226 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
Plantago maritima, Linn., its Distribution in Ayrshire. 
By Joun Smitu, Monkredding. 
{Read 26th February, 1895. ] 
) 
Some of our shore plants are peculiar, in so far that they do not 
only grow at sea-level, but are found on some of our highest 
mountains. Plantago maritima is, perhaps, the strangest of all 
the maritime-inland plants, in occurring, not only at sea-level 
and on high hills, but also in certain intermediate localities. Its 
abundance at sea-level must be well known to every botanist, 
occurring, as it does, on all sorts of soil and kinds of rock, although 
it appears to be absent from purely sandy stretches, such as the 
shore-line from Saltcoats to Barassie, &c. 
For the first 200 feet or so above sea-level, this plant appears 
to be totally absent, and its absence from this zone is strange and 
unaccountable, seeing that when in inland situations it is very 
frequently a roadside plant ; and one would think that its distri- 
bution from place to place downhill would be comparatively simple, 
by the seeds getting washed, in some cases, along the roadsides, as 
well as getting fixed by the mud to the feet of pedestrians, &c., 
and in this manner shifted from place to place. Its absence 
from cultivated fields along the roadsides is also curious, 
seeing that in many places the fields are dressed with roadside 
parings. Of course, in many cases these are treated with lime 
before being spread on the fields ; but even this will not account 
for its absence from cultivated land, as many seeds must be blown 
upon such land during gales, and many must find a resting-place 
there after being carried by birds, &c. And one would think it 
can’t be from the richness of the soil preventing its growth, as the 
roadsides where it often grows are the richest soils we have, from 
the large quantity of manure they are constantly receiving, 
The following are the Ayrshire inland localities where I have 
observed this plant growing :— 
1. Kilwinning Parish.—At Bullerholes, on an old grass-grown 
road; and on the main road at Auchentiber, where it passes 
