Botanical Records for 1896. 9 



this year is therefore rather meagre and disappointing, and to no 

 one more than to myself ; liut ilie next best work to finding new 

 records is to confirm old records of the rarer and more interesting 

 plants, and to find out as far as one can what plants we now really 

 have growing in our district. In this direction there is plenty of 

 good, useful, and necessary work to be accomplished in our three 

 counties. At Glenluce I was anxious to confirm the existence 

 there of some of the rare plants recorded for that parish by the 

 Rev. George Wilson. Here I made a new record for Wigtown- 

 shire in the grass Milium ejfusum. growing in several places in 

 the Wood of Park. The Thalictrum minus on Luce Bay, at the 

 east end of the Golf Course, and at the mouth of Luce Water, is 

 var. maritimu7n. The Sea Holly, the Horned Poppj', and the Sea 

 Bindweed were in abundance at the head of Luce Bay, as was 

 also Rtippia rostellata in the lagoons of brackish water round the 

 island of St. Helena. On Glenluce Old Abbey I saw Mullein, 

 Gromwell, Barbarea, likely praecox, Wall Flower, &c., but I failed 

 to find Aru77i jnaculatum and Wall pellitory there, though both of 

 these plants have been recorded for the Abbey. Around Glen- 

 luce, and principally on the shore, I gathered such rare AVigtown- 

 shire plants as Ranunculus sceleratus, Saponaria officinalis and 

 Tansy, both outcasts, Malva moschata, Vicia sylvatica, the BuUace 

 tree, Galium mollugo, Scabiosa arvensis, Carduus tenuiflorus, 

 /uncus maritimus, Scirpus marifi?nus, Spergularia ?ieglecta, and 

 rupestris, Sagina apetala, Imt I failed to see Lobelia Dortmanna^ 

 Galiu7n cniciatuvi, Teesdalia tiudicaulis (which disappears before 

 July), Stachys betonica, and some others. At Whitefield Loch I 

 gathered Potamogeton perfoliatus and Fotamogeton lucens, the latter 

 being a new record for Wigtownshire. 



At Sorbie the Rev. Mr Gorrie and I paid another visit to 

 Ravenstone Loch, which we found much changed since we saw 

 it two years ago. It was almost entirely choked up with 

 niyriophyllum, so much so that we failed to find even the plants 

 we gathered there on the former occasion. This affords a very 

 good illustration of how plants, perhaps quite abundant once in a 

 certain locality, have got crushed out and have become extinct 

 by the overgrowth of ranker and stronger species, or by cultiva- 

 tion and drainage and other causes. We looked round the loch 

 for Cladium viariscus^ but failed to find it. Typha latifolia grew 

 in the loch in great luxuriance and abundance. Thorn apple and 



