220 Messrs Gray and Hinxman on [sess. lii. 



A List of Plants observed in West Sutherland (108), by 

 Mr Archibald Gray ; with Notes on the Flora, by 

 Lionel W. Hinxman, of H.M. Geological Survey. 

 Communicated by B. Peach, F.E.8.E., F.G.S., &c. 



(Read 10th May 1888.) 



The following list, though not pretending to be an ex- 

 haustive Flora of West Sutherland, is the result of a careful 

 examination of the large district of Assynt, together with the 

 western portion of the parish of Tongue, by Mr A. Gray, 

 during the summer and autumn of 1886. 



A few additional species have been added from notes made 

 by Mr B. N. Peach and myself in Durness and Eddrachillis 

 in 1883-84. 



Had Mr Crray not been unfortunately prevented from 

 revisiting Sutherland, this list would no doubt have been 

 considerably enlarged, both by the examination of the more 

 interior parts of the county and by the working out in fuller 

 detail of such genera as Hicracium and Chara. The same 

 cause has prevented Mr Gray from doing full justice to 

 the subject in a paper such as he would have liked to lay 

 before the Society. He has, however, handed me his mate- 

 rials, and I have endeavoured from these and from my own 

 observations to furnish a few notes on the chief character- 

 istics of the plant life of this part of Sutherland. 



The total number of species recorded (474) is a large one, 

 when the general character of the country is taken into con- 

 sideration, bare rocky hills alternating in dreary monotony 

 witli wet peat flows over the greater part of the district. 



In striking contrast to the barren desolation that surrounds 

 them are the green oases formed by tlie limestone areas of 

 Durness, Tnchnadamph, and El])hin. These are peculiarly 

 rich in flowering plants, and during the short spring and 

 summer of these northern latitudes the rich grassy covering 

 of the limestone knolls is strewn with a wealth of flowers, 

 whose profusion of bloom and intensity of colouring recall 

 to one's mind tlie flora of alpine regions. 



Amongst these such species of orchid as Ilahenaria 

 viridis, Gymnadenia alhida, Listera ovata, L. cordata, and Ejpi- 



