SHORT NOTES 127 



of the commoner wild flowers of the district, forty plants, either 

 casuals for the district, or, if indigenous, of very rare occurrence 

 in the shire, were observed. This waste land, which is about 

 one-eighth of an acre in area, occupies part of the site of an old 

 sandstone quarry, and has been slowly formed by the dumping 

 of much heterogeneous material into the excavation caused by 

 former quarrying. Road-scrapings, sand, soot, lime, broken bricks, 

 dung, garden refuse, and the sweepings of the kilns of a local 

 brewery have all contributed their quota to the levelling up of the 

 ground. The resultant soil, as may be imagined, is of a very 

 varied nature. The only reasonable explanation that can be 

 offered of the appearance of many of the plants in this part of 

 the kingdom is that they have been introduced to this particular 

 waste land as seeds, through the medium of the contributions 

 from the brewery. A collection of the forty plants was made, 

 and after their identification had been verified by P. Ewing, Esq., 

 F.L.S., of Uddingston, they were exhibited at a meeting of the 

 Natural History Society of Glasgow on Oct. 25th, and subse- 

 quently at a meeting of the Paisley Naturahsts' Society on Nov. 

 4th. The following plants were included in the collection : — 

 \Banunculus arvensis L., \Delphinium Ajacis L., \Glaucium corni- 

 culatum Curt., Sisymhrmm Sojjhia L., \Erysimum repanduvi L., 

 E. clieirantlioides L., Gonringia orientalis Dum., Gamelina sativa 

 Crantz., \C. sativa Crantz var. fceticla (Fr.), \Leinclium ruderale 

 L., Thlasin arvense L., Beseda lutea L., Saponaria Vaccana L., 

 \Silene noctiflora L., Malva rotundifolia L., fiU. parviflora L., 

 ■\Linum angustifolmm Huds., Medicago hispida Gaertn. var. den- 

 ticulata Willd., Melilotus officinalis Lam., M.albaDe'&r., Trifolium 

 arvense L., \Vicia lutea L., V. bithynica L., Lathyrus Apliaca L., 

 iCaiccalis daucoides L., ]G. latifolialu., \Biipleiiriim rotundifoUum 

 L., Antheniis Cotula L., \Cirsium arvense Scop. var. setosum G. A. 

 Mey. f. argenteum (Buch.- White), dehor ium Intybus L., \ Am- 

 brosia trifida L., Lysimachia vulgaris L., jLappula echinata 

 Gilib., Convolvulus arvensis L., \ Datura Stramonium L., \Cala- 

 mintha Acinos Clairv., \Amaranthus retroflexus L., i Setaria viridis 

 Beauv., Phalaris canariensis L., \Avena fatua L." 



ToRTULA CANESCENs Mont. — Miss C. E. Larter in her paper 

 on Devon Mosses and Hepatics {Trans. Devonshire Assoc, for the 

 Advancement of Science, (&c. xl. 1908) records this rare species 

 from Devonshire, specimens in the Torquay Nat. Hist. Museum, 

 collected in 1869 by Mrs. Griffiths, having been identified by Mr. 

 E. M. Holmes. Last year Miss Larter had the pleasure of re- 

 finding it in its original locality, Meadfoot Cliffs, where it was 

 also gathered, under her direction, by Mr. G. Wrey. In February 

 of this year among some mosses sent to me by Miss Larter for 

 determination I detected this interesting species in young condi- 

 tion, sent as a species of Pottia. It was with some ditticulty that 

 I was able to convince myself that my determination was correct, 

 for the hair-points were, comparatively speaking, short, and the 



Plants marked (t) have not been previously recorded for Renfrewshire. 



