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216 BOTANICAL NEWS.
was at Dr. Hooker's advice those Englishmen who attended the St. Petersburg
Exhibition were not decorated.
The tenth and conchiding part of Seemann's 'Flora Vitiensis' is now in the
course of preparation, all the plates (100) having already been printed.
Dr. F. Mueller's able ' Official Report on tlie Melbourne Botanical Garden for
1869 ' has just come to hand, and will be found in another part of tliis Journal.
A Pharmaceutical Congress, to which all civilized nations are invited to send
representatives, is to take place at Vienna in September.
The ' Portland (Maine) Advertiser ' was recently printed on paper made of
a kind of material said to have been never before used m the manufacture of
paper Zizania aquatica, or Water Rice. It grows in great abundance in
many places in the north-west of America.
Mr. Collins, wliose paper on India-rubber appeared in this Journal last year,
is now working up the subject of Gutta Percha, and would be glad if any of our
correspondents could communicate any authentic specimens, etc. of any of tlie
Guttas, as Gutta Mutah, Tuban, Percha Claison, etc., addressing them to the
Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society, Bloomsbury Square, London.
Edinbuegh Botanical Society.—Thirty-third Session, Fifth Meeting.—
The Society met on the 11th of March, Dr. Cleghorn, President, in the chair.
The following communications were read :— I. Notes of a Twelve Days' Visit
to Sicily, in February, 1868. By Dr. H. Cleghorn. Dr. Cleghorn described
the present state of the Botanical Gardens at Syracuse, Catania, and Palermo,
and enumerated the principal plants observed in Hower at the time of his
visit. He described the scenery of the island, and drew attention to the
increased facilities of travelling afforded by two railway's now open. The
Agricultural Institution at Castelnviovo, with its model farm, under the able
management of Professor Inzenga, was mentioned, as furnishing a good
example of the successful training of youths in rural pursuits. From the dry-
ness of the climate, the seeds I'ipeued at Palermo iiave been very suitable for
the agri-horticultural societies of North India. II. Report on the Cultivation of
Chinchona in Bengal for the year 1867-68. By Thomas Andei-son, M.D., Su-
perintendent, Botanical Gardens, and in charge of Cinchona Cultivation in
Bengal {vide p. 155). III. Notes on a Visit to the Hot Springs of Junuiotri in
1860. Part 2. By Mr. Wm. Bell. IV. On the form of the Archetypal Leaf.
By Dr. Josejih Bidlar. The author believed that the orbicular form of leaf was
the archetypal one, the divisions of its veins representing the divisions in the
calyx, corolla, and the otliefe whorls of the flowers. Professors Balfour and
Dickson doubted the correctness of Dr. Bullar's theory. V. Notice of the
Occurrence of Rhamnus Frangnla in Ross-shire. By Dr. F. Buchanan White.
VI. Report on the Open-Air Vegetation at the Royal Botanic Garden. By
Ml*. M'Nab. VII. Miscellanous Communications. 1. Dr. Buchanan White
presented specimens oi Funaria l[/f/eriiica, whicli he had collected in Septem-
ber, 1868, growing on rocks on Tor Achilty, Ross-shire. This is the first time
tiiat this moss has been detected in Scotland. 2. Professor Dickson made
some remarks regarding the indurated structure of the albumen in the seed of
Convailaria majalis, preparations of which he exhibited under the microscope.
.