■242 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



Hopkirk had much artistic taste and skill. The 

 title-page has an edging of twining Coi-ydalis vesicaria, 

 — a plant with bladder-like capsules, two of which 

 he represents as open in order to show the disposi- 

 tion of the seed. The other plates are after his 

 sketches, with the exception of one which is 

 executed from impressions made from the leaves 

 of a variety of beech. 



In discussing the Anomalies of the Root, he refers 

 in the first place to plants living entirely in the 

 water (as Duckweeds and Seaweeds), and then to 

 parasitic plants (as Dodder and Mistletoe). Many 

 root anomalies he attributes to excess or deficiency 

 of moisture, and he adduces in suj)port the case of 

 roots accidentally immersed in water, when the 

 woody and solid iDart becomes divided into many 

 fibres, as often seen in Willows and in the Cowbane 

 (Cicuta virosa). He also says of the Impatient 

 Balsam (hnpatiens Noli-ine-tangere) that if grown 

 in a dry soil its roots are shorter, fleshier, and less 

 divided than if in moist ground, while if wholly in 

 water they are much drawn out and fibrous. He 

 figures the various forms of the roots of this plant 

 to illustrate the difference. On the other hand, he 

 points out that when plants are removed from a 

 wet to a dry soil, fibrous roots sometimes become 

 bvdbous or succulent, as in the cases of the Jointed 

 Fox-tail grass {Alopecitrus geniculatus), and the 

 Meadow Cat's-tail grass (Phleum pratensej. He 

 refers to exposed trees as having stronger and 

 longer roots against the direction of prevailing 

 winds, and adds that in this country trees generally 

 incline to the north-east and have their longest 

 roots to the south-west, and that accordingly when 

 there is a violent storm from the north-east, many 

 more trees are blown down than by a gale from 

 the opposite quarter. 



Knobs, burs, or tumours on the stem or branches, 

 he considers to be frequently occasioned by deficiency 

 of moisture, and to be in themselves the rudiments of 



