40 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



investigating the interesting coast, as well as exploring 

 the extensive sandhills from Dunragit to Sandhead. The 

 weather was magnificent, the air bracing, the scenery 

 attractive, and I found good accommodation at Drummore. 



Among the interesting plants observed was a form of 

 Vicia sylvatica, which occurred abundantly on the shingle 

 north of Drummore for a mile or so, and is identical with 

 the plant which I saw twenty-five years ago on the opposite 

 coast near Port William, which I described in the "Naturalist" 

 as var. condensata. It grows in compact tufts, one or two 

 feet across ; the leaves are smaller than the type, are firm, 

 almost coriaceous in texture ; the flowers are larger than 

 the type, and are arranged in sub-capitate racemes, and 

 the standard is darker coloured, often indeed suffused with 

 brownish purple. I will try and raise plants from seeds 

 to test the permanency of these characters in cultivation. 

 Another interesting shingle plant was Scutellaria galericulata> 

 L., also with larger flowers, of a purer blue, the corolla clothed 

 with longer and more patent hairs, the under-surface of the 

 leaves covered with a short canescent growth. On examining 

 my herbarium I found the only specimens matching this 

 came from the shingle of Jeantown, W. Ross-shire. I was 

 about to describe it as var. liltoralis, but the description by 

 Bentham of var. pubescens in De Candolle's " Prodromus" will 

 probably cover it. Bentham gives it for North America, 

 " scarcely from Europe." 



The locality at Stranraer which yielded many casuals 

 twenty years ago still affords a considerable number, but 

 Vicia varia and V. lutea seem to have disappeared. 



A small rubbish heap at Drummore also yielded many 

 adventitious species, noticeably Asperugo procumbens, Asperula 

 arvensis, and Melilotus indica. The abundance of Eryngium 

 maritimum at Drummore, the plentiful occurrence of Innla 

 critluiwides at the Mull, of Pneumaria maritima at Port 

 Logan, of Anchusa sempervirens, which was quite naturalised 

 in several places at Drummore, of the curious form of 

 Teesdalea, which has the rosettes of leaves almost ball- 

 shaped, growing in the hollows of Torrs sand dunes were 

 also pleasing features. 



We made a short expedition into Dumfriesshire to see 



