TOPOGRAPHICAL BOTANY OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 309 



XXX. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE TOPOGRAPHICAL 

 BOTANY OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



BY PETER EWING. 



[Read 27th December, 1887.] 



Although numerous papers have been published 

 in scientific journals, Proceedings of societies, etc., 

 regarding the occurrence of plants in various dis- 

 tricts of the West of Scotland, much of the informa- 

 tion derived from such sources cannot be accepted 

 as satisfactory evidence on which to base scientific 

 conclusions. Apart from the existence of obvious 

 errors, which of course have the effect of vitiating 

 the lists in which they occur, many reported " new 

 records " suggest grave doubts as to the correct 

 determination of species or varieties alleged to have 

 been discovered in new localities. Accordingly, 

 unless such lists have been compiled by botanists 

 whose views are generally recognised as authorita- 

 tive, or collateral evidence is afforded that all new 

 or apparently doubtful records of plants have been 

 supported by submitting specimens of the plants to 

 competent authorities for verification, students of 

 Topographical Botany can scarcely be expected to 

 attach much value to such information. 



That the botanists of the West of Scotland have 

 not hitherto kept these facts sufficiently in view, is 

 apparent from the imperfect information submitted 

 to the Botanical Record Club and the editors of 

 Topographical Botany. The second edition of that 

 work (published in 1883) shows that many plants, 

 including not a few common species, long known to 

 grow in Clydesdale, either have not yet been re- 



