Transactions. H 5 



Communications. 

 I. Botanical Field Notes fw 1885. By Mr J. Fingland. 



In responding to an invitation of oui* Secretary to give a 

 communication to the Society this session, it has occurred to me 

 to offer you a resume of a few botanical notes which were made 

 by me during last summer. The Thornhill district of Upper 

 Nithsdale may now be regarded as having been fairly well sur- 

 veyed in regard to the general run of flowering plants, as I think 

 tlie last paper from the district given by Dr A. Davidson will 

 testify. With the exception of one or two of the more critical 

 families of plants, any records now to come from the district 

 must be regarded in the nature of gleanings. 



The discovery of Nitella translucent here in 1884 induced me to 

 make a special search for these hitherto neglected plants. With 

 this object in view, a number of the ponds and lochs which were 

 accessible were therefore visited by me, but in the majority of 

 cases the value of my examinations was entirely of a negative 

 kind. In a few others, however, I was more successful, and a 

 second station falls to be added for this Nitella transhicenn. 

 Morton and Closeburn are now known both to possess it. The 

 aipillacea variety of Chum fragilis occurs in Closeburn, and there 

 remains only another species to be reported, Nitella ojyaca, wliich 

 is also found in the same parish. These results, although small, 

 might be considered encouraging, but I do not anticipate a large 

 find in these plants, considering tlie limited area of loch surface 

 which there is in the district. As there is only one species of 

 Characsce as yet recorded from Sanquhar, one would infer that 

 they increase in a southerly direction as affecting Upper Niths- 

 dale. Potamogetons and other acquatic plants naturally came 

 in for a share of attention in these searches. From the cause 

 already mentioned, which also affects the distribution of Charas, 

 the district is not rich in Potamogetons either. I think we 

 cannot count more than six, and one of these is a sub-species. 

 P. obtusifolius seems to be more common with us than P. crisjms. 

 In Carices, ampullacea seldom mi.sses an opportunity of appearing 

 in any situation which might sustain it. C. vesicaria is not so 

 common, and evidently prefers the western side of the valley, 

 a preference not peculiar to it alone, but which is characteristic 

 of some other plants, 0. dinfirha has this last year been gathered 

 on a piece of waste marsli by tlie Nith. Only one patch of it 



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