312 EXTRACTS FROM BOTANICAL EXCHANGE CLUB REPORT, 1895. 



the process of chaff-cntting were scattered about the field in question 

 to improve the next year's crop. The hay was said to have come 

 from Canada. In many of the spikes the lower spikelets had 

 become fleshy and semi-transparent. I do not know whether this 

 Alopecunis is an indigenous Canadian grass; if not, it is a remarkable 

 instance of a plant having twice crossed the Atlantic, and become 

 established through human agency — in one case, if not in both, 

 unintentionally. — L. V. Lester. "Correctly named." — E. Hackel. 

 This is a plant of continental Europe, and is not recorded by Macoun 

 as yet introduced to Canada. — W. H. B. 



Weinf/aertneria canescens Bernh. Sand dunes by the sea, between 

 Morar Kiver and Arisaig, Scotland, July, 1895. — Fredk. Townsend. 

 The occurrence of this plant in the above locality, which comes 

 within v.-c. Westerness, naturally suggested some enquiry into its 

 recorded occurrence in Ayrshire. So far as I have been able to 

 trace, it is first mentioned by Watson for the latter county in 

 'Toj). Bot. ed. 1, 1874, where it appears in square brackets. Doubt- 

 less this record was obtained from the Butany of Ayrshire (1872), a 

 list which I have been able to consult through the kindness of Mr. 

 A. Somerville. The record there given is "Dalrymple and Coylton; 

 James Smith in New Statistical Account of Scotland." The Eev. 

 David Landsborough (in litt. to A. Somerville, 10th December, 

 1895) writes as follows: — "List furnished to New Stat. Ace. by 

 James Smith in 1837. He was in regular correspondence with Sir 

 W. Hooker. J. S. also furnished list of plants of parish of Maybole ; 

 all the plants in Maybole list are, I believe, correct, except Vicia 

 si/lvatica, which is written Lathyrus — doubtless a clerical error, as 

 former plant occurs in abundance in locality given." The Eev. 

 D. A. Boyd writes {in litt. to Ar. S., 10th Dec. 1895), "Smith's 

 parishes are both inland rural parishes, with neither large towns, 

 ballast-heaps, nor tracts of sea-shore." This is all that I have been 

 able to learn concerning the Ayrshire record. In the course of these 

 enquiries it came incidentally before me that Elymus and other 

 grasses had several times been sown on the sands about Arisaig ; 

 and although Mr. Somerville, Mr. Symers M. Macvicar, and others 

 used their best endeavours to ascertain the truth respecting the 

 Weingaertneria, the question of its nativity was still a matter of 

 doubt until Mr. Townsend finally ascertained that it had been sown 

 by Mr. Eneas E. Macdonnell, of Morar, who states {in Hit. to F. 

 Townsend, 31st May, 1896), " The fact of discovering the plant at 

 Toigall has recalled facts to my memory which leave no doubt on 

 my mind that the Weinyaertneria is not indigenous, but was intro- 

 duced direct here, and not by accidental admixture." Mr. Townsend 

 informs me that the grass occurs in plenty on the sand-hills, and it 

 is somewhat disappointing that we cannot claim it as a native here, 

 especially as it is said to occur in Norway in a slightly higher 

 latitude. Although I have given some details of the Ayrshire 

 record, there does not now appear to be any particular reason to 

 expect that it will be confirmed. — W. H. Beeby. 



