■16 'I'raiitsac lions. 



that time a small book entitled " llainble among the Wild 

 Flowers " — this being a pleasantly-written narrative of a three 

 days' botanical tour from Edinburgii and back by way of Peebles, 

 Manor Water, St. Mary's Loch, Grey Mare's Tail, Loch Skene, 

 Corrieferron, Moffat, Deil's Beef Tub, and Tweedsmuir. At the 

 end of the book he gives a list of plants to be found in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Moffat. This list was copied into the Moffat Guide- 

 book at that time as a section on the botany of the district, and 

 has been continued in it without any altei'ation till two years ago, 

 when a new and more extensive list, compiled by myself, was 

 substituted. In the original list Mr Sadler enumerates nearly 

 150 flowering plants, 28 ferns, clubmosses. and horsetails, besides 

 a number of mosses. This list, while it is a small one numerically, 

 shows that Mr Sadler had been very familiar with the plants of 

 tile district, and had botanised it thoroughly, for the list contains 

 the names of nearly all the rai-e plants found now in the district 

 and a few which still elude re-discovery; but every season is 

 seeing the number of these being gradually reduced. At the 

 present time these unreconflrmed plants of the Moftat flora are 

 represented by the following list : — Cardamine inipatiens, L. ; 

 Genista Anylica, L. ; Vicia Orobus, D.C. ; Epilohium Aljnnum, L. ; 

 Scutellaria Galericulata, L. ; Salix Lapponum, L. ; S. Myrsinites, 

 L. ; Juncus 2'rijidtts, L. ; Car ex Jiupestris, L., on Sadler's 

 authoiity. 'While LycJniis Viscaria, L. ; Alchi-inilla Alpinu, L. ; 

 SnxiJrar/aAizoideSjJj.; Veronica Saxatilis, Li ; Tofieldia I'alustris, 

 Huds. ; Juncus Triglumis, L. ; and Juncus Casteniis, Sm., are on 

 the authority of tiie " Statistical Account of Scotland for 1843." 

 This list for the " Statistical Account" was prepared by the Rev. 

 Dr Singer, minister of Kirkpatrick-Juxta at that time. Saxifraga 

 Aizoides has been found since that time by the Rev. Wm. Rennet, 

 Moffat, but a good many years ago, and I have failed to find it at 

 the place where Mr Rennet told me he had gathered it. Andro- 

 meda Poli/olia, L., has the Rev. John Pagan, Roth well, for its 

 authority. 



I have no doubt that the majority of these plants are still in 

 the district. Why they have not been rediscovered is simply the 

 want of searchers for them. Since Mr Sadler's time no systematic 

 attempt has ever been made to botanise the district, and even 

 the casual visits of botanists to the district have been very few, 

 and their operations have never been extended to where these 



