913—14.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 255 



maritvma, Turn., enable the closely packed leaves to shelter 

 one another. 



x Urns and Creeping Root-stocks. — The method of pro- 

 pagation by means of a stoloniferous mode of growth, 

 which poas as 9 -uch obvious advantages for plants grow- 

 ing in dry areas, is also found among the species of these 

 maritime associations. Xew plants of PotentiUa anserina, 

 Linn., can be seen originating by means of widely spread- 

 ing stolons, through which they are also partially supported 

 by the parent plant until their own roots strike deep 

 enough to obtain nourishment. Thus a plant when once 

 established can rapidly increase into a colony without the 

 risk of new individuals passing through the seedling stage. 



Ext - . -& item. — Instances also occur of an- 



other character frequent among xerophytes : that of a 

 well-developed root-system which >trikes down into the 

 moister layers below the shingle, or penetrates the 

 crevices of the rocks. This type is exemplified in Galium 

 Aparvne, Linn.: Rva ' vpus, Linn.; Sonchus] Matri- 



caria mocZora, Linn. ; Plantago ma riti '/ma, Linn. : Spergu- 

 la/ria media, Pers. ; Suaeda maritime,, Dumort 



2. Moor. 



By far the greatest portion of the area is included in 

 this section, and from lochside to hilltops extends the 

 moorland vegetation, giving to the landscape much of its 

 distinctive colouring — as beautiful in its collective distant 

 effects of purple, green, and brown, as it is in the grace of 

 its individual plants which grow from year to year undis- 

 turbed and untrodden on. save by the shepherd and the 

 sportsman, uninterfered with except by the heather-burners 

 and the close-cropping sheep. Here. then, is a considerable 

 tract of land where the most typical of the Highland floras 

 can be studied, ranging from the shores of the loch to a 

 height of 2000 feet, and including the associations of the 

 bog and the hill-pasture, as well as those of the more 

 typically moorland plants. 



Bog. — Along the lochside there extends a narrow strip 

 of flattish ground, rising on its inland side into a steep 

 bank, and forming one of the old sea-beaches. Here are 



TRANS. BOT. SOC. EDI>\ VOL. XXVI. 19 



