418 ADDITIONAL NOTES, ETC. 



333. Potentilla Fragariastrum, vol. i. 1^.^4:6. 



Miss Boswell enumerates this among plants observed 

 in Orkney. Although that cannot be pronounced a very 

 improbable habitat, it is somewhat unexpected because 

 the species had not previously been recorded by any bo- 

 tanist, as seen northward of Eoss-shire. For the present, 

 therefore, it would seem better to wait for confirmation of 

 the species in Orkney, as a truly native plant there. 



Xd. Potentilla tridentata, vol. i. p. 348. 



Mr. Babington still describes this species in the cha- 

 racter of an undisputed native, in the latest edition of his 

 Manual, notwithstanding the geographical improbability 

 of its occurrence here, and the fact that no other botanist 

 than the much-doubted George Don ever professed to 

 have found it in Scotland. On this account, it seems ad- 

 visable to give ciirrency to an item of information, con- 

 veyed to me by Mr. George Lawson, in a letter dated 

 October 6, 1848; and which strongly tends to show that 

 George Don may have had the P. tridentata in cultivation 

 in his garden, and may have inadvertently sent garden 

 specimens to Smith, under an idea that he had brought 

 Scottish plants of it to his garden, or had seen the same 

 thing growing on the hills of Forfarshii-e. " Eegarding 

 the rare Potentilla tridentata," writes Mr. Lawson, " per- 

 haps it will be interesting for you to be informed that 

 Don received seeds of that plant fi'om Lyon, the Ameri- 

 can traveller, on Lyon's retiu-n from Paris and London to 

 this place, with the residue of his foreign seeds. A year 

 or two after that circumstance Potentilla tridentata was 

 'published as a native of Britain, on the authority of Don. 

 For these facts I am indebted to Mr. George Pabner of 

 this place [Dundee], a humble but zealous naturalist on 

 whom I can place confidence. I allow you to trace the 



