NORTH DURHAM AND BERWICKSHIRE. 327 



North Durham, a district included in his plan, but which he ap- 

 pears to have had very few opportunities of examining in person. 

 The Astragalus glycyphyllus, Salvia verbenaca, mistaken for S. pra~ 

 tensis, Dianthus deltoides, Rubus chamamoruSj Gnaphalium dioicum, 

 Marrubium vulgare, and Aster Tripolium, are the only uncommon 

 plants to which are affixed habitats situated within our limits. 

 On his return from Scotland in 1772, the Rev. JOHN LIGHTFOOT, 

 the celebrated author of the Flora Scotica, passed through the east- 

 ern parts of Berwickshire, but of what he observed there, Viola 

 lutea was the only one rare enough to be deemed worthy of notice. 

 The Berwickshire habitats given in his admirable work are few, 

 and were furnished by Dr PARSON s, who, after completing his 

 medical studies at Edinburgh, was raised to the chair of anatomy 

 in Oxford. Dr PARSONS deservedly attained considerable repu- 

 tation as a naturalist ; and it was probably this reputation which 

 introduced him to Dunglass, the seat of Sir JAMES HALL, and 

 where he sometimes pursued his botanical studies. He mentions 

 Veronica montana, Viburnum lantana, Scolopendrium vulgare, Cram- 

 be maritima *, Smyrnium olusatrum, and Attium schcenoprasum, as 

 occurring in that neighbourhood. All of them are plants of ra- 

 rity in Berwickshire, and the two last of them have not been re- 

 discovered by any subsequent observer. The Botanist's Guide 

 through Northumberland and Durham was published in 1 805 ; but 

 N. Durham was just that portion of the latter county which the 

 authors had least examined. In consequence, the stations in it 

 are very few ; but two of the plants discovered there deserve to 

 be particularized, viz. Chironia littoralis and Epilobium alsinifolium, 

 for the authors seem entitled to the merit of having first called 

 the attention of botanists to them as distinct species. The dis- 

 covery of the former must have proved the source of much grati- 

 fication, for it was not merely new, but the chiefest ornament of 

 the sandy fields in Holy Island, where its profusion permitted 

 them to gather specimens more than enough, and to anticipate 

 the pleasure they had thus to bestow on kindred minds with their 

 own, in sharing with them a pretty acquisition to our Flora. In 

 1807, Mr THOMPSON'S Catalogue of Plants growing in the vici- 

 nity of Berwick-upon-Tweed appeared. Mr T. is a native of 



* This has been lately re-discovered by Mr A. A. CABB, surgeon, who tells me 

 that it grows on the shore south of Fast-Castle, near the mouth of Lumsden, or 

 Dulaw Dean. 



