32 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 
Kander, while Lactuca alpina, the Sonchus ceruleus discovered by Don 
in 1801, is perhaps the most striking Alpine from Lochnagar itself. 
Donsipe.—As we have already hinted, the valley of the Don consists 
largely of arable land, and its flora will thus be of less interest and variety 
than that of Deeside. There are areas, however, like Scotston Moor, 
Paradise Woods, Monymusk, the Howe of Alford and the higher levels 
of Corgarff which furnish a number of local plants. On Scotston Moor, 
which lies about two miles north of the Old Bridge of Dee, grow Parnassia 
palustris, Sedum villosum, Drosera anglica, Pyrola media, P. minor, 
Utricularia minor, U. intermedia, etc., with a patch of Linnea borealis in 
an adjoining wood. An almost forgotten botanist of the North-east, 
Prof. James Beattie, of Marischal College, a nephew of the poet Beattie, 
was in 1795 the first discoverer for Britain of Linnea, which he recorded 
for ‘ Inglismadie, Mearnsshire ’ (Kincardine). 
From Corgarff, Upper Strathdon, are recorded Rubus saxatilis, 
R. Chamemorus, Alchemilla alpina, Sedum villosum, Crepis paludosa, 
Guaphalium supinum, Arctostaphylos alpina, Pyrola secunda. 
In his Flora of Buchan Prof. Trail includes all the parishes between 
the Ythan and the Deveron, and as all the records are based on his per- 
sonal observations, there is little need for further reference to an area so 
thoroughly and so authoritatively examined. A few of the rarer or more 
local species are Ranunculus sceleratus, Cochlearia danica and C. green- 
landica (Slains), Stellaria nemorum (Alvah), Sagina ciliata (very local), 
Rosa hibernica (rare), Saxifraga hypnoides, Galiuum Mollugo, Hieracium 
Schmidt’, H. rigidum, H. corymbosum (scarce and very local). 
BANFFSHIRE.—Lhe two extremes of Banffshire—the coastal area and 
the upland section culminating in the Cairngorms—have already been 
dealt with, and as its Flora (1912) is comparatively recent, the middle 
portion, which is mainly agricultural, requires little comment. ‘Two 
names intimately connected with the botany of the area, however, deserve 
special mention in addition to that of the late Prof. Craib, viz. Thomas 
Edward, the Banffshire naturalist, many of whose records of the rarer 
species are referred to in the Flora ; and Mr. John Yeats, M.A., for many 
years Secretary of the Banffshire Field Club. The latter crowned a long 
career as a field botanist by finding, when over 80 years of age, the ex- 
tremely rare Saxifraga Hirculus. 
Banffshire has no main river valley to itself, as it shares the Deveron 
with Aberdeenshire, and the lower Spey with Morayshire, though it can 
lay full claim to the Avon, the chief tributary of the Spey. The high 
ground near the confluence of these two rivers culminates in that fine 
isolated hill, Ben Rinnes, on whose upper slopes occur such Alpines as 
Loiseleuria procumbens, Rubus Chamemorus, Saxifraga stellaris, Epilobium 
anagallidifolium, Gnaphalium supinum, Salix herbacea. 
MoraysuHirE.—Geologically Morayshire falls into two divisions—a 
plain in the north of Old Red Sandstone and Trias, overlaid with glacial 
deposits, and a hilly region in the south composed of metamorphic rock, 
chiefly schists. ‘The seaboard plain, known as the ‘ Laich of Moray,’ is 
famous for the mildness of its climate and the richness of its alluvium. 
With a low rainfall—at Forres occasionally under 20 in.—and a high 
