130 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



is no Scotch record of this species since those given by Duncan in 

 the "Magazine of Zoology and Botany," vol. i. (1837), p. 163. It 

 is there mentioned as having been taken at Jedburgh by Rev. 

 William Little, and curiously enough Mr. Bowhill's specimen was 

 taken within a mile or two of the same town. PERCY H. GRIMSHAW, 

 Edinburgh. 



BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS. 



Topographical Botany of Scotland. A very important source 

 of information with regard to the distribution of the flora of Scotland 

 has been made readily accessible by the publication in " Notes from 

 the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh " of the late Professor John 

 Hutton Balfour's 'Excursion Diaries' during the years 1846 to 

 1878 inclusively, followed by a very full index of names of places 

 referred to. The names of plants jotted down in the diaries have 

 been arranged for publication in the order of the " London Catalogue 

 of British Plants," ed. 9, which much facilitates reference to them ; 

 but otherwise the entries are published unchanged. The volumes of 

 the Edinburgh Botanical Society's " Transactions " contain numerous 

 papers based upon some of these excursions, but not a little addi- 

 tional is contained in the notes now made available to all students 

 of Scottish botany. Few could claim as extensive and intimate a 

 knowledge of our country as the late Professor Balfour. 



Gall upon Sagina eiliata, Fr. Among a few examples of this 

 plant picked by me, in July 1902, on the coast about two miles north 

 of Stonehaven, and taken, though rather withered, because of the 

 locality not having been previously known for it, one had on a 

 short leafy shoot a stem gall about 4 by 3 mm. in size ; oval, dull 

 purple, and apparently rather fleshy in texture, with the leaves 

 crowded on it, as the gall had evidently prevented the elongation of 

 the internodes. It looked much like the work of a gall-midge, but 

 in the wish to rear the maker I did not open the gall, which decayed 

 during my absence from home. No species of Sagina is on record 

 as bearing galls, so far as I can ascertain. JAMES W. H. TRAIL. 



Aliens among Tares in Aberdeenshire. Cereals have long 

 been noted as a frequent means of introduction of weeds into a 

 country, and an examination of any local flora reveals the names of 

 many weeds, especially among the Labratcz, that exist only in culti- 

 vated soils, and disappear if cultivation is given up for any cause. 

 But these are often immigrants of so old standing as to find an 

 acknowledged place in our descriptive floras. Recent immigrants 

 that have not yet passed the grade of casuals, seldom showing a 

 power of establishing themselves in a locality, I find in this district 



