36 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxxiv 



me or the late Mr. Magnus Spence. See " Scot. Nat.,'' 

 No. xlviii, October 1882, p. 372; Spence, "Flora Orca- 

 densis," p. 50 (1914) ; and " Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin.," vol. 

 xxvii, p. 56 (1916). 



* Mentha viridis, Linn. [ = M. spicata, Linn.'] {fide 

 Arthur Bennett). — Wet, gravelly, and stony burnside, 90 

 feet above sea-level, Breibuster Burn, Hoy, 8th September 

 1914, H. H. Johnston. Naturalised. Very rare. Plants 

 neither in flower nor in fruit. Mrs. Georgina Manson, 

 Murra, Hoy, informed me, on 8th September 1914, that, 

 about the year 1874, she saw the Spearmint growing in 

 the kail-yard (cabbage garden) at Slack, higher up the 

 side of Breibuster Burn from the place where this plant 

 now grows. This plant therefore appears to have escaped 

 from cultivation and become naturalised at the burnside 

 below the farmhouse of Slack. 



* Mentha piperita, Jjinri., var. a. officinalis (Huds.) (fide 

 Arthur Bennett). — Swamp, 60 feet above sea-level. Little 

 Ocklester, below and north-east of Newhouse, Holm, 

 Mainland, 26th August 1916, H. H. Johnston. Naturalised. 

 Rare. Plants in flower-bud only, and the fresh leaves have 

 the characteristic odour of Peppermint. On the same 

 date, and in the same neighbourhood, I saw a large clump 

 of plants of the same species, in flower-bud, growing in a 

 swamp, 80 feet above sea-level, below and north-east of 

 Tliistlequoy, Holm, Mainland ; and I also saw it growing 

 at the side of a ditch in the corn stack-yard of the farm of 

 Tliistlequoy, where, Mr. James Sutherland, Tliistlequoy, 

 informed me, on 26th August 1916, it has grown for niany 

 years past. The Peppermint does not occur in the garden 

 at Newhouse. My record of this species from Little 

 Ocklester confirms that of the late Mr. Magnus Spence 

 from the same station, in his " Flora Orcadensis," p. 54 

 (1914); but, in my opinion, the Peppermint, which is 

 cultivated in gardens in Orkney, has escaped from culti- 

 vation and become naturalised at Little Ocklester and 

 Tliistlequoy, both in the parish of Hohn, Mainland. 



Thymus Serpyllum, Linn., var. h. prostratus, Hornem 

 {fide Arthur Bennett). — Bare stony hill-top, 400 feet above 

 sea-level, small conical hill north of Sandy Loch, Hoy. 

 23rd June 1914, H. H. Johnston, plants in flower, with 



