WOODSIA LLVENSIS. 75 



DuMFBiBSSHiBB and Peeblesshire. — The chief station in the United 

 Kingdom for Woodsia Ilvensis appears to be the vicinity of Moffat and 

 Kirkpatriok, near the northern boundary of the county of Dumfries. The 

 first notice is from Mr. WilHam Stevens, under date of December, 1848 ; 

 it was published in the January number of the ' Phytologist ' for 1849, 

 and is as follows ; — " Woodsia Ilvensis : this rare and handsome little fern 

 I found in considerable abundance, on very steep crumbling rooks, amongst 

 the hills dividing the counties of Dumfries and Peebles, in July last. It 

 is growing in dense tufts in the crevices of the rocks, and very luxuriant, 

 many of the fronds measuring nearly six inches in length.'' — Phytol. iii. 

 393. My next information is from the Rev. William Little, who says 

 " it is found in several stations on the Moffat Hills : one of these stations 

 is On the farm of Gorehead, about four miles north of the town of Moffat. 

 The plant here grows upon exposed rocks, its roots often wedged in their 

 crevices, so as to render it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to extri- 

 cate them. Another locality is about six miles east of this, in a ravine 

 near Loch Skene. Here the fern grows among crumbling rooks, and often 

 spreads its roots under loose stones. In this station it attains a much lar- 

 ger size than in the former. The altitude of the former looahty is about 

 1,200 feet, of the latter, 2,000." My third correspondent on this sub- 

 ject is Mr. Johnstone, of Catlins, near Dumfries, who writes thus : — "In 

 the autumn of 1850, while botanizing over the mountains bordering Dum- 

 friesshire and Selkirkshire, with a description of the habitat furnished by a 

 friend, who had previously seen it, I succeeded in finding the Woodsias in 

 a beautiful little glen, of very brittle clay-slate formation, scattered over 

 with birch and mountain ash, and having a little mountain rivulet running 

 through it. At one part the glen turns, making an obtuse angle, and the 

 Woodsias are only to be found on the right hand side, and do not pass the 

 angle ; they grow over a space of about two hundred yards, beginning at 

 a foot from the ground, and ascending the almost perpendicular rocks to 

 the height of thirty feet. Pursuing the same route in 1851, I had the 

 pleasure of discovering another station, some miles distant, in the same 

 formation, and having the same aspect, the only noticeable differences being 

 that the second glen is wider and longer, with more soil on the rocks, and 

 that consequently the plants are much more luxuriant in their growth, the 

 fronds being six and seven inches long.'' 



Ddeham. — Mr. Winch, in his 'Flora of Northumberland and Durham,' 

 gives these locahties : — " Near the summit of some bold basaltic rocks, 

 called Falcon Glints, about ten miles west of Middleton, in Teesdale, Mr. 

 S. Halestone. At the foot of basaltic rooks, on the Durham side of the 

 river Tees, about two hundred yards below Cauldron Snout, Mr. J. Back- 

 house." Mr. Winch observes that these localities must be near together. 

 Mr. Simpson observed the plant there in 1838, and has kindly presented 



