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* Three plants have very curious localities; at the sea-shore, 
and again on the highest mountains. They are Silene inflata, 6.5 
Cochlearia officinalis, and Statice Armeria, (Hooker's Fl. Scot.) 
I have found them all on the upper mountains of the Don 
and the Dee; but strictly confined, as far as I could perceive 
on a pretty extensive examination, to limited tracts of serpen- 
tine rocks, and the immediate margins of the streams below, 
and not remote from such regions. I am not aware that this 
curious fact has been formerly attended to. It shows the 
influence of soil. 'The serpentine contains magnesia, not 
otherwise found in our primitive district.* 
* Although I have no authority for so doing, yet I cannot 
resist the pleasure of telling you, that our friend, Dr. Alexan- 
der Murray, discovered a patch of Linnea borealis within three 
miles of this place, to which he directed me in October last: 
*at Coreen, about 20 yards west of the foot-path leading 
from Culhay to Dubstone, in the north opening of a deep 
dingle that passes through the top of the hill^ The plant is 
there 1100 feet above the level of the sea, growing in a strag- 
gling manner over a space of about 200 square yards, amidst 
a tall, but rather open, growth of Calluna vulgaris, mingled 
with Arbutus Uva ursi and Vaccinium Vitis Idea—no wood 
near; stems trailing, of various lengths, but many of them a 
yard or two long, rooting for a great part of their length. Dr. 
Murray found it in full flower in July: the soil deep with dry 
bottom, but from the position, at the foot of a bank, receiving 
the full effect of every shower. I had formed no proper con- 
ception of the singular elegance of this plant. I transferred 
several slips of it to the garden here, where they obviously 
took root immediately, and if it prospers, I should conceive 
it might become a great favourite in the flower-garden." 
nci tm 
* The circumstance of these plants being confined, on the mountains of Aber- 
deenshire, to limited tracts of serpentine, is certainly remarkable ; but I can 
hardly think it is the case on other mountains. For both in Britain and upon 
the continent, I believe these maritime plants to be common and almost univer- 
sally found also on the more elevated mountains, whatever may be the nature of 
the soil. — ZH. í : 
