1 1 o T/ic Scott is/i Naturalist. 



Agriculture by the Rev. James Headrick, Minister of Dun- 

 nichen.' The volume is interesting and instructive, enabling 

 the reader to compare the state of agriculture in the county now 

 with what it was eighty years ago. Appendix B extends to 

 nearly 49 closely printed octavo pages. The account of the 

 plants does not pretend to be complete and exhaustive ; especi- 

 ally of the lowland part of the county, the rarer plants only 

 are mentioned. The alpine parts of the county, particularly 

 the district of Clova, have received more complete and detailed 

 examination. He mentions nearly 90 flowering-plants as found 

 there, though some of these, which he regarded as distinct 

 species, have been by later botanists relegated to the rank of 

 varieties. He also enumerates nearly 100 mosses, and about 

 120 species of lichens, natives of the district. As the volume 

 in which the " Account " was to appear was specially written in 

 the interest of agriculture, considerable attention is directed to 

 the nutritive qualities of the native grasses — a subject which was 

 then engaging the attention of scientific men. Only the rarer 

 plants, natives of the belt of land lying between the alpine dis- 

 trict and the lowest part of the valley of Strathmore, are noticed. 

 It was here that he found the Caltlia radicans 1 and Crepis 

 pulchra, which, however, have not been met with in a wild 

 state since he saw them. 



The next division deals with the vegetation of the marshes 

 and lochs in the neighbourhood of Forfar. Here, he says, " the 

 botanist will find his trouble amply repaid." He found the 

 Typha latifolia in the lakes of Forfar, Rescobie, and Balgavies. 

 It is not to be found there now, but in the Lunan water, which 

 runs through lochs Rescobie and Balgavies, not far from Auld- 

 bar station, on the Caledonian Railway. Among the plants 

 now entirely lost is the Schcenus mariscus, which he found in the 

 Moss of Restenneth, but never producing flowers. The Erio- 

 phorum alpinum he also found in the same moss. He found, 

 also, the Isoetes lacustris in Loch Fithie, now no longer there. 

 He says he introduced the Stratiotes abides into Forfar Loch in 

 1792, and adds that "it is now (181 1) in great abundance." 

 There is no trace of it in Forfar Loch at the present day, though 

 it is abundant in Loch Fithie. It occurs in some of the "pots" 

 at the west end of Rescobie Loch, and also in the loch itself. 

 Of the fourteen species of Poiamogcton to be found there, he 

 notes nine, and also thirty rare mosses. 



1 Compare note on page 142 infra. — EnifoR, ' Sc. Nat. 



