The Scottish Naturalist. 



263 



RECORDS OF SCOTTISH PLANTS FOR THE YEAR 1889; 

 ADDITIONAL TO " TOPOGRAPHICAL BOTANY," Ed. 2. 



By Arthur Bennett, F.L.S. 



THE following records are such as have come under my own 

 notice, or appeared in the Scottish Naturalist, the Journal 

 of Botany, and the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edin- 

 burgh since the publication of my list of records for 1888. 



In the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh I 

 ventured to assert that I thought these records would, in the 

 future, show a considerable falling off in numbers year by year. 

 This present list shows that I was right, as I have in it only about 

 220 to report, against more than 500 in the list for 1888. 



After another year's work it may be worth while to print a list 

 of those plants whose distribution is not given in detail in Topo- 

 graphical Botany, but which are now wanting for few counties, as, 

 since the second edition appeared (1883), the number of these 

 has been very largely reduced, so that they are now few in 

 number. 



The occurrence and records of plants are intimately connected 

 with their extinction or disappearance. I have myself not much 

 faith in the reported extinctions ; for while it cannot be denied 

 that such do occur, I do not believe it is in anything like the 

 reported ratio ; still in these acquisitive days such reports may, 

 though untrue, be of use in protecting rare species ; and thus 

 error may lead to actual good. 



The editor has very ably criticised the Report of the Committee 

 of the British Association, " On the Disappearance of Native 

 Plants " ; but it may be a question whether he has been suffici- 

 ently severe on its shortcomings. One or two of the errors it 

 contains are hardly becoming to a Scientific Committee. 



I follow the mode of record of last year, commencing with the 

 southern counties. 



Abbreviations: Scot. Nat., means the Scottish Naturalist; J.B., the 

 Journal of Botany ; 1\B.S.E., the Transactions of the Botanical Society of 

 Edinburgh ; sp. denotes that the writer possesses a specimen from the locality 

 in question ; ! denotes that he has seen and verified a specimen, but has 

 returned it to the collector. 



