TRANSACTIONS. 



On the Ee-Discovery of Scutellaria minor on Laggan 

 Hill, Colvend, By the Eev. James Frasee. 



Read 6th January 1863. 



I MAY be permitted to express my satisfaction and pleasure, 

 that the attempt to establish a Dumfriesshire and Galloway 

 Natural History and Antiquarian Society has been successfully 

 made, and that we are here assembled together on the first 

 night of its Meeting, and forming the nucleus of what we 

 fondly hope will in future years be a rallying point for the 

 Botanists, Geologists, Antiquarians and Scientific men gen- 

 erally of the counties. 



There are some things which unite men naturally, and 

 bind them together in a common brotherhood, irrespective of 

 rank, or country, or profession. Eeligion is one of these, and 

 it is the chief. Science is another. Similarity of tastes and 

 of scientific pursuits draws together men of aU ranks and of 

 all professions, and makes them friends even before they are 

 acquaintances. This is true. But while men throughout the 

 whole world feel acquainted with those who, like themselves, 

 are lovers of science — those whom they know only by name 

 or through their writings — it seems every way desirable 

 that those who are living in the same country, or in the same 

 neighbourhood, within an accessible distance of one another 

 or of a common centre of rendezvous, such as Dumfries, 

 should know each other personally, and be able to communi- 

 cate orally with each other on topics of mutual interest 

 " Iron sharpeneth iron ; so a man sharpeneth the countenance 

 of his friend," Solomon tells us. The same result is produced 



