236 



The ScottisJi Naturalist. 



ance of Lotus pilosus from Mid-Aberdeen ("from cultivation,") 

 and of Pyrola media Sw. from White Hills, Colvend ("through 

 sheep-grazing,") are much at variance with the behaviour of both 

 plants in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen. There L. %>ilosus is- 

 plentiful in at least one cultivated field, while the field is in grass ; 

 and P. media is abundant, on a grassy spot on a moor 

 regularly pastured by sheep, though seldom permitted to 

 flower, and is thus liable to be overlooked. Echium vulgare 

 L., " nearly extinct, through cultivation, in the Black Isle," 

 is another plant that holds its own very well in cultivated 

 ground in some localities at least, e.g. at St. Cyrus, near 

 Montrose. 



Turning now to the consideration of some of the rarer or more 

 local species, of which there is reason to believe that in all proba- 

 bility they do not now exist in the localties from which they are 

 reported to have disappeared, it is evident at the first glance that 

 these fall under several heads, which may (with one or two excep- 

 tions) be summed up briefly thus : — 



1. Species included in local lists on old records, but not seen 

 in these localities thus recorded for many years. In this group 

 are included Glaucium flavum Crantz,and Eryngium maritimumL,., 

 both now extinct on the north-east coast of Scotland, though so 

 described in old records as to preclude the supposition of error. 

 The Rev. E. S. Marshall suggests (in lift.) that both may have 

 been introduced in ballast, but the localities recorded negative 

 that conjecture ; and their known distribution renders their former 

 occurrence as recorded not improbable. Their disappearance 

 may have been due to both plants being so conspicuous as to 

 attract the attention of passers by, while so scarce as to have been 

 readily extirpated. It can scarcely be laid to the charge of 

 botanists or collectors, who were too few in the district in question 

 to have been dangerous to the plants. 



2. Species that have disappeared from certain localities owing 

 to the effects of altered conditions usually from drainage or culti- 

 vation. In this list may be included Dianthus Armeria L., pro- 

 bably native near Glencarse station, " entirely destroyed through 

 cultivation." Hypericum perforatum L., near Cromarty Nursery 

 (through cultivation). H. quadrangulum L. (" eaten by cattle or 

 trodden down," may it not have been overlooked?); Linncea 

 botealis Gron., " through cultivation," (the cutting down of the 



