ON HIEROCHLOA BOREALIS AS A SCOTTISH SPECIES 231 



Prussian dominions it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and 

 strewed before the doors of the churches on festival days. 

 It has, like others of the genus, an agreeable scent, resembling 

 that of A ntJioxantJiu in odoratum" Linnaeus tells us "it is a 

 soporific, and sold in the towns in Sweden to be suspended 

 over the beds, and induce sleep" (Hooker, /.<;., loth April 

 1821). In the same year, in the 'Additions and Corrections' 

 to Gray's "Nat. Arr. of British Plants," p. 731, the plant is 

 described under the same name, except that the genus is 

 spelt Hierochloa, instead of HierocJiloc as in Hooker. 



In 1828 Sir J. E. Smith ("British Flora," vol. i. p. no) 

 uses the same name as Hooker, and remarks that he has not 

 examined British specimens. In " English Botany Supple- 

 ment," t. 2641 (1830), it was figured, and the note added that 

 it was discovered by Mr. G. Don in 1812. In 1847, in the 

 second edition of his "Manual," Professor Babington (p. 378) 

 amplifies the station to "in a narrow mountain valley 

 called Glen Kella (or Cally, near the Spital of Glen Shee)." 



In 1848 Gardiner's " Flora of Forfarshire " appeared, and 

 he remarks that the head of the glen had been carefully 

 searched in 1843; and Arnott ("British Flora") says 

 " ' minute search ' had been made " ; but Mr. Druce notes 

 that " one of the searchers afterwards stated that although 

 he had made a careful search, from what he had since 

 learned from Mr. Dick about the flowering of the plant, i.e. 

 that it flowers in Caithness early in May, after which it 

 withers, and becomes impossible to find, and considering 

 that his search was made much later in the year, he with- 

 draws his previous statement" Gardiner says : " The upper 

 part of Glen Cally has been searched ; but it is more likely 

 to occur in the lower portion of the glen, by the stream, than 

 among the rocks at the head" ("Scottish Naturalist," 1884, 

 pp. 268-269). 



In the "Annals of Natural History," October 1854, tne 

 Thurso station is recorded. The account quoted below was 

 contained in a communication made by Mr. R. Dick to the 

 Botanical Society of Edinburgh in July of the same year. 

 " About ten minutes walk from the town of Thurso there is, 

 by the river side, a farmhouse known by the name of the 

 Bleachfield, opposite to which, on the eastern bank of the 



