The followmg species were new to Britain, but figured by cont' - 

 nental authors : — 



Epithemia gibberula. Himantidium exigerum. Bred. 



Eunotia depressa, Kiitz. Navicula Trochus, E/ir. 

 E. Camelus. N. Isevissima. 



E. bigibba, Kiitz. Cocconema gibbum. 



The following species were described as new : — 

 Eunolia incisa. Pinnularia latestriata. 



Pinnvdaria undulata. P. exigera. 



