B FLORULA ORCADENSIS. 
Orcadensis. Although I have not visited the islands in person, ser- 
viceable materials have accumulated in my hands, such as may enable 
me to make out a list of the flowering plants and ‘Ferns of Orkney 
which must be approximately complete ; quite as much so, probably, 
as are the already published lists of those in the Hebrides and Shet- 
land Isles. ; 
No doubt, any botanist might now draw out such a list for his own 
use by carefully going over the pages of the three first volumes of the 
* Cybele Britannica,’ together with the tabulated summary of provincial 
distribution given in the supplement to the same work ; and for several 
of the rarer species, he might find localities and authorities recorded in 
the * New Botanist’s Guide.” At last, however, his list thus made out 
would likely be less complete, and certainly less corrected, than the 
one which I now propose to give, founded upon the materials presently 
to be mentioned. 
Many years ago, the late Dr. Gillies gave me a * Flora Orcadensis ” 
in manuscript, probably written somewhere about the year 1820, since 
many of the dated localities were observed in the years 1817 and 1818. 
This Flora is founded on his own observations, on those of Mr. Alexan- 
der Duguid, on the botanical remarks included in Neill's * Tour in Ork- 
ney,’ and “ the remaining species taken from a list inserted in Barry's 
* History of Orkney,’ from the MSS. of the Rev. Mr. Lowe." Subse- 
quently I purchased from Mr. Pamplin a packet of Orkney plants 
collector unknown, quoted below as “ Spec." On eollating the labels 
of these dried plants with the manuscript Flora by Dr. Gillies, it be- 
the written Flora; and they also suggest explanations regarding some 
species reported by Lowe, such as must be deemed very unlikely to 
this object, the collection is far 
had apparently escaped the researches of his predecessors, 
In order to compress the subjoined list as much as possible, the spe- 
cial localities are omitt 
after the end of it. One of the personal authorities for the existence 
