KOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF TRICH0MANE3 RADICANS. 19 



slimy mud out of the bottom of the crevice and from its sides, 

 in the hope of finding a fragment of root, or stem rather, which 

 might have been left behind. My 'happy thought' was re- 

 warded by finding a fragment of a frond with an inch or two of 

 rhizome, which I took away with me, wrapped in moss, and 

 planted on my return to Edinburgh." He concludes his note as 

 follows: — "What I have stated will prove that the Fern was 

 actually found at the time and in the place I have described, 

 though I am not at all surprised that it has never been found 

 there since." The absence of surprise, after such a confession, is 

 not remarkable. 



The Rev. David Landsborough has a note in the same volume 

 of the Botanical Society's Transactions, p. 39, in which he records 

 the finding of I'richomanes radicans on Lochfyneside, about the 

 same time, by two Paisley botanists. He says — " Mr. James 

 Cooke, proprietor of the Paisley and Renfrewshire Gazette, writes 

 — 'It was found by Mr. Young and myself conjointly, in a cave on 

 Lochfyneside, some two or three miles above Ardlamont Point, in 

 1 863, so far as I remember. AVe did not know what it was, but 

 on bringing it home Mx-. Hendry identified it, and it was brought 

 by him to the next meeting of the Philosophical Society — a very 

 small society in those days — and he afterwards reared it to 

 luxuriance in a pot at his home. I have visited the cave often 

 since, and did so in August last [188G], but have not seen, 

 either there or in the vicinity, any specimens of the plant.' " 



Mr. Cooke, whom I knew well as an enthusiastic and success- 

 ful collector of marine algse, assured me of the genuineness of the 

 discovery, and I remember the plant, in the eai'ly years of my 

 residence in Paisley, growing healthily in the possession of Mr. 

 Hendry. I have not succeeded in finding any record by Mr. 

 Hendry, who, however, was very unmethodical, as his botanical 

 collections prove. These I have traced to the possession of Mr. 

 Alexander Stewart, Kilbarchan, who describes them as very 

 large and in much disorder, so that it has been impossible to 

 examine them thorouglily at present. I have been unable to 

 trace Mr. Young's Herbarium as yet. 



I The honour of the discovery of the second station in Arran 

 belongs to Mr. Robert Kidston, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., who found this 

 rare Fern on the west side in 1676. His statement, as recorded 



