Miscellanea, Correspondence, &c, by Mr. Jas. Hardy. 299 



II.-BOTANICAL. 



Introduction of Potatoes and Turnips into Hobkirk 

 Parish, Roxburghshire. — Mr. Oliver wrote me on this 

 subject, March 15, 185G, and his remarks have lost nothing 

 by not earlier seeing the light. " There are few notabilia here, 

 about the introduction of Potatoes or Turnips. I could as- 

 certain the date, nearly, of the introduction of Potatoes into 

 this neighbourhood. My father used to relate an anecdote 

 connected with their first cultivation by a Mr. Chisholm, of 

 Hobsburn (now Green-river) in this parish (Hobkirk). Mr. 

 Chisholm had planted some in his garden, and a lad at a farm 

 place not far distant hearing much said about them, and 

 supposing they must be something good, set off at night and 

 stole a few. He used to relate afterwards that on trying to 

 eat them raw, as he did, he found them to be poor stuff ; but 

 thinking that they ought to be good, he persisted in eating 

 some. The name of this man was Robert Renwick, and as 

 it happens his name is the first on the Parish Register here. 

 Mr. Chisholm also introduced the Turnip into this neigh- 

 bourhood." 



Potamogeton filiformis. — In 1870, a pond in Oldcambus 

 dean was cleaned out, in which nothing grew except Gly- 

 ceria fluitans and Callitriche verna. This had never been 

 attempted before, and, as showing its age, several horse-shoes 

 of the old small breed of Border horses were dug out. After 

 the mud was removed, the bottom was full of stones, either 

 diluvial, or derived from adjacent glitter debris. The water 

 is derived from a drain issuing from springs. This season 

 patches of Potamogeton natans, unknown there before, 

 began to show on the surface ; and towards autumn some 

 lurid masses of a peculiar water weed were observed round 

 the shores, which were determined to be P. filiformis. The 

 only other Berwickshire locality for it (and it is a rare plant 

 elsewhere in Scotland) is Coldingham Loch, and there it 

 grows among stones and gravel in a much less pure quality 

 of water. Can the laying bare of the stony bottom have 

 conduced to its growth ? The pond is frequented by ducks, 

 water-hens, and occasionally by the coot, which may have 

 brought the seeds of both these pond weeds. They could 

 scarcely have remained so long undamaged in the mud at 

 the bottom ; nor have they arisen from one seed only, as 

 they are dispersed: perhaps the broken shoots produce 

 radicles. Seed was rare in filiformis. Hooker, " British 

 Flora," 1837, classes it with P. pectinatus as marinus. 



1 M 



