60 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



Such, theu, is my list of the Plovers aud their kindred that 

 I can give as species belonging to the Solway area. No 

 ornithologist may question their superiority as a group of birds, 

 whether we look to their aggregate numbers, to their importance 

 as food (second only in this respect to the game birds them- 

 selves), to the sport they afford, or, above all, to the interest 

 they have for the bird student and the field naturalist. No 

 other group suqDasses them in the extent and regularity of their 

 migrations nor in the vastuess of the flocks that perform these 

 travels. Though of real songs they have none, yet their voices 

 have a music in their wild and multitudinous notes that enthrals 

 the nature lover, attuned, as they are, to the murmur of the 

 waves and the threnody of the winds. 



A Campbeltown Palm-lily {Cord/line australis). 

 By Rev. David Landsborough, LL.D. 



[Read 26th December, 1905.] 



The outstanding feature in the vegetation of tropical countries 

 ia the Palm; in sub-tropical it is the Palm-lily. In some, as in 

 parts of our own, several species of both grow together. This, 

 however, is only of recent years. The late Lady Campbell, 

 South Park, Campbeltown, had the honour of being the first 

 person to plant a Palm-lily (Cordylitie australis) in the open air 

 in Scotland. She was richly rewarded : the tree grew till it 

 became the amazement of all who beheld it. Looking at it, 

 one was ready to doubt if they were in cold Scotland, while 

 persons who had lived in Japan and similar countries were made 

 to feel as if they were in those countries again. It had been 

 planted in a most favourable spot, and it so grew in height as 

 to be taller than some species of Palm. Its canopy was specially 

 remarkable, and had a spread such as few species of Pahn attain, 

 while the great bimches of flower terminating its branches when 

 in bloom made a display such as the flowers of no true Palm 



