1857.] AGRIMOXIA AGRIMOXOIDES. 273 



must have been overlooked as a dwarf or abnormal state of that 

 plant. From the above facts you "will readily be led to infer 

 that it is an escape from a garden. From this I dissent. First, 

 there is nothing showy or attractive in its appearance to render 

 it desirable as a denizen of om* gardens ; and secondly, although 

 as yet it has only been found near the^ habitations of the great, 

 yet several of om- plants regarded as aborigines invariably occupy ^ 

 similar stations, e.g. Chelidonium majus, which I never found 

 elsewhere. This plant {Agrimonia Agrimonoides) loves the sylvan 

 shade in all the places above-mentioned; it was screened from 

 the solar rays either under hedges or bushes. The Kinfauns and 

 Rait stations I have not seen, but I have had plants from them 

 both. Scone I know well, having been frequently there last 

 year; but an infirm state of health prevented me this summer 

 from Aisiting the woods near the palace, or in fact making bota- 

 nical excm'sions this season of any extent. I therefore employed, 

 or rather requested, a journeyman gai'dener at Scone Palace, with 

 whom I was acquainted, and to whom I gave instructions in 

 botany, to look out for plants, and I would name them for him. 

 This man last June had occasion to visit Kinfauns, and, though 

 not a botanist, chanced to observe the plant in question, which 

 he showed me, and, being in flower, I said it was Geum urbanum ; 

 but on an examination of the reproductive organs, I found it to 

 differ entirely fr'om that plant, and to agi'ee in its generic cha- 

 racter in all essential particulars with Agrimonia. The question 

 was now. What Agrimony is it ? I got a glimpse of Loudon^ s 

 ' Encyclopaedia of Plants,' and, as there are but few species of 

 Agiimony known, had little difficulty in finding it to be what it 

 is. This man, with a few other of the Scone gardeners, on the 

 Scone Sacramental Fast-day, went down the carse at my request 

 to collect plants, and again discovered it in flower near Rait ril- 

 lage, and brought me specimens. About the same time he ob- 

 served it in Scone TVood, where it is abundant. The gardener's 

 name is Adam Siaipson, so that, although I was the first to name 

 it and announce its discovery, I was not the first to see it." 



John Sim. 



N. s. vol. II. 



