36 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



the same means of removal. Dozens of alpine plants may 

 be ferreted out by enthusiasts along the middle and lower 

 courses of our greater rivers. 



The necessity for a film of water to the fertilisation of 

 very many cryptogams is another service which running 

 water renders to the vegetable world, a service which long 

 escaped men's notice, yet one of the very greatest importance. 



The point, however, on which we would insist, for most 

 of the others have received attention at one time or another 

 in the " Annals," is the considerable importance of streams 

 and rivers as carriers of the seeds of many of our ordinary 

 riverside trees and herbs. We would even venture to suggest 

 the origin of the parallel rows of alders and willows, etc., 

 which form such a striking feature of our river-valleys when 

 viewed from a height, and of the presence of a peculiar 

 flora whose favourite haunt is along the very margin of the 

 stream. 



These, as we take it, arise from the deposition of ripened 

 seeds by the autumn floods that are so common on all our 

 brooks and rivers, but the question is one on which the 

 opinion of experts may throw another light. 



NOTES ON THE FLORA OF WESTERNESS 

 By G. CLARIDGE DRUCE, M.A., F.L.S. 



THE wretchedly wet August of 1903 was a bad time to 

 explore the district about Fort William, for even in ordinary 

 seasons the amount of rain which falls there is considerable ; 

 and it was with some amount of trepidation that we started. 

 Our worst doubts were completely realised, for only one day 

 in the month was without rain ; and the mountains were never 

 completely free from cloud while we were there, while the 

 temperature was abnormally low. My object in coming 

 north was to endeavour to find the grass which was gathered 

 on Ben Nevis in 1794 by John Mackay, and named Poa 

 flexuosa by Smith in the "Flora Britannica" of 1800, and 

 figured in Sowerby's " English Botany," tab. 1123 (1803), 



