XXX FLORA ORCADENSIS. 
Ronaldshay, and Papa Westray. This is a field 
where a considerable amount of botanising remains 
to be done. The lochs on the Mainland are better 
supplied with boats, but even here a careful scrutiny 
would probably result in the discovery of a few new 
species. 
In a county consisting of so many scattered 
islands, the writing of a fairly accurate and com- 
prehensive flora could hardly be .the independent 
work of one man. It is difficult at this time of 
day to ascertain who were the first field botanists in 
the county. There must have been some students 
of Nature before Dr Wallace and the Rev. George 
Low, but if such there were, their findings were no 
doubt utilised by these men who have left us a 
record of their botanical work. Sueceeding these 
we have Mr Robert Heddle, Dr Duguid, and Dr 
Boswell, who were assisted in their work by other 
lovers of the science, the best known of whom are 
Dr Charles Clouston, of Sandwick, and Mr Robson, 
schoolmaster, Birsay. In writing short, sketchy 
biographies of the men who were the pioneers in 
the study of systematic botany in this county, and 
who are no longer with us, I feel that I am_ per- 
forming only a very pleasant duty in recording 
their valuable and indispensable labours. It is not 
easy to estimate the botanical value of Dr Barry’s 
work, who ineludes in his “ History of Orkney” a 
list of plants. Mr Patrick Neill and others tell us 
that Dr Barry’s list of Orkney plants is largely 
an unacknowledged copy of the Rev. George Low’s 
work, and this seems very probable, as Dr Barry 
