THOMAS HOPKIRK OF DALBETH. 239- 



the Flora Glottiana, he would find it no child's play. 

 Hard and disheartening would be the position, with 

 scarcely a kindred spirit to aid and sympathise ; 

 for though there might he herbalists enough and to 

 spare, scientific botanists would be almost unknown. 

 Watching and wandering about the countryside 

 would lack the modern facilities of railway travel- 

 ling, while occasionally man-traps and spring-gun& 

 would have to be guarded against. Descriptions of 

 species Tvould be frequently incorrect, seldom pre- 

 cise, and verification by comparison w^ith authentic 

 specimens would be sadly hampered by restricted 

 means of communication and conveyance. Instru- 

 ments and apjDliances for more minute observation 

 would appear rude and unsatisfactory. In short, 

 the man would sj)eedily wish himself back again 

 into this year of grace. The Flora Glottiana was a 

 laborious undertaking, and Hopkirk accomplished it 

 successfully. That a few of the i:)lants of the dis- 

 trict escaped his notice is not to field-botanists a 

 matter of surprise ; their wonder is rather that he 

 recognised and recorded so many. The study of 

 minute shades of difference in insignificant herbs 

 was one to which few minds inclined amidst the 

 deadly grapple of nations and the wild rush of 

 world-events that filled the time with battles and 

 bloodshed. Hopkirk's enthusiasm was great as his 

 assiduity, and so he became the Pioneer Botanist 

 OF Clydesdale. 



The additions to the lists of our phanerogamic 

 flora since his day have not really been numerous. 

 They consist mainly of species that were then segre- 

 gated, more rarely of species overlooked, or of such 

 as have since made their way into the district. The 

 plants that have disappeared seem in most cases 

 never to have been truly naturalised. In the 

 general wreck of the original land-surface here- 

 abouts since Hopkirk's time by pit, quarry, railway, 

 road, draining, levelling, housebuilding, &c., it is 

 astonishing that the changes in the flora have not 



