Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 335 



the flowers are unknown, for my specimens were lost. This tree has hard 

 black wood, called by the Portuguese Paoferro; by the Bechuanas, Mo- 

 pane. I have got the foliage and fruit, but, being a new genus, the 

 flower is a sad want. It inhabits the driest and most baked clay plains ; 

 no heat kills it, the leaves, like those of Australian forests, turning their 

 edge upwards when the sun shines very powerfully. The testa of the 

 seed is full of resin in large cysts, and the cotyledons are convoluted like 

 the surface of the human brain." 



A note from Mr W. J. Haig, Dollarfield, was read, in which he 

 says : — " I enclose a specimen of a plant which I have just received from 

 a cousin who is settled in the Banda Oriental Republic of Uraguay. He 

 writes to me : — ' I should be glad if you could get a scientific opinion on 

 the following case : — It had long been a known fact here that sheep re- 

 moved from the province of Buenos Ayres to the Banda Oriental, or 

 imported from Europe, are liable to die in great numbers during the first 

 fortnight after arriving. I saw an instance myself last week. At an 

 estancia about five leagues from here, the owner had just received from 

 Buenos Ayres sixty rams and ewes freshly imported from Europe, which 

 cost L.15 per head: of these, fourteen died in five days. It is believed 

 that the mortality arises from the sheep eating a plant called min-min, 

 peculiar to this province. I enclose a twig of it. It grows in patches 

 about the size of one's hand, and the twig enclosed is of average height. 

 The stomach and intestines after death are found much inflamed ; and in 

 some cases the under side of the skin is quite red with eifused blood. I 

 may add that sheep born here, or acclimatised, are in no way injured by 

 the plant — in fact, they almost entirely avoid it." This seems very 

 analogous to the effect which the twigs of the yew tree have on animals 

 here; and I should think that the only way to avoid the danger would be 

 to put the animals for the first week or two in an enclosure cleared of this 

 plant. By this time desire for green food would be somewhat abated , 

 and they would, like the native born, become more discriminating. 



Thursday, 10th March 1864. — Professor Balfour, President, 

 in the Chair. 



The following Communications were read : — 



I. Neio Researches on Hyhridity in Plants. By M. Ch. Naudin. Part II. 

 Translated from the French, and communicated by Mr George M. 

 Lowe. 



(This paper appears in the present number of the Journal.) 



II. On the Chemical and Natural History of Lupuline. By M. J. 

 Personne. Translated by George Lawson, LL.D., Professor of Che- 

 mistry and Natural History in Dalhousie College, Nova Scotia. 



Drawings of Lupuline were shown, and specimen from the Industrial 

 Museum was exhibited by Professor Archer. 

 (This paper appears in the present number of the Journal.) 



III. Remarks on the Sexuality of the Higher Cryptogams., with a Notice 

 of a Hybrid specimen of the species of Selaginella. By Mr John 

 Scott. 



Specimens of the species of Selaginella and the Hybrid in a living 

 state were exhibited. 



(This paper appears in the present number of the Journal.) 



