TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 129 



miuous and composite plants is familiar to every one. What have been hitherto 

 spoken of as mimetic plants are simply cases where a plant belonging to one family 

 puts on the habit characteristic of another. This is entirely different from mimicry 

 among animals, inasmuch as the resembling plants are hardly ever foimd with those 

 they resemble, but more usually in widely different regions. Mtitisia speciosa from 

 Western South America, a Composite, has a scandent leo;uminous habit closely 

 agreeing with that oi Lathy rus maritimiis of the European shores. In the same way 

 three different genera of ferns have species (found in distant parts of the world) in- 

 distinguishable in a barren state. The term Mimicrj^ seems objectionable in these 

 cases, and the author proposes Pseudomorphism as a substitute. As to the cause of 

 the phenomenon, he can only suggest that the influence of similar external circum- 

 stances moulds plants into the similar form most advantageous to them. An illus- 

 tration is aflTorded by the closely resembling bud scales which are found in widely se- 

 pai-ated natural orders of deciduous trees as modifications of stipules. The author 

 does not, however, think that the moidding influence need always be the same. 

 He believes that different external conditions may produce the same result ; in 

 this respect they may be called analogous. Several identical plants are found on 

 the sea-shore and also on mountains ; perhaps the reason is that they are equally 

 able to tolerate the effect of soda salts and also of mountain climate. The tolerance 

 of either unfavourable condition gives them the advantage over less elastically 

 constituted plants, and both are therefore analogous in their effects. 



Oa Spiranthes Eomanzoviaua, Cham. By A. 0. Moee, F.L.S., M.R.I.A, 



In exhibiting some living specimens of this rare Irish orchid, Mr. More called 

 attention to their delicious perfume. He had gathered the plant near Castletown, 

 Berehaven, where it was in full flower about the l-5th of July. It grows in grassy 

 meadows, and also in rather boggy ground bordering on the sea, and is found in so 

 many different fields that there is no present fear of its becoming extinct. 



On Erioplioruin alpinum, Linn., as a British Plant. 

 Bij A. G. Moee, F.L.S., M.R.I.A. 



Eriophorum alpimnn had, a few years ago, been annoimced as an Irish plant on 

 faith of some specimens forwarded to Dr. Moore by Mr. J. SuUivan of Cork, who 

 reported that they had been gathered on the banks ot a mountain-lake near Mill- 

 street, coimty Cork. Subsequent investigation had, however, caused considerable 

 doubts as to the correctness of this information ; for both Mr. More himself and 

 Dr. Moore had on two different occasions made a most careful search on the borders 

 of Gurthaveha Lake without finding a trace of Eriopliorum alpintim ; and they now 

 believe that Sciipus cceiipitosus, whose spikes are often slightly woolly with the 

 growth of the bristles, was gathered by the side of the lake, and probably some 

 mistake was afterwards made in transmitting the specimens, which belong to the 

 right plant. 



With regard to the supposed Scottish locality in Sutherland, Dr. Balfour autho- 

 rized him to say that he had always felt some slight doubt about the single specimen 

 found in his herbarium ; and this doubt was much increased on seeing the striking 

 similarity of this specimen to others also belonging to the University Herbarium, 

 and which were certainly collected in Forfarshire, rendering it highly probable that 

 a piece of E. alpinum had by some accident been mixed with Dr. Balfour's speci- 

 mens of Scirjnis ceespitosus, or that a label had been inadvertently exchanged. 

 Hence he believed that Eriophorum alpinum must, for the present, be erased alto- 

 gether from the British flora. 



On the Bevelojyment of Fungi within the Tliovax of Livinr/ Birds*. 

 By Dr. James Murie, F.L.S., F.G.S. 

 The author referred to the circumstance of lowly organized vegetable structures 



* This paper will be published in full, with a Plate, in the Trans. Eoy. Micros. Soc, 

 Tol. vii. 



1871. 9 



