128 The Scottish Naturalist. 



garden " Arnott's; Brit. Fl. ed. vi., " A specimen from Don marked 

 rocks near the head of Clova, has the aspect of a wild one ; " Br. 

 Ft. ed. rii., "G. Don in Smith Herb., Clova mounts, now generally 

 excluded from our list." C. C. Brit., " It is difficult to decide 

 under what category of citizenship this alpine Ranunculus ought 

 to be placed. The existence of a specimen in Smith's herbarium, 

 with a memorandum that it was collected in Forfar by Mr. G. Don, 

 seems very good evidence in favour of its nativity, and yet no 

 other botanist among the many who have searched the mountains 

 of that country has ever detected an example of the species. 

 Moreover, its geographical distribution otherwise would not much 

 incline us to expect the species in Scotland, since it is not found in 

 Scandinavia nor any of the Arctic lands. At the time when Mr. 

 Don collected, it was not the custom with botanists to be very 

 particular in recording the locality and distribution of plants, and 

 they might not always be sufficiently careful in keeping British and 

 foreign, or wild and garden, examples of the same species apart 

 from each other." Cyb. Brit. " No doubt Mr. Don made some 

 mistake in thinking he found it there." Boswetis Eng. B. 



Against the foregoing statements we must say that in the English 

 Flora (vol. XXXIV. 2390), by Sir James Smith, R. alpestris is said to 

 have been gathered by the side of little rills and other moist places 

 about two or three rocks of Clova ; it flowers very early in the 

 spring, and Mr. Don says it rarely produces flowers, and is very 

 easily overlooked from the similarity of its foliage to that of other 

 species. Mr. Don found it on April 3rd, 1809. {See also Lin. 

 Trans. X. 343). After this precise statement by Mr. Don, we 

 must, I think, be inclined to believe he found it somewhere wild 

 in Forfar ; and it must be remembered few botanists visit the 

 Clova mountains so early in the season — April and May — while, 

 unless in flower, the plant would be by no means conspicuous. 

 At any rate, attention should be directed to the possibility of re- 

 finding it. Carex frigida is an example of an alpine Sedge not 

 found in Scandinavia, yet occurring in our Scotch Highlands, so 

 the geographical distribution is not entirely against its nativity 

 there. 



Nyman in his Sylloge gives the Pyrenees, Juras, Alps and Car- 

 pathians as its European range. 



Caltha radicans Forst. 



" Unknown except as a garden plant," Brit. Fl. " Forfarshire, 

 Don " (known now in cultivation only). *S/. Fl. " Mr. Forster, 

 who first defined this species of Caltha, favoured us with specimen 

 from his garden which agrees with wild ones sent by Mr. John. 

 G. Don from Scotland, except that in the latter the stems are 

 more erect. Mr. Forster's plant was found in Scotland by Mr. 

 Dickson." Smith's English Flora y vol. XXXI. 2175. 



" Caltha radicans may be retained as a book species in compli- 

 ment to its author, but it is no species in nature apart from C. 



