Moss : Gentiana bciltica and Crepis biennis in S. Lmics. 21 



Beyond the distribution given by Mr. Johnson it occurs in 

 West Sutherland (Grant sp.), West Ross, and Caithness. 



In the Coll. for a Flora of Moray (1829) the local name of 

 'Smeardock' is given, in allusion, I suppose, to the unctuous 

 or greasy appearance of the leaves. Alcock, in his Botanical 

 names for English readers, 1876, says ' Fuchs includes Good 

 Henry in his chapter on Lapathum dock, of which he gives four 

 kinds, this being the third. The Germans have also the name 

 bose Heinrick (Wicked Henry) for Dog's Mercury.' 



The only name I have ever heard given to it by country 

 people was ' Fat Hen.' 



In Perthshire it grows up to 1,000 ft. altitude, and 'one 

 plant was found on Craig Moor, in Glen Tilt, growing close to 

 Veronica saxatilis and Dry as (W. Barcley).''^" 



Watson gives 1,200 ft. in Tyne Province (i.e., 400 yards in 

 Teesdale, Baker and Tate, Fl. Northumberland and Durham, 

 228, 1868). 



For the way such plants are conveyed to their altitudes 

 a paper by Mr. Symers M. Macvicar in the Ann. Scottish Nat. 

 History, 176-187, 1896, may be consulted ; it is too long to 

 extract the means he gives in West Inverness, in a part of the 

 country where then there were no railways. 



Some of these local names are very difficult to trace. I have 

 long tried to find some explanation for a name given to the 

 fruits of Hippophce rhamnoides L. by the natives of Winterton, 

 in Norfolk, i.e., ' Wye-bibbles.' 



If any reader of ' The Naturalist ' can suggest any derivation 

 of this name I shall be glad. 



* ' Flora of Perth/ 255, 1898. 



FLOWERING PLANTS, 



Gentiana baltica and Crepis biennis in South Lanca- 

 shire. — I gathered some gentians among the damp dune hollows 

 at Southport in September 1903. Mr. G. C. Druce, M.iV., F. L.S., 



names these Gentiana haltica^ and states that he has also 

 found it in this locality. (I should be pleased to receive 

 specimens of G. campestris from inland stations : I regard this 

 as a plant frequently misrecorded.) A species of Crepis which 

 I have this summer found sparingly in arable fields along the 

 north bank of the Mersey Mr. Druce names Crepis biennis. — 

 C. E. Moss, Didsbury, Manchester. 



1905 January 2. 



