206 BOTANICAL KOTES. 



the name. We suspect this is another example of the "lueus a non lu- 

 cendo" style, which calls a common Plantago, maritima, because it occurs 

 not only on our shores, but thirty miles inland, (where we have repeatedly 

 observed it;) and dubs a common Gnaphalium, sylvaticum, because it never 

 seeks the shade of the umbrageous wood. 



The agency of rivers and currents, in extending the distribution of plants, 

 has long been recognised. For instance, nothing can be more probable 

 than that in the flooding of mountain streams, which attends the melting 

 of the snow on the approach of spring, many seeds of plants growing along 

 their course, will be swept downwards by the torrent, and if accidentally 

 impeded in their passage, will vegetate wherever they find suitable conditions. 

 This phenomenon is well seen along the course of the Dee, which, for 

 almost its whole length, (say ninety miles,) bears traces of the Alpine Flora, 

 which characterizes its head-waters, becoming less marked, however, as we 

 near the German Ocean. But even in the immediate vicinity of Aberdeen, 

 such plants as Arahis petrcea and A. liirsuta, may be gathered in places 

 near the bed of the river, along with Trollius Europaus, Pimpinella sax- 

 ifraga, Alchemilla alpina, Oxyria reniformis, Meum athamanticum, Galium 

 horeale, Saxifraga aizoidcs, Cnicus heterophyllns , etc. And, perhaps, we 

 ought to refer to the same cause the appearance on the sea-coast of the 

 plants mentioned in the following quotation: — 



" * -'^ *■ In the tract extending from Peterhead to BanflP, two 

 or more localities have been observed for each of the following unexpected 

 plants: — Rhodiola rosea, Scilla verna, and Saxifraga oppositifolia. I have 

 recent accounts, too, though not yet completely verified, of another Saxi- 

 fraga still more exclusively confined to the mountains,* having being detected 

 on the same coast." 



The facts here stated are extracted from a note to the Preface of the 

 ^'J^orthern Flora," that admirable work, by the late Dr. Murray, of this 

 city, an enthusiastic and successful student of the botany of his native 

 country, and who was too prematurely cut off for botanical science in 

 general, and the completion of his "Flora," which bade fair to take a very 

 high place among the Local Floras of this country, and excelled most in 

 the completeness and accuracy of its details. 



In a previous volume of "The jS^aturalist," considerable attention was 

 directed at the time to the distribution of our British Water-Lilies — Nym- 

 phcea alba, Nuphar lutea, and Nuphar puraila. Of the occurrence of the 

 first two in this district, notice was taken at the time, as being the fre- 

 quent inhabitants of many pools and lochs, all over the country. But it 

 is to the occurrence of the third that we wish to direct attention at present. 



* Perhaps he means ^S. hypjioides, which we have seen on the Kincardineshire coast, 

 mostly however traceable to gardens. 



