28 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 
The Deeside Field, and in the Transactions of various societies. For the 
last twenty years of his life Prof. Trail had been compiling the results of 
personal investigation into the distribution of plants over a wide area in 
the north of Scotland, and all interested in botanical research will regret 
that he did not live to publish what would have been an invaluable con- 
tribution to scientific study. The regret is all the deeper because no Flora 
of Aberdeenshire has been issued since the appearance in 1860 of his 
predecessor’s Botanist’s Guide, and because the probability is that no 
single botanist will ever gain that intimate knowledge of the flora of the 
North-east which fifty years of field-work enabled Prof. ‘Trail to possess. 
Tue Sea Coast.—No part of our seaboard has a greater reputation 
as a botanical resort than ‘ the cliffs of St. Cyrus.’ The volcanic rocks of 
that neighbourhood decompose into a light warm soil extremely favourable 
to the growth of a number of plants which here reach their northern limit 
or are rarely found north of Bervie. The cliffs and the close turf below 
them provide Viola hirta, Silene nutans, Dianthus deltoides, Hypericum 
perforatum, Astragalus danicus, A. glycyphyllos, Vicia lutea, Lathyrus 
sylvestris, Trifolium striatum, Campanula glomerata, Lamium hybridum, and 
many other interesting plants. Den Finella, in the same neighbourhood, is 
also worthy of a visit. ‘Though inferior to St. Cyrus in number and variety 
of species, the rocks of Muchalls have, in addition to many commoner 
plants, several very local ones such as Valerianella olitoria, Mertensia 
maritima and Artemisia maritima. 
From Aberdeen to the Sands of Forvie north of the Ythan the coast- 
line is flat and consists of sand-dunes with their characteristic flora, about 
which we may add that ‘ Viola Curtisii is the most common pansy there, 
though not recorded for the East Coast of Scotland until 1885.’ (Trail 
Memorial Volume.) North of the Ythan a large granitic mass at Peter- 
head covers an area of 46 square miles and forms the rocky coast-line for 
several miles. Thrust like a knotted shoulder in the teeth of the north- 
east winds, these rocks support but a scanty vegetation. ‘The Bullers 
of Buchan, however, shelter Sedum roseum, and those facing the Moray 
Firth at Aberdour and Gamrie yield Saxifraga oppositifolia and several 
rare Hieracia. From ‘Troup Head to the mouth of the Spey rocky head- 
lands and curving bays lined by fixed sand-dunes alternate with an almost 
uniform regularity, and present few features of botanical interest. 
Immediately west of the mouth of the Spey lies a marshy area called 
the Leen of Garmouth, which the Rev. George Birnie, B.D., of Speymouth, 
considers the richest floral tract of a square mile he has ever traversed. 
From it he has gathered about 400 species, among which are an unusual 
proportion of comparatively rare plants such as: Ranunculus sceleratus, 
Teesdahia nudicaulis, Ornithopus perpusillus, Ginanthe crocata, O. fistulosa 
and Salicornia europea. Specially noteworthy is the occurrence on the 
adjoining shingle of Fasione montana—its only station on the east coast of 
Scotland. Observed there in 1830 by the Rev. Dr. Gordon of Birnie, Moray- 
shire’s most distinguished naturalist, it is more than maintaining its ground. 
On the coast between Lossiemouth and Burghead grow Scilla verna, 
Ligusticum scoticum, Astragalus glycyphyllos (very rare for this latitude), 
A. danicus, Carduus tenuiflorus and Euphrasia curta var. glabrescens. 
