1 64 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



THE FLORA OF BUCHAN. 

 By JAMES W. H. TRAIL, A.M., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. 



DURING the past year I have spent some time investigating 

 the flowering-plants and fern-allies of the district of Buchan, 

 cut off from the remainder of the counties of Aberdeen and 

 lianff by the rivers Ythan on the south and Deveron on the 

 west, and by an irregular line of about four miles in length, 

 where these streams approach most closely. I was induced 

 to do so by finding, in the endeavour to prepare a brief 

 account of the flora of this district for the Buchan Field 

 Club, that information was very incomplete for even many 

 common plants, and that much of what could be found 

 required to be verified. 



The district is irregularly four-sided, and measures in 

 greatest length, westward from Buchan Ness, about thirty 

 miles, and in greatest breadth, in its eastern part, about 

 twenty-six miles. Its surface is undulating ; but its highest 

 hill reaches a height of only 769 feet. Here and there 

 peat-mosses of varying extent still remain, and there are 

 woods in some of the valleys ; but agriculture has left only 

 a small part of the country in its natural condition. The 

 coast varies much, sand dunes extending for miles along the 

 east coast, near the mouth of the Ythan, at Cruden Bay, 

 and from Peterhead to Fraserburgh, alternating with miles 

 of cliffs south of Peterhead and from Cruden Bay to 

 Collieston. The north coast, along the Moray Firth west 

 of Fraserburgh, is rocky. Its eastern portion is low, but to 

 the west it rises into rugged cliffs, which reach their greatest 

 height in the headlands at Pennan, Troup, and Gardenstown. 



On these cliffs Saxifraga oppositifolia, S. Jiypnoides, and 

 Sedum roscnin grow, and the last is plentiful also on cliffs 

 south of Peterhead. With these exceptions, the flora is 

 quite of a lowland character, varying with the habitats in 

 each locality. 



The Rev. Charles Birnie kindly lent me a collection ot 



* 



dried plants made in the parish of Aberdour. In it were 

 some plants, especially ferns, that I did not myself meet 

 with in Buchan. 



