356 
NATURE 
[ Aug. 31, 1871 

propagated much more easily and plentifully. They had thus 
been able to send out a number of healthy plants to India, which 
it was hoped would be there equally successfully cultivated. Mr. 
M‘Nab was also endeavouring, with fair prospect of success, to 
get the perfect seed of the plant, and if that could be done 
the difficulties of propagation would of course disappear. They 
had now two varieties of the plant in the Botanical Gardens, one 
of which had been cultivated there for forty years, and the 
other had just been got from South America, through the kind- 
ness of Dr. Gunning and Dr. Christison. 
Dr. Cleghorn, F.L.S., late Conservator of Forests, Madras, 
expressed his delight at seeing the satisfactory result of the ipe- 
cacuanha propagation. Every army surgeon, he said, knew the 
great value of this remedy in the treatment of dysentery, and he 
hoped that the result of this experiment would be as successful 
as had been the introduction of cinchona. He thought much 
credit due to Profs. Balfour and Christison and Mr. M‘Nab in 
this matter. 
Mr. John Sadler read a paper Ox the Genus Grimmia (in- 
cluding Schistidium) as represented in the Neighbourhood of 
Edinburgh. After alluding to the varied character of the geo- 
logical formation around the city, he stated that perhaps in no 
district of equal size in Britain would so large a number of 
species of this genus be found. 
In Hooker and Taylor’s Auscologia Britannica, published | 
in 1818, a work which has never yet been surpassed for sim- 
plicity and correctness of description, there are seven species 
of Grimmia given as native of Britain. Two of these species, 
however, are now removed to other genera. In Wilson’s 
Bryologia Britannica, or the third edition of the former work, 
published in 1855, there are fifteen species and many varieties 
described. Wilson, however, following Schimper, places three 
of these under the genus Sc/istidium, a genus which we think 
might with advantage to the student be easily dispensed with, 
seeing that its principal distinction from Grimmia rests on such 
an arbitrary character as the adhesion or partial adhesion of the 
columella to the lid. Since 1855 several species have been 
added to the genus in Britain, and noticed in the proceedings of 
different learned societies. 
Greville, in his Flora LEdinensis, published in 1824, de- 
scribes six species of Grimmia as occurring within a radius of 10 
miles of the city, viz.—G. apocarpa, maritima, trichophylla, pul- 
vinata, leucophea, and Doniana., 
In Balfour and Sadler’s Flora of Edinburgh, published in 
1863, ten species, including Schistidiums, are recorded ; and in 
the second edition of the same work issued this day no fewer 
than fifteen species are given. If we take the rocks of 
Arthur’s Seat we shall there find a wonderful development of 
Grimmias. They vary much, however, in their distribution over 
the hill. The most widely distributed are G. pulvinata and 
subsguarrosa ; next we have G. conferta, pruinosa, leucophea, and 
trichophylla, less widely distributed ; while G. anodon, orbicularis 
and its variety oblonga, commutata, and Doniana are very 
limited. Another interesting fact is that all these species, with 
the exception of G. ¢vichophylla, which occurs on different kinds of 
rock, seem to have a preference for the amygdaloidal trap, and 
very rarely occur on the basalt. Ifa stray specimen, however, 
does get on to the last-named rock, it has the most stunted and 
starved appearance. At one part of the hill, where the upper 
drive cuts the rocks to the back of the basaltic columns of 
*¢Samson’s ribs,” there is an area of very limited extent where 
the whole of the species which occur on the hill can be col- 
lected. In fact, any one at all acquainted with the plants and the 
rocks on which they grow would have no difficulty in securing 
the whole in the course of a very few minutes. In April 1870, 
in company with Mr. Bell, of the University Herbarium, who 
has paid much attention to the mosses of Edinburghshire, and 
to whom we are indebted for the discovery of Grimmia anodon 
in Britain, I collected in the space of one hour specimens of G. 
apocarpa, conferta, anodon, pruinosa, subsquarrosa, pulvinata, 
orbicularis, orbicularis (var. oblonga), trichophyila (2 var.), 
hucophea, and commutata. 
If we take the species to be met with within a radius of about 
7 miles or 8 miles, and classify them ina sort of natural order 
according to affinity, we have first of all two sections— 
1. Capsule immersed in the perichzetal leaves. 
2. Capsule exserted. 
Under the first section comes—G, afocarfa, maritima, prui- 
nosa, and anodon. Thelast named resembles the members of the 
second section in the structure of its leaves, 

Under the second section comes—G, fulvinata, orbicularis, 
orbicularis (var. oblonga), subsquarrosa, trichophylla, patens, 
Doniana, ovata, leucophea, commutata, and torta. 
The author then went over each of the species, giving their 
distinguishing characters, and pointing out their geographical 
distribution over the world. The paper was illustrated by a com- 
plete set of dried specimens of the species referred to, as well as 
by drawings of the rarer species. 
Mr. Sadler noticed the occurrence of Cystopteris montana in 
great abundance on the Breadalbane mountains this season, and 
presented dried specimens of this rare fern to the meeting. 
Dr. Murie, in communicating a paper On the Development of 
Fungi within the Thorax of living Birds, referred to the circum- 
stance of lowly-organised vegetable structures being not unfre- 
quently found growing in animals and man, both externally and 
internally. For the most part these affected the skin, giving rise 
to several cutaneous diseases. They also flourished in the ali- 
mentary canal ; and among others, one peculiar form (Sarcina) 
had been described by the late Professor Goodsir from the human 
stomach. In nearly though not in all instances where vegetable 
organisms flourished within the living body, it was in organs 
where a certain amount of air had free access. It was more 
difficult, though, to account ‘for the cases where vegetable para- 
sites arose in, so to speak, closed cavities. The instances of this 
latter fact which he (Dr. Murie) brought forward as coming under 
his own observation were three in number—viz., a fungus-like 
growth in the abdomino-pleural membrance of a kittiwake gull, 
of a great white-crested cockatoo, and of a rough-legged buzzard. 
After a general description of the specimens in question, the 
author referred to them as in some ways bearing upon those doc- 
trines which supposed living organisms to originate out of the tis- 
sues themselves. Weighty reasons undoubtedly might be given to 
the contrary, but as every fact, either furnishing doubtful evi- 
dence of, or opposed to the spontaneous generation theory, might 
be useful at the present juncture, he (Dr. Murie) thought a record 
of such worthy of being brought before the Association. 
In the discussion which followed, Mr. Cooke and Prof. Per- 
ceval Wright questioned whether the vegetable structures spoken 
of by Dr. Murie might not be Algze instead of fungoid bodies. 
Dr. Bastian said that the question calling for most consideration 
was how these vegetable forms came to be found in a place cut 
off entirely from communication with the atmosphere. After 
mentioning the hypothesis that the spores of the fungi or algze 
might have penetrated the tissues of the lungs or other vessels, 
and so reached the thoracic cavity, he explained his own views on 
the subject, illustrated by his experience in finding in the brain, 
and other portions of the human body isolated from the atmo- 
sphere, immense numbers of living organisms shortly after death, 
which, so far as could be ascertained, had no existence when the 
patient was alive, and insisted that either these organisms must 
have been previously present in the blood ina latent state—their 
germs being so minute as to be undistinguishable—or they must 
have come into existence by spontaneous generation. 
Prof. Dickson read a paper entitled ‘‘ Suggestions on Fruit 
Classification.” [We give this valuable paper 77” extenso in 
another column. ] 
Prof. Dyer read a paper Qn the Minute Anatomy of 
the Stem of Pandanus utilis. 
The Rev. Thomas Brown exhibited some specimens of fossil 
wood from the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Langton, Berwick- 
shire. These fossil woods were described as occurring in the same 
Lower Carboniferous rocks in which Mr, Witham had found the 
stems figured more than thirty years ago, only thatthe rocks at 
Langton lie considerably in the lower series. One stem was par- 
ticularlarly referred to, and drawings exhibited of the transverse 
and longitudinal sections. The transverse section was shown to 
presentall the appearance of exogenous structure with pith rays and 
circular lines of annual growth. The longitudinal section showed 
that the seeming rays were vascular bundles, and that the stem from 
the pith to the circumference was a mass of scalariform tissue. Thus 
the longitudinal section seemed to indicate that this was the stem 
of a cryptogam, while the transverse section had all the ap- 
pearance of an exogen. One tissue being obviously scalariform, 
the chief point of interest was the question whether the dark 
circles were really rings of annual growth. That they were 
really such the author argued on three grounds. First, no acci- 
dental infiltration of darker matter could account for a series of 
circular rings keeping their distance. Secondly the longitudinal 
section showed the same dark lines going down vertically through 
the stem and still keeping their relative distances, as in the con- 
