HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE- G OS SIP. 



131 



perception of which, treasured up and increasing, 

 generation " after generation, into the stream of 

 hereditary tendency, which we call instinct, is the 

 summitm bonum of the migratory bird's philosophy. 



(To be continued.) 



HOLIDAY RAMBLES 



THROUGH WIGTONSHIRE. 



By G. Claridge Druce, F.L.S. 



AT the request of the able recorder of the 

 Botanical Record Club of the British Isles 

 (Dr. F. Arnold Lees), I undertook to visit Wigton- 

 shire in order to form a list of its plants, since only a 

 few of the rarer plants had been recorded by the late 

 Professor Balfour when on a tour round the Mull of 

 Galloway. From its western position and the 

 frequent " Mosses " marked on the map, and perhaps 

 biassed by my experience in Western Ross, I looked 

 forward to a wet relaxing atmosphere and boggy 

 walking, over flat tracts of sphagnum, with not even 

 hilly prospects to brighten the dull moors of the un- 

 interesting country ; but the guess, if ingenious, was 

 certainly wrong. I found, on alighting at the Newton 

 Stewart Station, little to tell me what county I was 

 in ; and setting out for a walk by the Cree side, the 

 first hundred species noticed contained scarcely one 

 but what are ubiquitous plants occurring in every 

 county. Eventually CEnanthe crocata raised a 

 suspicion of a western flora, which the occurrence on 

 the dry rocky banks by the rail-side of Lepidium 

 Smitkii also supported. On the west there were 

 slight eminences of dry rocky ground on which 

 Jasionc montana, Sedum Anglicum, and Aira 

 caryophyllea were to be found ; on the east, fields 

 sloping towards the river Cree, — a broad shallow 

 stream, beyond which on the Kirkcudbright side rose 

 the Cairnsmore'of Fleet, 2300 feet elevation. About 

 a mile below Newton Stewart, on a clayey bank by 

 the river, occurred Cerastium holosteoides, Fr. ; the 

 specimens varied with the stem having the typical 

 lines to a more diffused pubescence ; but the biennial 

 growth and larger flowers well distinguish the plants 

 from other forms of trivialc, although the tidal river 

 may have been the primary cause in the develop- 

 ment of the characteristic peculiarities. (Afterwards 

 we found it in a similar locality on the Kirkcudbright 

 side.) The roadside yielded great quantities of 

 Burdock (A. minus and intermedium), and at intervals 

 Hypericum dubium, which seemed to be the common 

 St. John's Wort of Wigton. 



Carsegown Moss was the first piece of bog-land 

 visited, and it soon showed a great difference from 

 the Ross-shire bog. First, the great paucity of, sedges 

 was remarkable, muricata, vulgaris, and glauca being 

 the only ones seen ; and the absence of Juncus 

 squarrosus was equally striking, but there was a 



profuse growth of Scirpus azspitosus and Luzula 

 campestris, with Juncus conglomeratus ; and trailing 

 about the sphagnum patches occurred Vaccinium 

 oxycoccos, or the pretty Andromeda, with both 

 Drosera Anglica and rotundifolia. Pinus sylvestris 

 looks native on the Moss of Bree. 



The Bishop burn was next visited, but the stream 

 had recently been cleared out, so very little was found. 

 However, in a heap of vegetable matter collected 

 about a bridge, Potamogeton j-ufescens, prcelougus, 

 and Zizii were picked, with Callitriche hamulata and 

 Myriophyllum spicatum. The meadows here were 

 full of Carum verticillatum, a typical Wigton plant ; 

 and in a little patch of marshy ground, between 

 Penninghame and South Barbucham, Carex pulicaris, 

 jtava, dioica, stelluiata, pauieea, Hornschuchiana, with 

 Scirpus setaceus, Crepis paludosa, Orchis incarnata, 

 Habenaria viridis and H. chlorantha, occurred. (H. 

 bifolia was not seen in the ^county.) Sparganium 

 affine was also found in the Bishop burn, and Carex 

 vesicaria by its side, as were also the willows S. rubra, 

 viminalis, ferruginea, caprea, etc. In the river Cree 

 close to Newtown, Myriophyllum altemiflorum is 

 plentiful, and Asplenium Trichomanes abounds on 

 the bridge. 



Epilobium obscurum is the most plentiful willow- 

 herb of Wigton. About Barbuchan Erica cincrea 

 occurred : it seems rare, Tetralix and Calluna being 

 the heaths of the county. Pinguicula vulgaris, not 

 common, and Eriophorum vaginalum, also occurred 

 here, as did Athyrium Filix-foemina, var. convexum, 

 and in a little plash of water Chara fragilis, the 

 only one of its genus seen in Wigton. Altogether the 

 result of the first day's walk from Newton Stewart to 

 the Moss of Cree, and back by Penninghame, was a 

 list of over 300 species. 



The next day's work was by train to Wigton, walk 

 thence to Kirkinner, and by Orchardton Bay to 

 Garliestown, the latter place a small port, which the 

 local guide states is remarkable " for its extensive 

 sawmills, which give employment to sixteen men." 

 By the Bladenoch side about Wigton, Glaux, 

 Triglochin maritimum, Cochlearia, Armeria, Juncus 

 Gerardi, Sclerochloa maritima, Carex vulpiua, 

 Scirpus maritimus, Triticum acututn, &c. were seen. 

 By the rail-side, along which I walked to Kirkinner, 

 occurred Atriplex deltoidea and many forms of Tri- 

 folium repens, especially one with foliaceous calyx. 

 Near Baldoon Epilobium hirsutum for its first and last 

 record occurred ; and in the pond at the Mains, 

 Potamogeton crispus and pusillus, Phragmites, &c. 

 Papaver dubium and Argemoue, with Filago German ica, 

 Arenaria serpyllifolia, and Linaria minor, were on 

 the rail-banks. Lamhun intermedium was frequent in 

 garden ground at Kirkinner. In Orchardton Bay 

 were Salicornia herbacca, Statice Limonium, Festuca 

 oraria, Spergularia marginata, &c. ; and Convolvulus 

 sepium, Lamium amplexicaule, Valerianella dentata, 

 Agrimonia, Conittm, Urtica urens occurred on 



