SOME SCANDINAVIAN FORMS OV SCOTTISH ALPINE PLANTS. HI 



V. 



ON SOME SCANDINAVIAN FORMS OF SCOT- 

 TISH ALPINE PLANTS. 



BY PETER EWING. 



[Read 29th March, 1887.] 



Having become thoroughly tired of searching for 

 known plants in known localities, I made an effort, 

 during the last two or three days of my stay in 

 North-East Perthshire this year, to discover some 

 forms unknown or hitherto unrecognised as forming 

 part of our Scottish Flora. In this I have been 

 more successful than I can at present show, as I 

 have not yet been able to get identified some of the 

 plants then gathered. 



The close resemblance between our alpine Flora and 

 that of Norway and Sweden has long been recognised 

 by botanists ; and as the Flora of these countries 

 has been much better wrought out than our own, 

 a comparison of unusual forms of Scottish alpine 

 plants with forms known only as Scandinavian has 

 frequently enabled their identity to be established. 

 It has accordingly become a matter of course to call 

 these forms " Scandinavian species." 



While I do not wish to deny that Britain and the 

 extensive tract of country termed Scandinavia were 

 at one time a continuous continent, I object to the 

 theory that for our alpine plants we have been 

 indebted to Norway. On the contrary, it seems to 

 me more likely that the disappearance of the snow 

 and ice of the glacial epoch would gradually extend 

 from the south northwards, and that a similar 

 northward movement of plants would follow the 

 melting of the ice. With this reservation, the term 



