402 THE FLORA OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



Probably no local Flora extant contains so large a number of 

 plants which have no claim to inclusion. The author explains his 

 action thus : "I have admitted every species now found established 



in a wild condition, however introduced The criterion 1 



have taken is the establishment in a healthy condition of self-sown 

 plants. None other is really of value, and certain interesting- 

 problems could not have been studied, if these doubtful forms had 

 not been included. The climate of the county is so genial, that 

 these introduced plants are exceedingly abundant, and exceedingly 

 difficult to tell from plants undoubtedly native to Scotland." In 

 another place, Mr. Elliot mentions as types of the plants whose 

 presence is probably due to this geniality of climate. Datura Stra- 

 nioniiDn, (jfa/jea l.utea, and Traf/opogon jwrrifulius : to us it appears 

 that each of these is referable to a different cause of introduction, 

 and the presence of two of them in many local lists would seem to 

 show that climate has little to do with the matter. 



If Mr. Elliot's standard were to be accepted, every cottage 

 garden would contribute its quota to every local flora, for it is 

 mainly peopled by " the establishment in a healthy condition of 

 self-sown plants." And any one of these would have at least as 

 good a claim to insertion as Viola cornnta and (Jonvolvulus tricolor, 

 which occurred at Dumfries railway-station in 1892, Sj/uiphoricarpos 

 racemosus ("escape"), Cornus sanguinea ("planted"), Geranium 

 pyrenaicum ("sown?"), Campanida j^t^i'sicifulia ("escape"), and 

 many more. 



We have not been able to discover what meaning Mr. Elliot 

 attaches to the term "escape," with which he brands impartially 

 such plants as Geranium columbinum , Tri.folixun ocJiroleucum, Medi- 

 cago denticulata, Galium tricorne, Caacalis nodosa, Malva borcalis, 

 Ouscuta Epitlnjiimm (/), and many more. "Escape" from what? 

 Surely the good folk of Dumfries do not cultivate any of these 

 weeds in their gardens or fields ? Introduced they may be, but 

 they are no more "escapes" than the "escaped nuns" of Protestant 

 fiction, or than the prisoner celebrated by Mark Twain, who after 

 five years' incarceration opened the door and went away. No less 

 than 146, including such plants as Sibbaldia, are included in the 

 category of "escapes" — about one-sixth of the flora, which Mr. 

 Elliot estimates at nearly nine hundred species. 



Nor does Mr. Elliot's own deflnition hold good in all cases. 

 Eosa Dicksoui, for example, an "escape" at Roadside New Mills, is 

 "since rooted out": how then can this be considered as "now 

 found established in a wild condition " ? And on what ground are 

 such species as Trigonella ornithopodioides (with one doubtful 

 locality), Ononis reclinata (" supposed to be extinct "), Spircea Fili- 

 pendula ("requires confirmation"), I'yrola rotundifolia ("P. Gray, 

 1850?"), Euphorbia portlandica ("locality?"), Alchemilla alpina 

 (" requires confirmation "), included in the Flora ? The number of 

 the species requiring confirmation is, by the way, very large, and it 

 does not seem to have occurred to Mr. Elliot that it was part of his 

 duty to try to supply this. In one case, at any rate, such confirmation 

 is not difficult to obtain : of the two localities for Centuncidus 



