THOMAS HOPKIRK OF DALBETH. 199 



amid country sights and sounds, helped, we cannot 

 doubt, to stimulate his early love of nature and 

 taste for botany. 



In 1813 he published his Flora Glottiana, — the 

 first catalogue of the plants of the Clyde district, 

 and indeed in this country one of the earliest local 

 Floras. Curtis's Flora Londinensis, Sibthorp's 

 Flora Oxoniensis, and Abbot's Flora Bedford- 

 iensis were among the few works of the kind 

 issued before his day. Sketches of several Scottish 

 districts had appeared in larger works. In Ure's 

 History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride (1793), 

 for instance, there is a short list of the rarer 

 plants found in that district. Hooker's Flora 

 Scotica and Greville's Flora Edinensis were only 

 published several years later than tlie Flora 

 Glottiana. While Hopkirk availed himself of the 

 valuable Floj^a Scotica of Lightfoot (1777) for refer- 

 ence, the still older work of Sibbald, Scotia 

 niustrata (1684), appears to have been wholly dis- 

 regarded by him. 



Hopkirk entitled his work, ''Flora Glottiana: A 

 Catalogue of the Indigenous Plants on the Banks 

 of the River Clyde, and in the Neighbourhood of 

 the City of Glasgow." 



It was published in Glasgow by John Smith and 

 Son, and printed by William Lang, 62 Bell Street. 

 The preface is dated from Dalbeth, 6tli September, 

 1813, and in it he defines the district to which his 

 list is restricted, as " the country within a few miles 

 on both sides of the River Clyde from its Falls 

 above Lanark, to its junction with the sea some 

 miles below the town of Dumbarton." He was quite 

 aware that the district is by no means so rich 

 botanically as many others, for he wrote as follows : 

 "For beauty, richness, and variety of scenery, the 

 district of Clydesdale can scarcely perhaps be 

 equalled, and although the number of rare plants 

 falls short of what might be expected from the 

 variety of soil and situation, still it is sufficient to 



