204 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



my experience is that it is partial to them, or rather to the cindered 

 paths often found by railways. By the Epsom railway, near this 

 town, it often comes up in abundance, among the gravel between the 

 rails, and on the edge of the cindered path alongside the line, but 

 does not. spread to the grassy bank on the opposite side of the path. 

 The finest specimens I ever gathered were picked from the joints of 

 the brickwork of a bridge over the railway near the village of Mers- 

 tham in Surrey. I have seen it in Middlesex and Norfolk in similar 

 situations. M. Alph. de Candolle, in his "Geographic Botanique," 

 considered this an " introduced " species to Britain. In the second 

 volume of the "Cybele," Mr. Watson considered it a native ; but later 

 he called it a colonist. The above reference is quite apart from its 

 other habitats in this country, which are numerous. ARTHUR 

 BENNETT. 



Linaria minor, Z., on Railway Banks. In the "Annals of 

 Scottish Natural History," p. 143, the writer of a note on this plant 

 asks if it is not the case that in England it is very partial to railway 

 banks. L. minor was recorded by Dr. Johnston, in his " Flora of 

 Berwick " sixty-three years ago in one locality, viz. above the Union 

 Bridge over the Tweed. In my younger days I have searched for it 

 there many a time, and always in vain. In 1885 it was found by a 

 young lady on the railway line, i.e. among the ballast between and 

 beside the rails at Beal Station in Northumberland, nine miles to the 

 south of this place. I have seen it there every year since. In 1886 

 I found it in great profusion at Marshall Meadows on the North 

 British Line. Here it occurred not on the line at present in use, but 

 on a disused loop where the rails had been recently removed and the 

 ground thereby stirred up. Soon after I saw it at Velvet Hall on the 

 Kelso line, and in 1889 at Ayton, Berwickshire, again on the North 

 British. Neither I nor any of the local botanists have ever seen it 

 elsewhere. P. W. MACLAGAN. 



Plants new to Scotland recorded in Botanical Journals in 

 1892 (see Current Literature}. 



Phanerogams (by F. J. Hanbury, in "Journal of Botany," May- 

 June) 



Hieradum nigrescens, Willd., var. commutatum, Lindeb., from 

 the eastern slopes of Cairntoul, and probably other mountains 

 in the Cairngorms ; H. norvegiciim, Fr., var. confertum, 

 Lindeb., from Glen Lyon and near Crianlarich ; H. ccesio- 

 murorum, Lindeb., from Linn of Quoich in Braemar, and 

 from several stations in Perthshire ; H. protractum, Lindeb., 

 from Shetland ; H. murorum, L., pt. var. sagitfatitm, Lindeb., 

 from four Perthshire stations ; H. onosmoides, Fr., from 

 Braemar, Uig in Skye, and from Tain in East Ross; H. 

 Friesii, Htn., var. basifoKum, Lindeb., from Clova, from Kin- 



