308 SCOTTISH BOTANY, [January, 



will oblige us by contributions on that subject. The botany of 

 the Colonial dependencies of Great Britain, immense though the 

 subject be, will occasionally engage our attention, when leisure 

 affords the means of dipping into the valuable Floras of New 

 Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, etc., recently either completed or 

 in progress towards completion. 



Finally, we wish health and prosperity to the authors of the 

 past and future articles of the ' Phy tologist ; ' and while we sin- 

 cerely thank them for their valuable aid already rendered, we 

 still request their active co-operation in helping us to make the 

 magazine both a vehicle for the conveyance of sound scientific 

 information, and a medium for the circulation of kindly feeling, 

 goodwill, and peace among the fosterers aiid fathers of science. 



Chelsea, January \st, 1858. 



SCOTTISH BOTANY. 



Notes on the Flora of Braemar. By J. Barton. 



I will now endeavour to give some idea of the character of the 

 vegetation in the lowland parts of the district, i. e. within a limit 

 of 1000 to 1500 feet above the level of the Dee Valley, reserving 

 the description of the more mountainous regions for a subsequent 

 Article on this subject. It is remarkable how entirely, even in 

 the lowest parts of the valley, and along the banks of the Dee, 

 the vegetation partakes of an alpine character. This no doubt 

 is in great part accounted for by the high elevation of the river- 

 bed at this point — 1100 feet, and also by the high latitude and 

 dry temperature of Braemar, in these respects so different to the 

 isles of the western coast ; but it cannot fail to excite the sur- 

 prise of the southern Lowlander to find himself treading upon 

 Alchemilla alpina instead of Daisies, Polygonum, viviparum and 

 Antennaria dioica instead of Buttercups, and the lovely Viola 

 lutea instead of the humbler V. canina or hirta. Our own 

 English Heaths and Ling hold their own in common with Empe- 

 trmn ' nigrum, Arbutus Uva-ursi, Vaccinium uliginosum, V. Vitis- 

 idaea, and other beautiful mountain plants. In the meadows and 

 moist woods we are greeted with the Cnicus heterophyllus and 

 Geranium sylvaticum in aljout the same profusion as Cnicus pa- 



