TRANSACTIONS 
OF THE 
SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
THE FLORAS OF THE EAST AND WEST OF 
SCOTLAND COMPARED. 
By Joun MacRag, M.A, 
(Read 6th December 1900.) 
Ir is almost unnecessary to preface my paper by the 
remark that the subject is much too great to be treated 
adequately in one paper—it is too self-evident; for a whole 
series of papers taking the country belt by belt would be 
necessary, and these papers, too, would need to be of huge 
dimensions. What is necessary is, that I lay down the 
limitations under which this paper is to lie. 
Now, the first danger to be avoided in this Society is, 
as Professor. Thomson was never tired of insisting, that of 
local irrelevancy. Clearly, therefore, Edinburgh must be 
treated of; and I have accordingly drawn an imaginary 
line through the map, passing through the centre of Mid- 
lothian, and in the paper I will confine my remarks to those 
vice-counties. through which this line passes—Berwick, 
Haddington, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Lanark, Ayr, Renfrew 
‘Clyde Isles, and Cantire. 
In absolute fairness, perhaps, I should have included 
Dumbarton and Stirling and perhaps omitted Ayr; and as 
it stands, the western counties named come further south 
than the eastern. This gives the East a slight handicap, 
but, as we shall see, it can well afford it. 
VOL. II. 1 
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