SOME EAST FIFE FLOWERS. 259 



sylvestris, Linn. The one plant I had really tried to find 

 unsuccessfully all along the shore on both sides of the burgh was 

 Pneumaria mariiima, Hill, till Provost Sim told me that it 

 seemed to have quite disappeared from the district. I used to 

 see this plant occasionally on the coast of Forfarshire, and I find 

 from the Proceedings of the Society that I exhibited a specimen 

 on the 28th December, 1886. 



Along the shore, not far from the caves, may be seen evidences 

 of a forest submerged. But by far the best specimen is close to 

 the harbour, and it leaves no doubt as to its being a fossil tree 

 stump. 



A striking feature of the district is the Wild Cabbage, Brassica 

 oleracea, Linn., which flourishes on the heights above the sea to 

 the west of the burgh. 



Potato field weeds seem scarcely to exist about Crail. 

 Whether in garden or field the potato crop appears to come in for 

 special attention in the way of keeping down livals, and ordinary 

 weeds fail to make a decent living among them. Corn fields, 

 however, ha^■e samples of the common kinds, and Sinapis arvenis, 

 Linn., takes its undue share of prominence there, as elsewhere. 

 In some cases we saw this weed tackled by having it hand-pulled 

 and laid down in heaps by the sides of the fields befoi'e its 

 abundant crojj of seeds was matured. Poppies are plentiful in 

 many fields, but we never came upon any of the blue Corn-flower, 

 Centaurea Cyanus, Linn., which is so abundant in some parts of 

 Forfarshire. C. Scabiosa, Linn., is occasionally met with in East 

 Fife ; there is a good deal of it not far from the sea shore to the 

 south of St. Andrews. 



The East Coast claims the exclusive right to the genus 

 Astragalus, Linn. We found beautiful specimens of A . hypoglottis, 

 Linn., near Fife Ness, but it appears much less common here than 

 at any sandy shore from Carnoustie to Stonehaven, where 

 A. glycyphyllos, Linn., also flourishes among the longer grass ac 

 occasional spots. 



The only species of Artemisia which we can claim in the west 

 is A. vulgaris, Linn., occasionally seen by roadsides. Crail is 

 fortunate in having not only this species, but also A. Absinthium, 

 Linn., and A. maritima, Linn., and all three are found growing 

 near one another. The fact that A. Absinthium is so plentiful in 



