Feb. 1903.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 279 



and of Messrs. George Don, Patrick Xeill, E. Maughan, 

 and Walker Arnott as regards the vascular plants. 



In 1824 also, Mr. J. Woodfoorde published a small 

 book, " Indigenous Pha?nogamic Plants ... of Edinburgh." 

 Mr. H. C. Watson's " Xew Botanist's Guide" (in Vol. IL, 

 1837) enumerates some of the rarer plants, under the 

 several counties. 



Field work by students of the tJniversity has been 

 stimulated by the custom, begun by Professor Hope and 

 continued by his successors, of giving a medal for the best 

 herbarium collected within twenty miles of Edinburgh ; 

 and weekly excursions during summer have long been a 

 custom of the botanical classes. Much information has 

 been accumulated by these means, as well as by the 

 investigations of botanists resident in various localities, 

 some of the results of which have appeared in various 

 journals, including the Transactions of this Society. The 

 " Flora of Edinburgh," issued by Prof. J. H. Balfour and 

 John Sadler (in 1863, 2nd Ed. in 1871), brought together 

 much of the additional information in a handy form. Mr. H. 

 C. Watson's '"' Topographical Botany," issued privately to the 

 author's correspondents in 1873— 7-1, stated the results (as 

 kuown to him, and accepted by him as trustworthy in 

 regard to indigenous and well-naturalised species) in 

 tabular form under the several counties. A second edition 

 of this work appeared in 1883, with many additions to 

 lists from counties in other parts of Great Britain, but not 

 many from the basin of the Forth. Mr. Watson had the 

 advantage of the aid of Professors J. H. and I. B. Balfour, 

 and of Dr. Boswell, who sent him catalogues of the plants 

 known from the counties around Edinburgh on both sides 

 of the Forth ; and he also made use of a catalogue of the 

 plants of Stirlingshire, published in 1875 by ^Ir. Croall. 



In 1894 appeared "A Pocket Flora of Edinburgh and 

 the surrounding District," by C. 0. Sonntag. In the 

 preface it is stated that " the localities given are taken 

 partly from the late Professor Balfour's catalogue, and 

 partly from my own collection" (the latter, for rarer plants, 

 being marked with an asterisk), and that the district of 

 the flora measures " from thirty to forty miles in diameter." 



Since 1886 onwards, Mr. Arthur Bennett has contri- 



