214 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



mon or even frequent, but exceedingly rare. Further, 

 Patrick avers that it is common in cornfields, and 

 adds, after the names of two farms near Hamilton, 

 the broad-spirited word etc., which seems to signify 

 something like a wave of the hand all round the 

 horizon. By Kennedy's time it had become rare, as 

 it still is. In Clydesdale it is now in fact almost 

 unknown. The rise and decline of a weed may seem 

 a trifling matter to those who can only appreciate 

 large effects, monstrous births and deaths of time. 

 Weeds are, however, more enduring than emi)ires, 

 and as old as agriculture itself. They often mark 

 civilisation more surely than the gibbet once did. 

 It is probable that the seeds of Scandix were then 

 sown regularly with certain crops, and that though 

 in this way the species appeared commonly in our 

 fields it had never truly taken hold ; and that when 

 this human agency was withdrawn, owing to corn 

 more thoroughly winnowed coming into use, it gradu- 

 ally decreased in number and finally disappeared, 

 the climate and soil being unfavourable to its sj)on- 

 taneous reproduction. Several other cornfield weeds, 

 to which I shall refer, afford additional instances of 

 disappearance apparently due to similar causes. 



For Sambucus Ehulus he quotes Ure's station — "on 

 the roadside between Kittochside and Carmunnock" — ■ 

 where the plant still grows. In the other stations 

 which he gives I am not aware that the plant now 

 occurs. 



He has an interesting note on the Barberry. " The 

 stamens of the Barberry," he writes, "when touched 

 at the base of the filament, contract suddenly, and 

 throw the pollen against the stigma ; it is worthy 

 of remark, however, that if the petals are cut off, 

 though without injuring the other parts, the stamens 

 instantly lose their irritability, and are no longer 

 affected by the touch of any extraneous substance." 

 With reference to the pollen being dusted over the 

 stigma in this way, Hermann Miiller (Die Befruchti- 

 gung der Blumen durch Insekten," 1873) has shown 



