Transactions. 145 
CoMMUNICATIONS. 
I, Botanical Field Notes for 1885. By Mr J. Finevanp, 
In responding to an invitation of our Secretary to give a 
communication to the Society this session, it has occurred to me 
to offer you a resumé 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 
the 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 translucens here in 1884 induced me to 
make a special search for these hitherto neglected plants. With 
this object in view, a aumber 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 Niétella translucens. 
Morton and Closeburn are now known both to possess it. The 
cwpillacea variety of Chara fragilis occurs in Closeburn, and there 
remains only another species to be reported, Nitella opaca, which 
- 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 the limited area of loch surface 
which there is in the district. As there is only one species of 
Characee 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. crispus. 
Tn Carices, ampullacea seldom misses an opportunity of appearing 
in any situation which might sustain it. (C. vesicuria 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. (. disticha has this last year been gathered 
on a piece of waste marsh by the Nith, Only one patch of it 
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