i;8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



well-known home of several plants until it was drained 

 about 1850. 



One or two fragments of moor still exist west of 

 Rubislaw, but the last moor worth the name disappeared 

 from Aberdeen when Stocket Moor was broken up and 

 cultivated, about iSSo. 



The endeavour to ascertain what was known of the flora 

 of Aberdeen in the past appeared for a time likely to show 

 only manuscript notes by Dr. David Skene, a native of 

 Aberdeen, who at the time of his death in 1771, was one of the 

 leading physicians of the North of Scotland. In professional 

 visits over a district extending beyond Inverness he was an 

 unwearied recorder and a naturalist in the best sense. He 

 corresponded with Ellis, Linnaeus, and others of the best- 

 known naturalists of the time. Though he died, it is believed, 

 at the age of 39, and had been in poor health for a number 

 of years, he left a large quantity of manuscript notes in all 

 departments of science ; but his interest seems to have been 

 keenest in the flora and fauna. Many of the plants and 

 animals found by him are described very fully, especially 

 when from his books he could not discover their names ; 

 and so careful are these descriptions that in most cases there 

 is little room for doubt of the species, except with critical 

 forms. But while he proves the existence of many plants 

 in this part of Scotland prior to 1771, he does not often 

 name definite localities within what are now the limits of 

 the city. 



The next to study the plants of this neighbourhood was 

 James Beattie, Professor of Natural History in Marischal 

 College and University. He was a nephew of James Beattie, 

 Professor of Moral Philosophy in the same University (a 

 poet and philosophical writer of high repute for a time) ; and 

 the uncle and nephew have been confused in even so 

 trustworthy an authority as the " Biographical Index of 

 British and Irish Botanists." The younger man was a keen 

 and an accurate botanist. The chief published evidence 

 of his botanical studies is found in Sir J. E. Smith's 

 acknowledgments of the Carices sent from near Aberdeen 

 by Dr. Beattie, some of which Smith described as new species. 

 Not long ago I found a number of pencil-notes by Beattie 



