xlvi FLORA ORCADENSIS. 
M.A., secretary to the Natural History Society of 
Edinburgh, in the year 1806. This book is called 
“A Tour through some of the Islands of Orkney and 
Zetland, with a View chiefly to Objects of Natural 
History.” He added about 100 phanerogams and 
ferns and 50 mosses to the list previously published 
in Dr Barry’s history—Low’s collection, as already 
stated. Low’s list enumerated 312 species, but Mr 
Neill says some half-a-dozen at least were spurious. 
This raises the list of native species to 462. A great 
deal of interest attaches to this “ Tour,’ because 
Neill was a thoroughly qualified field botanist, and 
took special note of all he saw. He visited the best 
botanical fields in these islands—Hoy, Walls, and 
Rousay. His “Tour” is very suggestive, for he not 
only records his observations, but he expresses valu- 
able opinions on subjects relating to natural history, 
economics, estate management, and sociology. He 
makes suggestions as to the betterment of the people, 
especially Shetlanders, who seem at that time to have 
been the victims of a vicious system of truck, which 
has since been reduced to a minimum under the 
enlightened supervision of the Crofters’ and other 
Commissions. His knowledge of birds and _ bird-life 
was almost as complete as that of flowers. Orkney 
must then have been an wncognita terra to botanists. 
Just think of the possibility of adding 156 new 
species to the flora in one summer. Most of his 
discoveries have been confirmed by later botanists. 
One of the most interesting was Hypericum elodes, 
which he records as growing on the side of the Burn 
of Berriedale. I am not sure that it has ever been 
