PHYTOLOGY. 



KEDISOOVEKY OF OALTHA EADIOANS. 



By WALTER GRAHAM. 



THIS very rare and interesting plant was discovered by Don 

 in 1790. He sent it to London to Sir Joseph Banks, who 

 recognised in it specific characters, and named it radicans, from 

 its strong tendency to root at all the nodes. Its rediscovery 

 two years ago occurred under the following circumstances : In a 

 letter about something else, Mr Babington writes me of date 3d 

 June 1880, "There is a matter in your county which very much 

 needs determination. Caltha radicans was found by Don ninety 

 years ago, on the estate of Carse, near Forfar. It is now known 

 only in cultivation in a very few gardens. If it could be found 

 again it would be very satisfactory indeed. If you can get any 

 information on the matter you would be doing good service to 

 botany." Several days later he adds : " The Caltha has not 

 been found in any other spot in the whole world, and if Don 

 did not find it" in a wild state, "its history is a complete 

 puzzle." I went to Don's station in search, without result. 

 The place has been so much altered by drainage, that the dif- 

 ficulty now is to find suitable conditions there. Having failed 

 at Hatton of Carse, I set to work here, on the margins of 

 Rescobie Loch, and in the adjoining marshes and ditches, where 

 Caltha grows abundantly. On June 12, 1880, after much look- 

 ing, I was so fortunate as to find a late-flowering plant some- 

 thing like what the descriptions of the manuals indicate. I 

 continued to look about for a fortnight without finding anything 

 better, — finding, indeed, very little else that would do. On 

 writing Mr Babington, and sending him rooted pieces at his 

 request, he replied that he thought I had got the right plant, but 

 gave no definite opinion till he should see it growing. This 

 completed all that was possible in 1880. In May of last year 

 he writes : " We have the Caltha growing well. They have 



