484 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
maturing a plan for the arrangement of the Society’s British herbarium, which is 
chiefly based upon the principle of affording a correct view of the geographical 
distribution of each species throughout Great Britain and Ireland, including the 
adjacent islands. For this purpose, he proposes to divide the country into forty- 
two districts, embracing one or more counties, grouped according to a union of 
their political and natural boundaries, as delineated on a map laid before the 
Society, instead of employing the divisions of the counties themselves, which 
would extend to upwards of 120, and render an herbarium so arranged one of 
unnecessary magnitude. The first edition of the Society’s Catalogue of British 
Plants , amounting to about 4,500 copies, having been now nearly disposed of, a 
second edition will probably soon be published, containing the new species and 
varieties recently added to the Flora, with such improvements as may be sug¬ 
gested. The preference given to the octavo sheet will probably cause that form 
to be adopted, rather than • the larger sheet now chiefly in use. IV[r. W. A. 
Leighton, of Shrewsbury, one of the Fellows of the Society, has agreed to 
publish a second edition of his excellent Catalogue of the Cellulares or Flowerless 
Plants of Great Britain , uniform in size with the Society’s Catalogue, and 
intended for the use of its Members. It will be published under the immediate 
superintendence of Mr. Leighton, who will embody whatever corrections may 
be pointed out to him ; and it will be marked on the title-page as “ Printed for 
the Botanical Society of Edinburgh,” which it is hoped will lead to its adoption 
by Members, as the best medium for the transmission of lists of their desiderata, 
as well as for general use. The Committee, on behalf S’ the Society, return their 
thanks to the various Local Secretaries, who have, by their valuable services, 
contributed so much to the advancement of the Society. The Committee notice 
with regret, the loss which the Society has sustained by the death of Dr. 
Alexander Murray, author of the Northern Flora , their late excellent Local 
Secretary at Aberdeen. 
MEDICO-BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 
April 24.—Earl Stanhope, Pres., in the chair.—The first paper read was a 
communication addressed to the noble chairman by Dr. Hancock, “ On the Effects 
of the Alconorco,” a Leguminous shrub bearing papilionaceous purple flowers, 
and growing in the savannahs of the Orinoko to a height of six or eight feet, and 
which is much esteemed as a remedy in phthisis. The plant was introduced from 
the Orinoko and Venezuela into Jamaica and other islands, and appears to have 
found its way some years ago.—The next communication was a paper by the 
Secretary, Mr. Jubb, on the baneful effects produced by the Cuichunculli, in a 
case of rheumatic gout which had recently come under his observation.—Dr. 
