Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 303 



characters which distinguish E. uniylmms from E. palustris and E. 

 multicaulis. He noticed particularly the narrowness of the mem- 

 branous margin of the glumes in E. uniylumis, and the fact that the 

 lowest glume surrounds the spike entirely. (See p. 145.) 



3. *'0n the effects of Insects on Plants," by Mr. James Hardy. 

 In this paper Mr. Hardy alluded particularly to the effects produced 

 by Vibrio graminis, a new species, V. Tritici, Cecidomyia salicina, 

 and Rhyncholophus haustor. (Seep. 182.) 



4. Dr. Balfour gave an account of a botanical trip to Aberdeen. 

 He stated that on the 29th of June, he left at 5 a.m. by rail, with 

 100 pupils ; reached Aberdeen about 11, and after botanizing in the 

 neighbourhood, returned to Edinburgh late in the evening. He 

 noticed and exhibited some of the rarer plants gathered, among which 

 were Goody era, Linncea, Trientalis, Utricularia, JDroeera anglicay 

 Carex incurva, &c. 



Dr. Cleghorn exhibited a jacket of the Grass-cloth of commerce, 

 manufactured from the fibres of the Boehmeria nivea of botanists, the 

 Urtica tenacissima of Roxburgh (Fl. Indica, iii. 590). 



5. Dr. Balfour read a letter from Dr, Campbell of Demerara, 

 accompanying some seeds of Victoria Reyia. Dr. Campbell says, 

 " I enclose in this a dozen seeds of Victoria Reyia, brought from the 

 Essequibo a few days ago by an itinerant collector, who seems to 

 know their value, as he charges a dollar (4^. 2d.) a dozen for them. 

 I am afraid they will not germinate after their voyage across the 

 Atlantic ; but this at least you must bear in mind, if you intend to 

 try the experiment, that the plant will not live in an atmosphere 

 within the influence of the sea breeze, nor grow in soil or water 

 where there is the slightest saline principle existing. Such at least 

 is the result of experiments tried here. I visited the locality of the 

 plant in the Essequibo, above 100 miles from the sea, in 1846, and 

 it appeared to me a small lagoon, rather than a lake, over which the 

 river flows in the rainy season. It is surrounded on all sides with a 

 dense * bush ' (natural forest), through which we had great difficulty 

 in dragging a small corial (wood-skin boat) in which we embarked 

 on the lagoon, which is a most gloomy spot, the favourite resort of 

 caymans, where the sun can scarcely penetrate even at noon, and 

 with an atmosphere oppressively damp and hot. So far as I could 

 judge by sounding and examining the stems of the plant, it appears 

 to grow at a depth of 12 or 14 feet, in an oozy, sluny, muddy sort 

 of compound, with which I presume sand must be mixed ; for higher 

 up the river there are immense tracts of loose sand in the bed of the 

 river, which must be swept along with the torrent every rainj sea- 

 son." , ;,,,,y, -J ( ,,J^],i ;; . 



Mr. G. Lawson showed a specimen of Lathyrus Nissolia from the 

 Den of Mains, near Dundee, where he believed it was first found last 

 year by some local botanists. Mr. Lawson thought it probable that 

 the plant was only naturalized ; but it was interesting to notice its 

 occurrence so far north, as Mr. Watson in the ' Cyhele Britannica * 

 (i. 323) gave its northern limit in Derbyshire, doubting its existence 

 at *'the glass houses at Dent's Hole, Newcastle, w^eje it grew in the 

 time of Lawson." itif, J 



