LIITNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOK. xlix 



volva are extracted and made into a sort of ointment, which is 

 called "earth-butter," or "earth-oil" (Zemlianoe maslo) ; and 

 this is used for external application. The ripe fungus is dried in 

 an oven, or in the sun, and then powdered, and the powder 

 (which retains the offensive smell of the fresh fungus) is made 

 into an infusion with water or alcohol. This mixture, which pro- 

 duces the most powerful effect upon the human body, is used as 

 a remedy for gout and rheumatism, for periostitis, and for abdo- 

 minal dropsy after chronic intermittent fever. The medical pro- 

 perties of this fungus having been hitherto quite unknown, the 

 subject deserves the attention of the profession. 



In Greographical Botany, since I mentioned the subject in my 

 Address of 1863, there have been a few papers, chiefly upon local 

 distribution as affected by climatological and other physical causes, 

 ol which the most interesting are those drawn up by observers of the 

 vegetation of mountainous regions or of high latitudes. Amongst 

 these I may mention several papers by Euprecht and by Midden- 

 dorff and others, in the Petersburg Transactions and in the Moscow 

 Bulletin, including Euprecht's researches into the origin of the 

 Tchernozem, or black soil of the south of Eussia ; Baker's ' Flora of 

 North Yorkshire,' and especially Heer's opening Address to the 

 Meeting of 1864 of the Societe Helvetique des . Sciences Na- 

 turelles. The general subject is, I hope, likely to be again taken 

 up by the distinguished author of the ' Geographic Botanique.' 

 I understand that the stock of that work is nearly exhausted, 

 and that M. de Candolle has in contemplation either a new 

 edition or a remodelling of the work in a more compact form. 

 There is indeed a great deal of minute detail which was very 

 essential for establishing the general facts commented upon, but 

 which, having thus been once recorded in a book very generally 

 dispersed' and deposited in accessible libraries, would not need 

 repetition, and might be made to give place for a digest of the 

 additional facts recorded. Greater extent would also naturally 

 be now given to the development of the history of the migration 

 of species, independently of climatological causes, towards which a 

 considerable mass of data has been collected since the first edition. 

 I would venture particularly to call the author's attention to that 

 apparent general tendency of species to travel from east to west 

 rather than from west to east, to which I alluded in 1863 ; to the 

 inquiry whether there is any connexion between this tendency and 

 the great accumulation and diversity of species of limited areas at 

 the western and, especially, south-western extremities of great eon-. 

 LINN. PEOC. — Session 1865-66. d 



