234 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



in other places on the adjacent coast, which affords many 

 suitable habitats. 



*Salix Caprea, L. S. Almost covering two small holms in the 

 middle of Mousa Vord Loch, to which, so far as known, it is 

 now entirely confined. This is a puzzling form, owing to the 

 young branches being pubescent, and to the leaves having a 

 tendency to be somewhat obovate. The Rev. E. F. Linton 

 was at first disposed to consider it a hybrid between S. Caprea 

 and one of the other Caprea, but on my explaining that it was 

 the only Sahx occurring either on or near the holms, he referred 

 it to S. Caprea, informing me that sometimes in very exposed 

 situations in the north, the branchlets have a tendency to be- 

 come pubescent. I have a tree in the garden which I believe 

 to have been grown from a cutting of the Mousa Vord plant. 

 I omitted to label it, so cannot be quite positive ; but I do 

 not myself feel much doubt, as I have never brought into this 

 garden any other willow of any sort whatever, and as I know 

 of no S. Caprea in the near vicinity, it is unlikely to have 

 originated from wind-borne seed. Mr. C. H. Ostenfeld con- 

 siders the Mousa Vord plant a large-leaved form of S. cinerea, 

 but in this opinion I am unable to concur ; partly because my 

 large series of Surrey Caprecz, which has been criticised by both 

 F. B. White and E. F. Linton, shows one or two plants with 

 leaves having an obovate tendency, as well as one plant from 

 dry sand on the middle of Bagshot Heath with much more 

 pubescent twigs than the Shetland plant, but chiefly because 

 the clothing of the under side of the leaf is to my eye that of 

 S. Caprea and not S. cinerea. Mr. Ostenfeld agrees that the 

 garden plant is S. Caprea. 



*Betnla alba, L. Recorded by T. Edmondston in a list of Shetland 

 plants contributed to "Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist," 1841 ; 

 also by him in the same year in the " New Stat. Account of 

 Scotland." The Shetland volume of the latter work contains a 

 chapter entitled " General Observations on the County," by Dr. 

 Laurence Edmondston, father of the botanist. Dr. Edmondston, 

 who was himself a naturalist, confirms the occurrence of the 

 birch in these words " No indigenous trees are to be seen, if 

 we except a few dwarf bushes of birch, willow, and mountain 

 ash." The fact that Edmondston omits the birch from his 

 Flora is of no moment ; he also omits sundry quite common 

 plants such as Lotus corniculatus, Galinm Aparine, Lobelia 

 Dortmanna, actually recorded by himself in his lists published 

 a few years earlier ! It may be mentioned that in the north 

 part of Northmaven there is a loch called " Birka Water," 

 while in the south part of the same parish there is a ward hill 

 called " Birka Vird " ; but whether the birch still lingers in 



