40 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



best ; but they are scattered over a considerable time. It is 

 time that the information within our reach should be brought 

 together once again, and that we should see where it is still 

 deficient. Mr. Bennett tells me that he cannot undertake 

 to do so ; but he has most kindly revised records kept by 

 myself during a good many years. For valuable assistance, 

 most freely given in this as well as in many other ways, I 

 offer him my grateful thanks, in which, I feel assured, all 

 interested in Scottish Botany will join. 



The results embodied below, in so far as they are 

 additional to those recorded in " Topographical Botany," re- 

 present the labours of love of not a few botanists, whom I 

 shall not here attempt to enumerate. A truer conception 

 of the value and wide extent of these labours will be best 

 obtained from the inspection of a list of the several articles 

 which it is proposed to add as a supplement to this paper. 



The districts into which Great Britain is divided in 

 " Topographical Botany " are based on the counties : the 

 larger ones subdivided, as in Perth and Aberdeen, to reduce 

 inequalities in area, and a few of the smallest combined with 

 their neighbours. Detached and outlying portions are 

 associated with the counties in which they lie, as may be 

 observed under Inverness and Nairn. In some cases the 

 divisions correspond fairly well to natural areas or river 

 basins ; but unfortunately this is the exception, and it has 

 for a good many years been recognised by most students of 

 our flora and fauna that the natural divisions of the country 

 should be employed in preference to the political. But as yet 

 our records of the larger plants have been published only on 

 the latter scheme of distribution, and many of them would not 

 fit in with the natural areas, and might thus be lost. It seems 

 desirable, therefore, to adhere in this revision to Watson's 

 areas, of which a list, with his numbers, is given below. For 

 brevity the numbers alone are given. These have been most 

 carefully checked, and it is hoped that no errors have been 

 admitted through want of care. Certain species have been 

 recorded from all the districts, and this is indicated by the 

 word " all." Many species have been recorded from con- 

 siderably more than half the areas, and for these the numbers 

 of the areas in which they have not been found are preceded 



