ox THE FLORA OF SHETLAND 107 



Triglochin maritiniuin^ L. — In a small bog by the Kergord Burn, 

 alt. c. 35 m., and two and a half miles from the sea. 

 Apparently very rare in Britain in truly inland situations. 



Scirpus iacusfris, L. — Since I first saw this plant in Sandwater Loch 

 when driving past, some fifteen years ago, it has increased 

 greatly, and huge beds of it now occupy much of the lower 

 half of the loch. I was surprised to learn on the testimony 

 of several old inhabitants that some thirty years ago the plant 

 was entirely unknown there. It is first recorded from this 

 locality by Peter White, in Tudor's "The Orkneys and Shet- 

 land," 1883. Local opinion attributes its introduction to the 

 flocks of swans w^hich rest on the loch during migration, and 

 as the southward migration of the common Shetland species, 

 Cygmis inusiaes, corresponds with the time when the fruit of 

 the Scirpus is ripe, this may perhaps be the explanation. The 

 nuts may have been brought from the Loch of Lund, Unst, 

 where the plant has been known since 1837. 



'^Cystoptej'is fragilis^ Bernh. — This long-expected fern was found in 

 some abundance on a group of limestone rocks on the Petta- 

 water Burn, about half-way between Pettawater and Sandwater. 



The Comparison of the Shetland and Faeroe Lists. — A short time 

 ago ("Annals" 1907, p. 165) I made reference to some discrepancies 

 in the " Supplement to Top. Botany "' affecting Shetland, but j\Ir. 

 Bennett has apparently been content to rely on his imperfect record 

 as the basis of comparison with the plants of the Faeroes. There 

 are various mistakes in Mr. Bennett's article (No. 67. pp. 36-40), 

 the correction of which involves a reduction of eighteen per cent in 

 the number of Shetland absentees given on page 39. 



There is no need to regard too seriously Mr. Bennett's Shetland 

 exclusions when one half of them appear as inclusions in his 

 Supplement referred to ; and it will suffice to say that after making 

 allowance for 



1. An initial wrong count, 



2. Six Shetland species excluded, 



3. Two extra- Faeroean plants interpolated, and 



4. One species wrongly accredited to Shetland, 



there is found to be, on balance, a reduction of nine, so that the 

 number of species occurring in the Faeroes, etc., but not in Shetland, 

 is brought down to forty instead of forty-nine. 



I am chiefly concerned to maintain the accuracy of the Shetland 

 List ; and I do not know how the other vice-counties have fared 

 further than that their lists will certainly bear revising. 



There are several omissions from the short list of extra-British 

 plants found in the Faeroes. 



