LIST OF THE HIERACIA OF PERTHSHIRE 261 



work is now appearing in parts (of which a few only have 

 as yet been published), and ought to be supported by every 

 botanist who can afford to do it. As its author has 

 remarked elsewhere, the British Hawkweed flora is a very 

 rich and interesting one ; we may thus expect that, by the 

 time the Monograph is completed, we shall have a large 

 gallery of lifelike portraits of these beautiful but difficult 

 plants. 



Till of late years the Hicracia of Perthshire have been, 

 on the whole, neglected, or at least not been studied 

 as they deserve. Mr. Backhouse's Scottish explorations 

 were chiefly amongst the mountains of Forfarshire and 

 Aberdeenshire, the granitic formation of some of which 

 seems to make them peculiarly grateful to certain species. 

 In north-east Perthshire there is a similar formation, and here 

 also some of the granite-loving species appear. When this 

 rather inaccessible portion of the county is more thoroughly 

 explored, it is probable that other species will also be found 

 to occur. In the meantime the schists and similar rocks of 

 highland Perthshire have proved to be by no means unpro- 

 ductive of the alpine species ; whilst the mountain valleys, 

 and the banks of the Tay and other streams, both lowland 

 and highland, have afforded a rich harvest of those forms 

 which are not restricted to a high altitude. 



I think that hitherto there has not been any attempt to 

 bring together in one list all the species of Hieraciiim which 

 have been observed in Perthshire. It has therefore occurred 

 to me that, considering the central position of the county and 

 its botanical importance, such a list may be of some interest 

 and value. It must not, however, be taken as a complete 

 and final list, for, apart from the species which will probably 

 yet be discovered, there are at least half a dozen which have 

 still to be " worked out," amongst which there may be some 

 " novae species." The distribution I have indicated merely 

 by the " Watsonian vice -counties." A more detailed 

 account (with authorities for the localities) will be given 

 in the Flora of Perthshire, when that long- delayed work 



1 As usual, there is occasionally some haziness in the records for that portion 

 of Perthshire draining into Loch Lomond which some botanists refer to Mid 

 Perth and some to West Perth, though it properly belongs to neither. In the 

 meantime I have put it into Mid Perth as is, I think, most frequently done. 



