348 BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.  [Suss. rxxu. 
MEETING OF THE SOCIETY. 
July 9, 1908. 
J. RUTHERFORD HILL, Esq., President, in the Chair. 
Mr. Cecit B. Crampton, M.B., C.M., was proposed as a 
Resident Fellow. 
The following communication was read :— 
SoME MossEsS AND HEPATICS FROM THE ISLE OF May. 
By WiiiaM Evans, F.R.S.E. 
The object of the present communication is to put on 
record a few mosses and hepatics which I have at odd times 
obtained on the Isle of May, at the mouth of the Firth of 
Forth. The fact of the May being the most seaward as well 
as the largest of the few islands on the east coast of Scotland, 
makes it of considerable interest to the biologist, be he 
botanist or zoologist, and renders a full list of its flora and 
fauna desirable. 
The island has been visited by botanists on various occa- 
sions. Patrick Neill landed on it in August 1811, as appears 
from his note in the “ Scots Magazine” at the time. In 1827 
Professor J. H. Balfour read a paper on its natural history 
before the Plinian Society: this paper, I understand, was never 
published. In the eleventh volume of the “Transactions ” 
of our Society (1873, pp. 390-392) there is a paper by the 
late John Sadler on the Flora of the Isle of May, in which 
he gives a list of plants observed there by himself and others 
on 11th August 1871. Only one moss, however, Schistidiwm 
martimum, is recorded; and it is mentioned that “one 
Jungermanniaceous plant was found but the species remained 
undetermined.” Then,in the Society’s “Transactions” for 1884 
(Vol. XVI. pp. 115-121) we have a paper by Mr. J. Rattray 
on the “ Phanerogams and Higher Cryptogams ” of the island. 
