NOTES ON LEDt'M PALUSTRE. 251 



XXVI. 



NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF LEDUM 

 PALUSTRE, L., IN STIRLINGSHIRE AND 

 PERTHSHIRE. 



BY JOHNSTON SHEARER. 



[Read 29th April, 1890.] 



At a meeting of the Society held on 16th August, 

 1887, Professor Thomas King drew attention to the 

 recent discovery, in the neighbourhood of Bridge of 

 Allan, of Ledum palustre, L., a plant new to the 

 Flora of Great Britain, and stated that its identity 

 had been confirmed by Sir J. D. Hooker and the 

 late Mr. James Ramsay.* As I was connected Avith 

 this discovery— or rather re-discovery, for it appears 

 that the Ledum is mentioned in an old guide-book 

 to Bridge of Allan— and have learned some important 

 particulars as to the distribution of the plant, a few 

 notes on its history and identification may be of 

 some interest to the Society. 



Ledum is a genus of the Natui-al order Ericaceae, 

 and abounds in the Arctic Regions. The species 

 possess narcotic proj)erties, and an infusion of their 

 leaves is used in North America as a substitute 

 for tea, under the name of "Labrador Tea" or 

 "James's Tea." Hooker has placed L. palustre 

 amongst the excluded species in the Appendix to 

 his Flora of the British Isles, with the remark : 

 "N. W. Ireland, Giesecke ; never confirmed." It has 

 now, however, I am informed, been reinstated as a 

 British plant; and I have now to confirm its claim 

 to recognition as a Scottish species. 



In the spring of 1879, the School Board of Bridge 

 of Allan, where I resided, offered a prize to the 



'Proceedings, vol. il. (N.S.), p. xxxvi. 



