416 Botany. 
of which are, the advancement of Botanical Science in general, but more espe- 
cially. Descriptive and Systematic Botany, by the reading of original and other 
papers, on the habitats, particular characters, &c. of Plants, by the formation of 
a Library, Museum, and Herbarium, for reference and exchange of specimens. 
Several gentlemen, friendly to such a society, have held some preparatory 
meetings, and drawn up regulations for its Government. 
It is proposed that ladies be admitted members, with a full participation 
in the advantages of the Library, &c W. M. CHATTERLEY, Hon. Sec. pro tern. 
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. April 14, Professor Graham in the 
Chair. The first meeting held to-day. The Society occupied in making the pre- 
liminary arrangements for its future proceedings. 
May 12, Professor Graham in the Chair. Mr Carpenter read a communica- 
tion on the connection between electricity and vegetable life. He commenced 
by pointing out the differences between the phenomena manifested in living be- 
ings, and those which occur in the inorganic world ; and argued that their diffe- 
rences arise not from a change in the agents immediately concerned in producing 
the result in both cases, but from these agents being subjected in organized be- 
ings to a higher control, that of vitality. He then endeavoured to show the pro- 
bability that electricity, which is now recognized as the source of chemical affi- 
nity, is applied in the vegetable structure to produce the class of compounds 
usually termed organic. The different modes in which electricity is excited dur- 
ing the various processes of vegetable growth, and the experimental indications 
of its developement, were next enumerated ; and the paper was terminated by 
some hypothetical views regarding the food of plants, based upon the foregoing 
facts. 
Dr Graham stated, that some seeds from a specimen of Primula, brought from 
Norway by Mr Forbes, and named by Somerfeldt Primula farinosa, var. alpina, 
had germinated in the Botanic Garden, and two specimens had produced flowers. 
The examination of these, he said, had satisfied him that they could only be con- 
sidered a slight variety of P. Scotica, differing in no respect from the Sutherland 
and Caithness-shire specimens, except in the colour of the flower being paler, the 
tube a little longer, and rather more slender, and the calyx elliptical rather than 
ovate. Mr Forbes's specimens were gathered in the subalpine country by the 
Lake of Viger in Lorn, and were quite different from P. stricta of Horneman, 
as appeared by specimens of that plant in Dr Graham's Herbarium from Horne- 
man himself. 
Mr Tyacke exhibited specimens ofLamium intermedium, Fries, lately found by 
him in several localities in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and pointed out 
the difference between it and L. incisum and L. purpureum, with the latter of 
which it seems to have been hitherto confounded. 
June 9, Professor Graham in the Chair. Paper by Mr James M'Nab, giving 
an account of an excursion in the Alleghany mountains in September 1834. 
The Rhododendrons, Kalmias, Azaleas, and Andromedas were particularly men- 
tioned as remarkable for their size and age, Sections of many of these were ex- 
hibited, in some of which the concentric circles could be counted to the number 
of 120. 
Mr Forbes read a notice regarding a Viola found by him in the Isle of Man, 
and in several localities in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, which he referred to 
4 
