Transactions. 21 



yet, and tlie same statement still holds good. This year I have 

 observed that several plants which have always been designated as 

 rare in our list can by no means be considered so ; and that when 

 the likely habitat for a plant is known and can be recognised, the 

 plant itself is almost certain to turn up. For instance, pyrola 

 secunda has always been considered a rare plant here ; in fact, at 

 its previously recorded stations in this district it has been unknown 

 for years. Last year I came across it in a linn for the first time. 

 It was growing on dry, exposed, chattery rocks, which are covered 

 with scraggy heather and blaeberry bushes, the roots of the pyrola 

 growing deep down in the fissures and cracks of the rocks. This 

 year, when botanizing, I came across other places such as that 

 mentioned, and found the pyrola growing at every one of them. 

 Four stations can now be given for this plant here, and all of them 

 are situated from 1050 to 1150 feet above the level of the sea. 



Polygonum vivaparum is another plant which, when once its 

 habitat can be recognised, is found to be common instead of rare. 

 There are other plants again which as yet have only one recorded 

 station, as, for instance, saxifraga nivalis and arctostaphylos uva- 

 ursi. And I have never come across any other 2>lace here which 

 could be taken as a likely habitat or could in any sense be con- 

 sidered as fulfilling the conditions of the original habitat. 



Woodsia ilvensis still retains a habitat amongst our hills, but 

 there is no doubt that it is gradually getting scarcer. Two stations 

 are all that have been known here for it in recent years. At one of 

 them it has not been seen for at least two years. At the other I 

 personally observed one solitary specimen, but a very nice healthy 

 one. Mr A. Bennett, Croydon, in his paper before the Society, in 

 February, 1891, gave, amongst others, Mr Stevens' note on this 

 fern, published in 1848, " that it was very abundant and luxuri- 

 ant on the hills bordering on Dumfriesshire and Peeblesshire, 

 growing in dense tufts, some of the fronds measuring six inches in 

 length." The largest specimen I have seen measured only two 

 inches, most of them being only from 1^ to 1^ inch. And in 

 speaking to a gentleman who has known its habitat for over 40 

 years, he informed me that he had only come across one specimen 

 of that size many years ago. 



I must express my indebtedness to Mr E. F. Linton, Bourne- 

 mouth, and Mr A. Bennett, Croydon, for examining and naming 

 all the plants submitted to them for determination. 



