EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RECORDS OF SCOTTISH PLANTS 169 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RECORDS OF 

 SCOTTISH PLANTS. 



Communicated by Professor I. B. BALFOUR, M.A., M.D., F.R.S. 



JOHN HOPE, W.S., of Moray Place, Edinburgh, who died in 

 1895, bequeathed to the Royal Botanic Garden a number of 

 botanical books, papers, and drawings which had belonged 

 to his grandfather John Hope, who was Regius Keeper of 

 the Garden from 1760-1781. The bequest, owing to the 

 well-known litigation which Mr. Hope's will provoked, has 

 only recently come into my care. 



Amongst the MS. I find a small note-book containing a 

 number of records of date 1764 and 1765 of stations for 

 plants about Edinburgh and in other parts of Scotland. A 

 list such as this of eighteenth century records has many 

 features of interest, not only botanical, but also topographi- 

 cal, and may find a fitting place of publication in the pages 

 of the "Annals of Scottish Natural History." 



The writing of the MS. is not that of Dr. Hope, and I 

 am not at present able to suggest who was the writer ; but 

 Dr. Hope has interpolated additional stations or queries on 

 places in the book. 



Upon the first page there is the heading, " A list of 

 plants as they were collected and prepared during the 

 year 1764, with ye place of growth." Dr. Hope has in- 

 terpolated the words " in flower " after " plants " in the 

 heading an expression we must accept in its widest signifi- 

 cation as used by botanists in the eighteenth century, and as 

 referring to the sporiferous condition of Thallophytes as 

 well as to the flowers of Spermaphytes. The list continues 

 in calendar form from March 1764 until January 1765, 

 when a couple of pages are blank ; and the calendar re- 

 commences with the date I4th May, and goes on until 

 3Oth October 1765, under the new heading, "A calendar 

 of plants as they were found and prepared in the year 

 1765." The first portion of the list is emphatically one 

 of plants in the vicinity of Edinburgh. There are in it but 

 a few records of stations far afield. The second portion of 

 35 D 



