( 377 ) 
Art. XXXIII . — Proceedings of the W ernerian Natural His^ , 
tory Society: (Continued from p. 182.) 
Dec. 11. 1819. — TDhE Secretary read a paper by Mr Stew- 
art, Lecturer on Botany, communicating a New habitat of 
Buxhaumia aphylla. This curious moss was found by him 
in Wedenshope, Peeblesshire, in October last. The plant 
grew chiefly on the abrupt declivities of little hillocks of peat- 
moss, perfectly destitute of other vegetation; though some, 
and these the most luxuriant plants, were found under heath, 
lichens, &c. He mentioned, that he had, in several instan- 
ces, found more than one fruit-stalk from the same bulb, 
and these in very different stages of vegetation : One for in- 
stance decayed, with the flat side of the capsule detached for 
half way down from the summit, from the gibbous side, — the 
state in which some of Buxbaum’s original specimens seem 
to have been, — ^but which had never occurred to the obser- 
vation of Linnaeus, and hence his too severe criticism of 
Buxbaum ; a second nearly mature, with the operculum not 
yet detached ; and a third, (or a pistil rather,) with the 
calyptra not yet detached from the base. Having observ- 
ed the slow growth of the capsule in some specimens ga- 
thered in October 1818, for four months^ which vegetated 
freely for that period in a flower-pot, Mr Stewart was induced 
to conclude, on flnding three fruit-stalks in such different stages 
of vegetation as those above described, that the plant could 
not be annual, as it has hitherto been stated to be by authors. 
Mr Stewart, it may be added, described the leaves of this sup- 
posed aphyllous moss in Iiis course of Lectures on Cryptogamic 
Botany, during the winter of 1818-19. They are palmate, or 
much laciniate, and reticulate like the substance of a junger- 
mannia. 
Dec. 24.— Professor Jameson read a Description of the rochs 
at Sandside Bay in Caithness^ from which it appears that 
they are of sj^enite, granite, limestone, conglomerate and sand- 
stone, and all apparently of cotemporaneous formation, 
Jan. 15. 1820.— Mr Butter read a paper on the Change of 
Plumage which is sometimes observed in aged female birds to 
VOL. II. XO. 4. APRIL 1820. B b 
