THE HERBARIUM OF THE LATE MR. JOHN SIM 179 



THE HERBARIUM (HEPATIC^} OF THE 

 LATE MR. JOHN SIM. 



By SYMERS M. MACVICAR. 



I HAVE recently had the opportunity of examining this 

 herbarium through the kindness of Mrs. J. Sim and the 

 instrumentality of Professor Trail. It is composed of 

 several hundreds of specimens from Scotland, with a few 

 from other parts. I shall refer here only to some of the 

 Scottish plants gathered by Sim, but there is also in the 

 herbarium a large number of plants which were gathered by 

 the Rev. Dr. Fergusson, Fearn, mostly from the counties of 

 Forfar and Perth. The packets are partly mounted on 

 sheets, and partly loose. There are 106 species from 

 Scotland represented, the large majority having been 

 gathered by Sim in Kincardine and Aberdeen, with some 

 collected in various parts of Shetland during a visit in 1878. 

 Some of the specimens are of much interest, either for their 

 rarity, or for their distribution in our country. Among 

 these are the following. When the locality is not definitely 

 stated it is to be understood to be in the northern part of 

 Kincardineshire, in which district Sim resided. 



Frullania fragilifolia, Tayl. In several localities, and in 

 Unst and at Busta in Shetland. F.gerrnana, Tayl. In two 

 stations near Lerwick. This Atlantic species, hitherto only 

 known from the British Isles, has recently been identified 

 from the Faeroes by Herr C. Jensen. F. dilatata (L.). 

 This widely-spread species of our sheltered low ground is 

 rare in exposed northern parts of Scotland. It has only 

 been found in small quantity by the Rev. D. Lillie in Caith- 

 ness, where it appears to be confined to planted trees ; and 

 it has not been found on the Faeroes, which have a very 

 similar hepatic flora to our own. It was therefore interest- 

 ing to see two specimens of the species in Sim's herbarium 

 from rocks near Lerwick. 



Hcrberta adunca (Dicks.). From Unst, Shetland, there 

 is a minute black form with leaves which are not secund. 

 I have seen a somewhat similar plant from the summit of 

 Craig Chailleach, Killin. 



