SKETCH OF THE FLORA OF THE PROVINCES’ 35 
idea of the flora. The number of species found in a day’s 
walk on the west side may require a month’s searching on 
the east side. The lesser number of peat-mosses in the 
south-eastern counties also gives fewer habitats for several 
species which affect this kind of ground. There are a few 
species more common on the east side of the country, the 
most noticeable being Lophocolea heterophylla, L. bidentata, 
LI. cuspidata probably also, Madotheca rivularis and M. 
platyphylla. 
The flora of the whole of the Southern Uplands may be 
divided by the valley of the Nith. To the north-east of 
this the hills are mostly composed of Silurian rocks; the 
broad rounded summits, descending gradually to the bottom 
of the valleys, seldom leave the rocks exposed. The flora 
of the Upper Clyde district, with its hills reaching from 
1700-2400 ft., is the same as that of the Tweed valley 
where the hills are of a similar height; but at the water- 
shed between the Tweed and Moffatdale the hills are 
more elevated, with a considerable amount of bare wet 
rocks on the surface, and here the flora is more distinctly 
subalpine, resembling to a great extent the subalpine flora 
of the Highlands. The hills to the south-west of the Nith 
valley are in several parts granitic, with much rock 
exposed in their gullies. Here subalpine species occur in 
quantity, and with them some Atlantic species. The 
summits of the hills being rounded without exposed rock 
as in those on the other side of the Nith valley, the upper- 
most flora is only subalpine in character, but a few alpine 
species are found on their flanks where the rocks are at the 
surface. This granitic district appears to more closely 
approach the alpine region than does the range at the 
watershed of the Tweed and Moffat valleys. 
Limiting our remarks to the East Lowlands, we find that 
the hilly districts are almost confined to the Tweed valley. 
In this district, above the limit of cultivation, there is 
permanent pasture with hill-pasture to 1000 ft., or more 
frequently 1100-1200 ft., on which there is in general no 
change in the hepatic flora. At the latter altitudes the 
subalpine flora is characterised by the presence of Vardia 
obovata, Lophozia quinquedentata, Blepharostoma tricho- 
phyllum on rocks or rocky banks; and Lophozia incisa 
