56 Transactions. 
in Townfoot Loch, Thornhill. Three new grasses — Avena 
flavescens, Festuca pratensis (variety loliacea), and Glyceria 
Aquatica—close the list of flowering plants. Last and rarest of 
all I have to record is Lquwisetum pratense, abundant in Crawick 
Glen and on the Nith near Elliock. 
III. A Visit to the Giant’s Causeway. By Mr J. Saaw. 
IV. Dates of First Blossoming of Plants in Tynron. 
By Mr J. Suaw. 
In submitting a list of plants first noticed in blossom in 
months of April, May, June, and July, Mr Shaw remarked that 
April, 1884, showed flowers about a week earlier than April, 
1883. Cold winds in March, 1883, blighted an early blossom, 
and threw vegetation back. In May, 1884, the number of 
flowering plants observed was 70, This was a no greater number 
than that observed in May, 1883. May, 1884, got a better 
start, but did not keep up in the race. With some difficulty it 
waved a hawthorn blossom at us before parting, which was so 
far beyond what its sister of 1883 had done. June is undoubt- 
edly the flower lovers’ favourite month. The drought and barren 
winds of last June filled the farmers’ minds with gloomy fears. 
Vegetation halted. Our list presents 87 as against 113 of the 
preceding June. The Fox-glove was not seen with us this year 
in June at all. Many of the Orchis species lagged a week or 
fourteen days behind. Just as in 1883 plants that are wont to 
appear by the middle or end of May were crushed forward into 
June, so in 1884 many June blossoms were held over to July. 
The wayside roses, which appeared in 1883 in the middle of June, 
began to unfold this year a week later. In July the number of 
plants in both years in blossom was about 100. Vegetation 
quickened rapidly with the fine weather of this month. Still, by 
comparison, blossoms were behind their time. The heather, 
which began to bloom with the opening days of the month in 
1883, was only observed for the first time about the middle of 
July, 1884, to the distress of those bee-keepers who wished to 
profit by its flowers. Still, by the end of the month, July, 1884, 
had well-nigh got abreast of July, 1883. The blue bells waved 
in the same week in both ; and some of the late flowering grapes, 
and several hawkweeds, are registered as appearing with only a 
few days difference in each, 
