8 Transactions. 
they would have expected that the spring, and especially the 
summer temperatures, would have been in excess of the rivers, 
whereas it was in fact lower. 
II. Exhibit of Linnean Plants. 
Mr James Fingland, Thornhill, sent for exhibition to the 
Society an extensive and beautifully mounted collection of plants, 
chiefly from continental countries and some from the northern 
states of America, which he had obtained through the Linnean 
Exchange Club in return for specimens of the flora of this locality. 
Along with them he sent a short communication, pointing out to 
botanists who wished to pursue the study systematically that this 
afforded an inexpensive method of perfecting their collections. 
Ill. The Martyr Graves of Dumfriesshire. By the Rev. Joun 
H. Tuomson, of Hightae. 
Shortly after the Revolution of 1688 the Societies—that is, 
the confederation of the more strict Presbyterians that had been 
organised in 1681, and continued through all the years of perse- 
cution to hold meetings at short intervals in spite of all the efforts 
of Government to prevent them or put them down—took steps to 
erect stones over the graves of those who had suffered death 
during the reigns of the last of the Stuarts. At first it would 
seem as if each district society had proceeded to erect a memorial 
stone or stones to those who had been buried in their neighbour- 
hood. The minutes of the general meetings of the societies still 
exist, and the earliest notice in their pages of the martyr stones 
is under date “Crawfordjohn, Oct. 29, 1701,” but the language 
of the minute implies something had already been done at an 
earlier time. The minute is :— 
“* Crawfordjohn, October 29, 1701. 
‘¢ First concluded that all the correspondences provide and make ready 
stones as signs of honour to be set upon the graves of our Jate martyrs as 
soon as possible ; and all the names of the foresaid martyrs with their 
speeches and testimonies and by whom they were martyred or killed in 
house or fields, country or city, as far as possible to be brought to the next 
General Meeting in order for the epitaphs.” 
No further notice of the stones appears in the minutes until ten 
years afterwards, when their erection would seem to have been 
