XX11 NOTES ON THE FLORA OF CLYDESDALE. 



instances besides Scandix Pecten- Veneris. It is just possible that the 

 Solway Firth and the Galloway hills may deflect southern plants in 

 their northward migration towards the east, but this suggestion is 

 all but nullified by the fact that such stray plants as do find their 

 way to the western counties invariably fail to establish themselves 

 permanently. Such apparent anomalies impress us with the idea 

 that we have much to learn before we can understand the laws that 

 regulate the distribution of plants over even such a limited portion 

 of the earth's surface as is comprised within the bounds of Britain. 



But although the immediate neighbourhood of Glasgow is so poor 

 in species that are chiefly confined to cultivated ground, it is by no 

 means devoid of interest to the botanist. There are within a radius 

 of a few miles round the city, several small lochs and marshes, chief 

 among the number being Fossil Marsh, in which every Glasgow 

 botanist may be said to have been baptized. Here we find Ranun- 

 culus Lingua, Hippuris vulgaris, Stellaria glauca, Lysimachia thyrsi- 

 flora, Sagittaria sagittifolia, all of which may be regarded as rather 

 rare, not only in this district but in Scotland generally. Sagittaria 

 sagittifolia has got no place assigned to it in Hooker's Flora Scotica, 

 published in 1821, as it was then unknown in Scotland. It was first 

 observed about twenty years ago in the river Cart at Inchinnan, but 

 whether its introduction was accidental or intentional has not been 

 ascertained. It made its way from the Cart into the Forth and 

 Clyde Canal, from thence into the Fossil Marsh, and appears now to 

 be perfectly naturalized in the district. All the four British species 

 of the curious genus Lemna may be found also in this marsh and in 

 the neighbouring Forth and Clyde Canal. 



Benlomond, Benvoirlich, Goatfell, and other mountains of the 

 west some of them exceeding 3000 feet in altitude furnish us with 

 most of the alpine plants common to the mountains of Scotland, with 

 the exception of a few of the Arctic type confined to the loftier Ben 

 Nevis and Ben Lawers, such as Saxifraga rivularis, /S. cernua, S. 

 nivalis, &c. 



Along the sandy coast of Ayrshire, extending from Fortincross to 

 the Heads of Ayr, ammophilous plants abound. There we find 

 Brassica monensis, CaJcile maritima, Salsola Kali, Calystegia Soldan- 

 ella, Eryngium maritimum, Jasione montana, Trifolium arvense; and 

 wherever the soil will repay cultivation Agrostemma Githago, Lycopsis 

 arvensis, with several species of Euphorbia, Fumaria, &c. Hundreds 

 of acres of the muddy flats near the confluence of the rivers Garnock 

 and Irvine with the sea, left dry at low tide, are literally covered 

 with Salicornia kerbacea. 



In Cumbrae, Bute, Arran, and the Western Isles in general, Carum 

 verticillatum, (Enanthe Lachenalii, Veronica Anagallis, Samolus Vale- 

 randi, Pinguicula lusitanica, Anagallis tenella, Cotyledon Umbilicus, 

 Mertensia maritima, are of frequent occurrence, while they are rare, 

 and in some cases altogether wanting, in the eastern counties. 



