March 24, 1870} 
NATURE 
oo 
EDINBURGH 
Edinburgh Botanical Society, 
Robert Brown, V.P., in the chair. 
tions were read :— 
1. ‘Note on the embryo of Ruscus aculeatus.” 
Dickson. 
2. ‘Notice of plants collected in Spitzbergen and Nova 
Zembla in the summer of 1869.”’ By William Livesay. 
3. “Notice of some botanical excursions with pupils during 
the summer of 1869.” By Professor Balfour. 
At the last meeting of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, Dr. 
Balfour stated that during the course of last summer he made 
several botanical trips with his pupils, the results of which seemed 
not unworthy of notice. On 12th June, a party visited Manuel, 
Woodcockdale, Carriber Glen and Castle, Bowdenhill, Cockleroy 
and Linlithgow. On 19th June, a party visited Denny, and pro- 
ceeded up the banks of the Carron as far as the Hermitage. On 26th 
June, a party of 94 proceeded to Cleghorn, and walked along the 
banks of the Mouse as far as Cartland Crags, dividing then into 
two parties, one of which visited Stonebyres and the other Corra 
Linn. On 3rd July, a party of 50 proceeded by Stirling to Dollar, 
and thence to the Ochils. On 17th July, an excursion was 
undertaken to Perth and Dunkeld, and some of the party visited 
Methven bog. On 22nd July, a party proceeded by Perth and 
Forfar to Kirriemuir, and thence to Clova, and next day visited 
Loch Brandy and the mountains above it. In the course of two 
days a large number of the rarer alpine plants of Scotland was 
gathered, and in all the other excursions many interesting and 
rare plants were gathered. 
4. ‘‘Onthe botany of the Dominion of Canada and adjacent 
parts of British America (Part I., Rasunculacee).” By Professor 
Lawson, Dalhousie College, Halifax, Nova Scotia. 
5. ‘‘On the introduction of Ipecacuanha plant (Cephelis 
Ipecacuanha).” By Mr. M ‘Nab. 
6. ‘* Notice of Sicana odorifera, Naudin (Cucurbita odorifera, 
Velloso, Flor. Flum.”) By Senhor Joaquim Correa de Mello, 
Camprinas, Province of St. Paulo, Brazil, Communicated by 
Mr. Daniel Hanbury. 
7. Hints for Collecting Cryptogamia. By Prof. Dickie. 
8. Miscellaneous communications.—Ruscus aculeatus.— Cones 
of Abies. 
January 13. — Mr. 
The following communica- 
By Professor 
GLASGOW 
Philosophical Society of Glasgow—Chemical Section, 
January 31.—Dr. William Wallace, F.R.S.E., F.C.S., vice- 
president, in the chair. A paper was read by Mr. John Christie, 
on ‘‘the history of Madder, the various investigations relating 
to its character and composition, and the proposed sources of 
Artificial Alizarine.” After giving an elaborate account of the 
progress of the art of dyeing, by the use of the two madder 
plants, Rubia cordifolia, or munjeet, of Bengal, and Aubia tinc- 
torum of various European countries, the author proceeded to 
mention the various persons who had undertaken scientific inves- 
tigations with a view to determine the number and nature of the 
colouring ingredients of madder-root. He stated that these 
investigations commenced about the end of last or beginning of 
the present century. Watt, Bartholdi, and Haussmann were 
amongst the earliest investigators. Kuhlman, in 1823, published 
a complete approximate analysis of madder. He obtained two 
colouring matters, his matiere colorante rouge, and a fawn 
colour, which he did not consider worthy of investigation. 
Robiquet and Colin published the results of their researches on 
Alsace madder in 1826. The particular colouring matter of 
madder they named aé/izarine, and another body, which they 
considered to be a modification of alizarine, they termed purfu- 
rine. Gautier de Clanbry and Persoz obtained two colouring 
matters in the following year—vzatiére colorante rouge and 
maticre colorante rose. "They were the first chemists to prepare 
madder extract, or garancine, a substance which was first manu- 
factured largely at Avignon in 1829. Dr. Schunck obtained no 
fewer than seven substances from madder, two of them being 
colouring matters, having the composition indicated by the 
formule C,,H,,O4, and C3,H..0,,. His results were published 
in 1848. Debus, by treating Zealand madder, obtained two 
colouring bodies, which he called Lizaric acid and Oxylizaric acid. 
Wolff and Strecker obtained alizarine and purpurine ; the latter 
they regarded as oxide of alizarine. The author next enlarged 
on various series of researches made by Strecker, Schiitzen- 
berger, and Lanth, P. and E. Depouilly, Dr. Anderson (Glas- 
gow), Rochleder (Prague), and Graebe and Laubermann, which 
seemed to indicate an approximation towards the accomplish- 
ment of a long-wished-for desire—namely, the production of 
artificial alizarine. Anthracene, one of the coal-tar products, 
came to be regarded as the starting-point. Graebe and Lauber- 
mann obtained a product closely allied to alizarine, and in 
December 1868 they obtained provisional protection for their 
process in this country. They employed anthracene (C,,H,)), 
converting it into anthrachinon (C,,H,O,) by using bichromate of 
potash. They transformed that body into bibromanthrachinon, 
(C,,H,Br,O,), a substitution product ; and, by subsequent treat- 
ment with potash and an acid, they obtained from it a body 
which they termed artificial alizarine. In the course of last 
year other patents were secured by Bronner and Gulzkow, of 
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and by W. A. Perkins, F.R.S.; and 
recently Messrs. Lucius & Co., of Hoechst, near Frankfort, have 
prepared artificial alizarine by a secret. Mr. Christie concluded 
his paper by giving an account of numerous investigations 
which he had made with commercial artificial alizarine in order 
to test its colorific and other properties, and stated his reasons 
for regarding the natural and artificial compounds as not being 
identical. In the discussion which followed, Mr. Hogg and 
other speakers mentioned facts in suppert of the identity of the 
two products, one of the facts being that mordanted cloth dyed 
with pure artificial alizarine stands soaping better than that dyed 
with garancine. 
Paris 
Academy of Sciences, March 14.—M. Faye presented a 
memoir on the photographic observation of the transits of Venus, 
and on an apparatus of M. Laussedat’s.—The author noticed the 
imperfection of Halley’s method of observation, which has 
already been recognised by the German astronomers, suggested 
the employment of photography as a means of observing the 
transit of Venus which will take place in 1874, and commu- 
nicated a letter from M. Laussedat, describing an arrangement 
by which photographic observations may be taken.—A letter 
from M. Wolf, of Zurich, accompanying a printed memoir, was 
read. The author stated that the invention of the bubble-level 
was to be ascribed to a Frenchman named Capotos, and sug- 
gested that a search should be made in France for documents 
relating to this subject, and to some others to which he 
referred. — A memoir was read by M. Phillips on the 
changes of condition of a mixture of a saturated vapour and of 
its liquid, according to an adiabatic line—A note by M. 
Zaliwski was communicated, on the selection of the bodies 
which should be placed in contact with carbon as the positive 
pole of a battery. The author stated that these should be 
oxydising bodies, and among these such as are impressionable 
by light, such as nitric acid and the manganates of potash, seem 
to be most efficacious. He described a battery in which the 
carbon is impregnated with an ammoniacal solution of chloride 
of silver, dried and treated with nitric acid to remove the excess 
or ammonia ; with pure water this forms a battery of great 
intensity. —M. de Saint-Venant communicated a note by M. F. 
André, containing an account of experiments on the velocity of 
propagation of sound in water in a cast-iron conduit of o’$0M. in 
diameter. The authorfound the velocity of propagation to be only 
897°80 M. per second—M. H. Sainte-Clair- Deville communicated 
a second memoir on the “ nascent state,” in which he discussed the 
phenomena observed when zinc is brought in contact with a 
mixture of sulphuric or hydrochloric and nitric acids.—M. E. J. 
Maumené read a second memoir on a general theory of chemical 
action.—M. Combes presented a note by M. L. Gruner on the 
mechanical properties of phosphuretted steels. The author 
referred to the statements of Sir. W. Fairbairn as to Heaton’s 
steel, and showed by analysis that it contains from 0°002 to 0°003 
of phosphorus. He remarked that the favourable character of 
this steel under the ordinary tests was negatived when the test of 
a shock was applied to it. M. Boussingault supported the opinions 
of M. Gruner.—M. A. Milne-Edwards communicated a note 
on the Ornithological fauna of the Bourbonnais during the 
middle Tertiary period, in which he stated that the birds of 
the Miocene deposits of that district possessed a tropical, 
and especially an African character. He noticed remains 
of a parrot, a trogon, a sand-grouse, a swift of the group 
of the Salanganes, a Marabou stork, and a Secretary bird.—M. 
Leveillé presented a note on the discovery of remains of quater- 
nary man in the manufactories of stone implements at Grand- 
Pressigny ; and M. Richard noticed the discovery of instruments 
of the Stone age in Arabia and Egypt. The author stated that 
he has found worked stones at the foot of Mount Sinai, near 
Cairo, and at Thebes.—M. C. Weestyn presented a memoir on 
