80 Plants, &c, of Selkirkshire, by Rev. J. Farquharson. 



later than that of the Lothians. Fortunately, from an agricul- 

 tural point of view, the prosperity of Selkirkshire does not de- 

 pend on the ripening of grain. By far the greater part of the 

 county is pastoral, and devoted to the rearing of sheep. In the 

 northern portion, indeed, containing the parishes of Galashiels, 

 Caddonfoot, and Selkirk, where the altitude above the sea is 

 least (Gala-foot, 300 ft., is the lowest point), there are several 

 large and fine arable farms. But the valleys rise rapidly, and 

 become more and more unfitted for the growth of cereals, until 

 at Potburn, the highest farm in Ettrick, 1250 feet above the sea, 

 oats never ripen, or rather have been known to ripen of late only 

 in the very hot summer of 1868.* 



Two considerations render the Flora of Selkirkshire especially 

 interesting. The county is one of the few entirely inland Scot- 

 tish counties ; and at no part does it reach in altitude the region 

 of Scottish alpine plants. The centre of the county is distant 

 from the sea at Musselburgh about 30, at Berwick about 45, and 

 at Annan about 38 miles ; at the head of Caddon water, the 

 point nearest the. sea, the shore at Musselburgh is still 16 miles 

 distant. Again, the highest summit is Ettrick Pen, 2269 feet 

 in height, and not to be accounted as touching the region of 

 alpine plants. Thus, devoid alike of marine plants, and of 

 plants truly alpine in character, free also of many of those 

 plants introduced by the hand of man, which have established 

 themselves in the neighbourhood of large towns, and now obtain 

 a place in Manuals of British Botany, the Flora of Ettrick 

 Forest may be regarded as illustrating the average Flora of the 



* In connection with the growth of cereals in the higher districts the fol- 

 lowing note is interesting. It was sent me some years ago "by the Eev. Mr 

 Falconer, of Ettrick. Eopelawshiel appears, from the Ordnance Map, to be 

 about 1100 feet above the sea. "The shepherd at Eopelawshiel, after the 

 potato disease appeared, sowed part of his ground with wheat, which came to 

 full maturity. He sowed a bushel, minus a stone,, of bearded wheat, and got 

 back from the barley-mill 25 stones of flour. He sowed barley, but it did not 

 do well ; and oats which never ripened. The straw of the oats was very 

 strong, 'strong as willows,' he said." 



In Sept., 1867, Mr Falconer sent me as an average specimen of the crop 

 then ripening on newly reclaimed ground on Eamsaycleugh Hill (800 ft.), a 

 plant of oats, the produce of a single grain. It consisted of three very robust 

 stems, 5|ft. in height, bearing respectively 155, 91, and 90 grains, — 346 

 grains of well-filled corn from one seed ! 



