34 TRANSACTIONS, NATUKAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



western shores of Barra and South Uist failed to 

 discover it there, is somewhat remarkable, the more 

 so that there is no reliable record of it from any- 

 where further north than the Mid-Ebudes, the 

 island group which includes Mull, Coll, and Tiree. 



I wrote to Miss Gordon Gumming, telling her 

 what the interesting plant proved to be ; and in 

 acknowledging my letter she says : " It is nice to 

 know the truth about the blue Gonvolvulus of 

 Eriskay, even though I fear we must now give up 

 the pretty story of its seeds having been brought by 

 Prince Gharlie ! " 



The physical features of South Uist, which was 

 visited after Barra, call for some remark. The 

 island lies north and south, and is twenty- five miles 

 long by some live miles broad. It may be said to 

 be divided into three very unequal longitudinal 

 belts. The eastern, which occui^ies three-fourths of 

 the width of the island, is the mountainous one, 

 where we find Ben More (1,994 ft.) and Hecla (1,988 

 ft.), and where there is much bleak moorland. 

 Immediately to the west of this, running through 

 most of the island, is the marshy belt in which are 

 situated the shallow lochs which bring so many 

 fishers in summer and autumn to Lochboisdale 

 Hotel. The third belt — the most westerly, and at 

 the same time the narrowest— which lies along the 

 Atlantic shore, is of light land, whose sand-hills and 

 shifting soil give evidence of its having been 

 reclaimed from, as well as made by, the ocean. 



These three belts are each possessed of a flora 

 more or less distinct, and furnish, as does Barra, 

 a large variety of situation, from which, however, 

 woodland is again entirely absent. 



The mountains of the Outer Hebrides are reputed 

 to be botanically poor, and to possess but few of 

 those plants which characterise the flora of the 

 higher elevations on the mainland. With this the 

 Laurentian gneiss rock-formation and the salt breezes 

 of the Atlantic have no doubt largely to do. On 



