560 BOTANY OP THE KINGDOM OF FIFE. [June, 



or, as they say, between plants perfectly naturalized, but to which 

 there is a shade of suspicion attached, viz. that at some time or 

 other they migrated hither, or were introduced either by human 

 or physical agencies, and such as have never been questioned ? 



BOTANY OF THE KINGDOM OF FIFE. 



(^Continued from page 327.) 



On leaving the old burgh of Crail, misprinted Craig, page 325, 

 we pursued our search for plants of local distribution. Among 

 the cluster of projecting rocks from the shore, forming a turning- 

 point west from Crail, we took notice of the Artemisia maritima 

 matted among the rocky margin of the seashore. Passing west- 

 ward towards the farmhouse of Caplie, the petrified forest so 

 named attracted our attention ; it being low water, we counted 

 upwards of a dozen specimens projecting from the rocks, some 

 of which rose several feet in perpendicular height ; some had 

 been recently broken and carried ofi*. In all applications of the 

 mind, of which natural science is no exception, we have ex- 

 amples representing how zeal outruns discretion. These plants 

 appear to express the features of what was known as the genus 

 Sigillaria, showing the cast of the inside of the stem, from 

 which the bark had apparently fallen off. We also found here, 

 as also in various places round the coast, detached pieces of 

 Stigmaria. The markings, however, of the two supposed genera 

 appear from specimens to show the one running into the other ; 

 the base of the tree Sigillaria showing the ruptures on the bark, 

 as in the case of trees of our own period, and the top of the tree 

 Stigmaria showing the smooth bark, with the marks of leaf-at- 

 tachment also observed in the growth of trees during the pre- 

 sent age, as combining from markings of the old and new bark 

 to form one tree. Cultivation had changed with it the surface of 

 vegetation, except Equisetum Tehnateja, which still retains its pos- 

 session. We passed up from the seashore to the grounds of In- 

 nergellie, where the Senecio saracenicus was growing fifty years 

 ago in waste, marshy ground ; since then the ground has been 

 drained and planted. Among the plantations we found several 

 strong- growing plants. With reference to Centaurea Scabiosa, page 

 325, it grows associated with Scabiosa arvensis, this latter species 



