SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
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receptacle, and is distinguished from all its congeners by its dichotomous 
stem and racemose flowers. 
The Botany of Shetland. — Mr. Alexander Christie, who has be n lately 
on an excursion to Shetland, gave an account of his observation of the flora 
to the Edinburgh Botanical Society, April 8. He stated that he had been 
enabled to add twenty species to the list of plants contained in Edmonston’s 
Flora of Shetland. The paper was illustrated by dried specimens of the plants 
collected, and also specimens of the principal rocks of the different islands. 
The Botanical Brize of the Pharmaceutical Society. — The prize for 1870, 
consisting of a silver medal, is offered for the best herbarium, collected in 
any part of the United Kingdom, between the first day of May, 1869, and 
the first day of June, 1870 ; and should there be more than one collection 
possessing such an amount of merit as to entitle the collector to reward, a 
second prize, consisting of a bronze medal, and also certificates of merit, will 
be given at the discretion of the council. In the event of none of the col- 
lections possessing such an amount of merit as to warrant the council in 
awarding medals or certificates, none will be given. The collections to con- 
sist of flowering plants and ferns, arranged according to the natural system 
of De Candolle, or any other natural method in common use, and to be ac- 
companied by lists, arranged according to the same method, with the species 
numbered. 
The Largest Diameter of Tree-trunks. — It is a curious fact, if it be a true 
one, that (according to a paper by Musset before the Academy of Toulouse) 
the large trees of St. Cloud have the widest parts of the trunk always in 
an east and west direction. 
Scandinavian Botany. — So much valuable scientific work is done in 
Norway and Sweden, and so little is known to English naturalists, that we 
would call particular attention to a series of reprints of the scientific labours 
of Scandinavian naturalists now being published by Dr. Liitken, in the 
American Naturalist. The following quotation refers to the papers which 
recently appeared in Fries' Journal of Botany : — Among the papers published 
in the Botaniske Notiser, 1867 and ’68 (edited by Prof. Th. Fries, at Upsala), 
I must cite Professor Andersson’s, on the genus Salix, and especially its 
northern species; Dr. Goes’ description of the flora of the West Indian 
island, St. Barthelemy ; Mr. Moe’s valuable observations on the influence 
of the different mineralogical constituents of the soil upon the variation of 
plants ; several papers on the Scandinavian species of Callitiiche, Junci and 
Charece, Notidce-lichenologica, and other geodesical contributions, among 
which some observations on the variation of the parts of the cone in the 
common Binus abies should be particularly noticed by botanists and palaeo- 
phytologists. In every volume of this highly esteemed joitrnal a complete 
annual list is given of all botanical papers published in Sweden, Norway, 
and Denmark. — American Naturalist^ June. 
Appointment of Dr. Trimen to the British Museum. — Dr. Henry Trimen, 
F.L.S., has been appointed assistant in the Botanical Department of the 
British Museum. This appointment, though offering great opportunity for 
botanical investigation, withdraws its holder from medical practice. Dr. 
Trimen is, however, permitted to retain the Lectureship on Botany at St. 
Mary’s Hospital, 
