PROGRESS OF BOTANY IN SCOTLAND 217 



Chiridium museorum, Leach. This minute chernetid, which has 

 proved such a tantalising object to Scottish naturalists, and for which 

 I have searched both long and carefully, came under my notice 

 rather unexpectedly. On 2oth June last I was sitting writing in my 

 room at Bankhead, Bo'ness, when I noticed a little red speck alight 

 on the book that was lying open before me. I saw that it was alive, 

 and presently perceived that here at last was a book scorpion before 

 me. It is a dark brownish-red creature, with a very pronounced 

 groove down its back. It was fairly active, and in its movements 

 resembled closely species I was already acquainted with. It walked 

 with its claws held well forward, but altered their position or retracted 

 them on the slightest suspicion of danger. Repeatedly I put my 

 pencil in front of it, taking care, however, not to touch it, and it 

 always showed its sensibility to the presence of the pencil point by 

 retracting its pincers, and at the same time moving backwards ; and 

 when I followed it up without touching it, the little blind creature 

 kept retreating before my pencil, quite conscious of its nearness, 

 though I abstained from touching it. When I blew on it, it drew its 

 pincers quite close to its head, and appeared then like a small speck 

 of brownish dirt. After watching its habits for some time, I put it 

 in spirit lest I should lose it. 



PROGRESS OF BOTANY IN SCOTLAND. 



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



MUCH has been written on the achievements of the past 

 century, especially on the marvellous progress in the control 

 of physical and chemical forces, and on the material pros- 

 perity and the changed conditions of civilised communities 

 due to them. Not less striking have been the changes in 

 the mental environment, in part due to the influence of 

 change in the physical conditions, but still more to the 

 influence of science, which, refusing to accept mere tradition 

 or authority, seeks to prove all things, and demands absolute 

 loyalty to truth. Its aims and methods have penetrated 

 more or less into all fields of knowledge, and have given 

 new life to the dead bones of not a few. No one can 

 calculate the stimulus given to human progress by the 

 evolution theory, or how much civilised man already owes 

 to the example and labours of Charles Darwin. But, turn- 



