BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS 243 



tares " showed great diversity, though scarcely so great as the result- 

 ing crops would lead one to expect. Though imported from 

 Konigsberg the assemblage of plants suggests that they are brought 

 to that port from more southern lands. JAMES W. H. TRAIL. 



Procumbent Meadow Grass (Sclerochloa procumbens, Beauv.) 

 in Scotland. This small grass is given in Watson's " Topographical 

 Botany" (1883) for Ayr, Berwick, Edinburgh, and Forfar, all being 

 "doubtful"; but whether the doubt rests on the identification of the 

 plant or on its claim to be reckoned a native is not expressed. 

 There is no evidence to prove that it is native in Scotland : 

 but it has been recorded from Stirlingshire in 1891, by Mr. Kidston, 

 as introduced; from Gourdon in Kincardineshire in 1903, by Mr. 

 A. Somerville, who found it growing by the side of a road near the 

 harbour; and from Leith Docks in 1904, by Mr. James Fraser, in 

 his lists of casuals. In each of these cases the plant grew where 

 there was reason to believe that it had been introduced accidentally. 

 This year it has appeared in great abundance on the north bank of 

 the Dee at Aberdeen, from the Victoria Bridge eastwards for some 

 hundred yards. It grows between the stones facing the artificial 

 channel of the river, and also on a strip of ground bordering the 

 river's bank. I have also found it in fair quantity on two patches 

 of the town rubbish that is being spread over part of the Links 

 east of Old Aberdeen. There is no record of its occurrence near 

 Aberdeen before 1906; and it is not easy to explain its presence 

 in so great amount this year, as its merits would scarcely lead to its 

 being sown intentionally ; but there can be no doubt that it is not 

 a native. It is not likely now to disappear, however it may have 

 come on the scene. JAMES W. H. TRAIL. 



Synehytrium Stellariae, Fuckel, in Aberdeenshire. While 

 staying for a month in Midmar, I found early last August on a 

 limited area beside a farm near Comers in this parish several 

 plants of Chick-weed (Stellaria media] much altered by this parasitic 

 fungus. The stems and leaves were swollen, fleshy in texture, and 

 of a dull orange-yellow colour owing to the abundance of the small 

 warty swellings in which lay the cells of the fungus. So far as I 

 am aware it has not been previously recorded from Scotland. The 

 genus Synehytrium is of considerable interest, its species forming small 

 galls on various plants. Four species have been already recorded 

 by me from Scotland, on Anemone, Scabiosa Sucdsa, Taraxacum, and 

 Mercurialis pcrennis ; and some time since I found a species in- 

 festing shoots of Viola ericctorum on sandy soil near Newburgh, in 

 Aberdeenshire. Unfortunately circumstances prevented me from 

 making a critical examination of the example gathered ; hence I do 

 not venture to refer this form to its species until new material per- 

 mits of certainty. No doubt various others would repay a careful 

 search among our native vascular plants. JAMES W. H. TRAIL. 



