1 88 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



illustrated by plates of figures from Mr. Bissett's pencil. Dr. Roy 

 died while the list was in course of publication ; and the greater part 

 of it was most carefully edited by Mr. Bissett. He also wrote on 

 the Desmids of Japan, where he spent a good many years ; and he 

 was well acquainted with the flowering plants of Scotland. 



DR. FARQUHARSON was the son of a former minister of the 

 parish of Alford in Aberdeenshire, who was distinguished for his 

 scientific researches in the early part of last century. The son 

 inherited much of his ability. While a very young man he taught 

 the class of Natural History in Marischal College, Aberdeen, during 

 the session 185 1-52, during the fatal illness of Professor MacGillivray, 

 and again in 1852-53. Entering the Established Church of 

 Scotland, he became minister of Selkirk, where he remained for 

 over forty years, until his retirement from active life a few years ago. 

 He was an active student of Natural Science, and promoted the 

 work of the Berwickshire Club, contributing to its publications. 



The REV. JAMES M. CROMBIE was for some time a clergyman 

 in Braemar, and he published a short account of the Natural 

 History of that very interesting region. He afterwards settled in 

 London and occupied his leisure with the study of Lichens. A 

 volume by him on British Lichens was published a few years ago. 



Plant Distribution in Scotland. Important papers dealing with 

 plant associations in Scotland, and with the methods of representing 

 these associations in descriptions and maps, have recently appeared. 

 Mr. Lewis, in his work on the peatmosses in the South of Scotland, 

 and in his most recent paper in the Scottish Geographical Magazine 

 for May 1906, is throwing much light on the climates and floras 

 that prevailed in geologically recent times, and on the prevalence of 

 Arctic types of vegetation during the formation of part of the peat. 



Dr. M. Hardy in the same issue has an interesting paper on the 

 " Botanical Survey of Scotland," and he has also published, in 

 Paris, an " Esquisse de la Geographie et de la Vegetation des 

 Highlands d'Ecosse," extending to 189 pages. Dr. Hardy has 

 applied the methods so excellently taught at Montpellier by 

 Professor Flahault to extending the survey begun by Dr. Robert 

 Smith, and continued after his death by his brother. All interested 

 in the flora of Scotland must welcome these investigations as 

 supplementing, but in no way superseding, the methods of research 

 and record with which the name of Mr. Hewett Cottrell Watson is 

 so intimately associated. There is room for these lines of inquiry, 

 and for others still, before the origin and distribution of the plants 

 of Scotland can be fully understood and worthily recorded. 



Saxifraga oppositifolia, Z., at Sea -level in Islay. In 



the "Annals" for 1904, at page 197, reference is made to the 



