228 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



ON THE FRUITING OF LINN^EA BOREALIS 



IN SCOTLAND. 



By A. MACDONALD, M.A. 



SINCE this plant was placed on the British flora in 1795 

 quite an enthusiasm has gathered around it, and as new 

 localities are discovered there reappears in the press almost 

 as regularly as the notices of the coming of the Cuckoo, the 

 heading " Discovery of a Rare Plant." 



But the plant is not to be called exceptionally note- 

 worthy in those districts where fir woods of some age abound ; 

 and it is too late now to call it a rare find, though its place 

 in botany is such as to excuse frequent notifying of it. 

 There is, moreover, still a rarity in connection with the prime 

 favourite of the father of Natural Science, and that is, to find 

 fruit upon it. 



Those who have visited Scandinavia tell us of the minute 

 fruit with its persistent sepals and two viscous bracts that 

 serve as attachments to passing creatures and as the means 

 by which the seed steals a free passage to a new and distant 

 habitat. 



In Scotland the fruit is decidedly infrequent, yet we 

 begin to think that, like many another botanical rarity, this 

 is more for want of eyes than for lack of actual occurrences. 



It is almost certain that the numerous patches now 

 known have been started from seed. 



The position of the style at once declares that the 

 Linnaea can only set seed after cross fertilization, and that 

 this crossing must be effected by insects ; but the dark 

 central forest which is the abode of this plant is very 

 unfavourable to the presence of the little dipterous friends 

 which might accomplish this, and so the flower blushes 

 unseen, or at least has but a remote chance of pollination. 

 That this is the reason why we seldom find fruit, and 

 not so much the absence of a suitable creature from our 

 fauna, will appear from the following : 



We have a large favourite patch of Linnsea which we 

 visit three or four times a year. It was situated near the 

 centre of a wood, mainly of Scotch fir, till the winter of 1894, 



