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Proceedings of the Royal Society 
synonyms by different tribes, as well as from a real dialectic differ- 
ence between the languages from which they were derived. 
4. In order to afford a test for discriminating between dialects, 
the generic terms must contain within them those sounds which 
are differently affected by the phonetic laws of each dialect. 
5. Applying this test, the generic terms in Scotch topography 
do not show the existence of a Kymric language north of the Firths 
of Forth and Clyde. 
6. We find in the topography of the north-east of Scotland 
traces of an older and of a more recent form of G-aelic. The one 
preferring labials and dentals, and the other gutturals. The one 
hardening the consonants into tenues^ the other softening them by 
aspiration. The one depositing Abers and Invers simultaneously, 
the other Invers alone. The one a low G-aelic dialect, the other 
a high Gaelic dialect, the one probably the language of the Piets, 
the other that of the Scots. 
3. On the Bands produced by the Superposition of Paragenic 
Spectra formed by the Grooved Surfaces of Glass and 
Steel. Part II. By Sir David Brewster, K.H., F.K.S. 
4. Kemarks on the Flora of Otago, New Zealand. By W. 
Lauder Lindsay, M.D., F.L.S., Hon. Member of the Philo- 
sophical Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand. 
The North Island flora has hitherto been regarded (in the absence 
of a knowledge of the South Island flora) as representing the 
general vegetation of our New Zealand possessions. But the New 
Zealand Islands extend through thirteen degrees of latitude, and 
the floras of their northern and southern extremes necessarily pre- 
sent various marked differences. The former flora is more sub- 
tropical, and the latter more antarctic in its affinities. The former, 
morever, is richer in natural orders, genera, and species. 
Until very recently, however, comparatively little or nothing was 
known of the Otago flora, all collections previous to 1861 having 
been made on its coast, and with a single limited exception on its 
