38 TRANSACTIONS, NATL'ltAL HISTOKY SOCIETY OK GLASGOW. 



last year added 50 species, it is evident that the 

 flora is by no means exhausted. Looking to those 

 occurring in the ^vhole group coming under the 

 Inner Hebrides (Watsonian Vice-Counties 102, 103, 

 and 104), which 1 suppose may now be fairly stated 

 at about 630 species, I consider that we may expect 

 that the Outer Hebrides have yet some 80 to 100 

 •species to be recorded. This may appear too high 

 an estimate, especially if we look to the decided 

 diminution in the number of species that occur 

 from east to west in Scotland ; though personally 

 I believe that this decrease has been overstated 

 and the records for the last four years from 

 the West of Scotland seem to me to confirm my 

 view.* Anyone who will compare the records for 

 the three groups into which Watson has divided 

 the Inner Hebrides \vill at once see what a decided 

 falling off there is between 104 (North Ebudes) 

 and 102 (South Ebudes) ; if the relative difference 

 between these two be equally divided, it will be 

 found that it fairly represents the plants that occur 

 in 103 (Mid Ebudes). This, of course, is from north 

 to south, but a difference can even be found in 

 those from east to west. With regard to the Outer 

 Hebrides and the other North Isles {i.e., Orkney and 

 Shetland), it is to be regretted that at the time 

 when Watson divided his provinces, etc., there was 

 not sufficient information to separate the Hebrides 

 from the other " North Isles," as he terms them. 

 One thing can only be remarked on this : the flora 

 of the Shetlands is of a much more northern (or even 

 Arctic) character than that of the Outer Hebrides, 

 and Balfour expresses his surprise at the small 

 number of alpine plants gathered by him in 1841. 



There are two others which I suppose may fairly 

 be considered as belonging to the Outer Hebrides, 

 i,e., St. Kilda and Rona. On the former island my 

 friend Mr. Barrington found several plants hitherto 

 unrecorded for that distant group, and several also 



»On this see S. Grieve in Tranf. EJin. Hot. Societi/, ISST, i>p. -IST-lftO. 



