18 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



Notes on the Occurrence of Trichomanes radicans, 

 Sw„ in Scotland. 



By William Stewart. 



[Read 31st October, 1899.] 



In preparing a list of the Ferns of the Clyde area for the meeting 

 of the British Association in Glasgow, I found a note in the 

 Journal of Botany, Vol. L, p. 293, by Mr. C. C. Babington of 

 the finding of this fern in Arran, by the late Mr. George J. 

 Combe, in 1863. In Vol. II., p. 104, Mr. Walter Gait has a 

 reference to the discovery, in which he expresses a doubt of the 

 plant being a native. Hennedy also, in his Flora of Clydes- 

 dale, regards it as being a "questionable native;" while Dr. 

 Bryce, in Arran and other Clyde Isles, accepts it as a native 

 without demur. 



That it is a genuine native of Scotland is established by 

 evidence of its having been found on Lochfyneside, as well as in 

 Arran where it has occurred in three stations many miles apart. 

 The collation of this evidence, and the putting on record my own 

 testimony in connection with one of the instances, is my reason 

 for presenting this note to the Society. 



In Yol. XVII., p. 35, of the Transactions of the Botanical 

 Society, there is a lengthy note by Mr. W. B. Simson claiming 

 the discovery of the Corrie station for Mr. Robert Douglas, "the 

 walking postman between Brodick and Corrie," who was in the 

 habit of collecting Ferns for sale, and who had shown him a 

 specimen of the plant under the name of As2?lenium marinum. 

 Mr. Simson confesses that he did not know the species, which he 

 saw was certainly not A. marinum, but states that he subse- 

 quently identified it as Trichomanes radicans, Sw., and proceeds 

 to describe the spoliation which ensued, in which he himself was 

 not ashamed to take the final part. He says — "I took off my 

 coat, rolled up my shirt sleeves, and, with my hand, scraped the 



