106 Botanical Notes fok 189'J. 



Anglo-Saxon. AVe know that the Norsemen did settle in Dum- 

 friesshire, and on the banks of the Solway, and there are several 

 traces of them still existing- in local names and customs. Ruth is 

 allied to the Gaelic ruadh, Welsh ruddh^ Anglo-Saxon read (red) 

 and rudu (redness), German roth, Dutch rood, Danish and Swedish 

 (derived froni the Norse) rod. Wald is a good old Anglo-Saxon 

 and Norse word meaning a wood. The German still has ivald, and 

 the English has ivold and iveald. How could the district have 

 obtained the name of the Red-wood or Ruth-wald ? In those 

 early times pine woods prevailed throughout that part of the 

 county. The Scotch fir or red pine predominated. I think we 

 may discover the origin of the name from this fact. The place 

 was known as the Red-pine Wood. I submit this conjecture to 

 the judgment of philologists for what it is wortli. 



Botanical Notes for i8gg. By Jamks M'Andk?:w, Assoc, of 

 Edin. Bot. Soc, New-Galloway. 



I much regret that my botanical notes for 1899 are even 

 more meag-re than those for 1898. This year my new records 

 are almost nil. In last July I spent a fortnight in Kirkcohn 

 parish, north of Strani'aer, in the expectation of perhaps finding a 

 few Ayrshire plants likely to be carried across the entrance of 

 Loch Ryan, but in this I was disappointed. In fact, except along 

 the shore on both sides of Corsewall Lighthouse, the parish of 

 Kii'kcolm is not productive of wild plants, being too agricultural 

 for a botanist's purpose. The only new record I have to give 

 for Wigtownshire this year is Scirpus Tabernamontani, Gml., 

 which I found in two lagoons on the shore opposite Kirkcolm 

 village. For the sake, however, of future reference and guidance, 

 I shall mention some of the rarer Wigtownshire plants I saw in 

 Kirkcolm and Leswalt. Round Kirkcolm village and the neigh- 

 bouring shore I saw Bromus sterilis, Linn,, Rumex alpimis, Linn. 

 (Monk's rhubarb), Cardiius temiiflorus. Curt., Ranunculus sceler- 

 atus, Linn., and Bulbosus, Linn., Ballota tiigra, Linn, (an outcast), 

 HyoHyamus nifier. Linn, (henbane), Equisetum maxiinmn, Lam., 

 Ruppia rostellata, Koch (in lagoons on the shore), and Catabrosa 

 nquatica. Beauv. (in ditches near the shore). The only rare plant 



