72 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



We are accustomed to look on S. oppositifolia as a true 

 " alpine," inhabiting the higher levels — the Students' Flora, 

 indeed, giving its altitudinal range as extending to 4,000 feet. 

 What renders Dr. Gilmour's discovery remarkable is that he 

 met with the plant, a fortnight ago, growing luxuriantly at 

 what we may call the zero of altitude, viz., on exposed coast 

 rocks of the Mull of Oa, at almost within reach of the waves ! 

 Are we now, therefore, to add this plant to the short list of those 

 which are happy either at high, or at the lowest, levels, such as 

 the Sea-pink (Armeria), the Sea-campion (Silene), or the Sea- 

 plantain (Plantago)1 



How different is the habitat of the plant under notice from 

 the shifting sandy soil of the I slay golf course, where Saxifraya 

 tridactylites was shown, two years ago, to abound, in the month 

 of May, at a very few miles distance ! 



Dr. Gilmour has added various species to the known flora of 

 his island and vice-county, notably Hymenophyllum tunbridgense, 

 Sm., and the plant under notice. His name would doubtless 

 appear more frequently but for the memorable and exhaustive 

 botanical expedition to Kintyre and Islay conducted in 1844 by 

 the late Professor J. H. Balfour, and a party which included the 

 well-known Professor Babington and Dr. Parnell, author of the 

 Flora of the Grasses of Britain, and during which expedition 

 440 species were put on record as occurring in Islay. Then, 

 besides, our ex-President, Mr. Ewing, a few years ago did good 

 search work, adding various species to the Islay list. 



Out of the 41 W T atsonian vice-counties of Scotland, S. oppositi- 

 folia is stated in Trail's Topographical Botany of Scotland 

 (1898) to occur in 24, only two of these lying south of the 

 Forth and Clyde Canal. Perhaps its nearest natural habitat to 

 Glasgow is the summit of Ben Lomond, 27 miles distant, where 

 its purple cushions strike the eye here and there about the time 

 of Victoria Day (24th May). 



Regarding the West of Scotland distribution of S. oppositi- 

 folia, the plant is recorded from the Harris hills of the Outer 

 Hebrides and from the hills of Skye, and Mr. Macvicar has taken 

 it on the hills of West Inverness ; but there is another somewhat 

 surprising, yet authentically recorded, station, viz., the Mull of 

 Kintyre, where, in 1844, Professor Balfour met with it near the 



