X 
INTRODUCTION. 
from the meridian of Greenwich. It is bounded on the N. 
and N.W. by Aberdeenshire, on the N.E. by Kincardine- 
shire, on the E. and S.E. by the German Ocean, on the S. 
by the River Tay, and on the W. and S.W. by Perthshire. 
Its area is computed to contain 840 square miles, or 537,600 
English acres, about 200,000 of which are under cultivation ; 
and its surface is highly diversified, both as respects eleva- 
tion and soil ; hence the native vegetation is varied and in- 
teresting. 
The Rev. Mr Headrick, in his survey of the county, di- 
vides it into four districts — the coast, the Sidlaw Hills, the 
valley of Strathmore, and that portion of the Grampian 
mountains which it includes. The maritime district extends 
from Invergowrie bay to the mouth of the North Esk, four 
miles N.E. from Montrose. From nearly Invergowrie to 
Craigo, two miles E. from Dundee, the banks of the Tay are 
abrupt and rocky; and near Broughty Ferry a singular 
ridge of rocks called the Hare Craigs, present some plants 
peculiar to the mountain district, as Cochlearia gra-nlandica , 
Parmelia conspersa, Gyrophora polyphylla , &c., inter- 
mingled with heaths and the usual coast-plants. From 
Broughty to Arbroath the coast is low and sandy ; and one 
portion of it, the Sands of Barrie, extending from Monifieth 
to Carnoustie, forms a kind of delta, the extreme point of 
which, sea- wards, rises abruptly into a considerable sand-hill, 
known as “ Button-ness.’’ These sands have formerly been 
«/ 
under water, and no doubt, at some remote period, the base of 
the terrace that bounds them on the north was washed by the 
ocean waves. The surface is in some places flat and covered 
with pasturage, or marshy ; in others, diversified with nume- 
rous swelling knolls and ridges, either of bare sand, or 
clothed with mosses, lichens, and maritime grasses. Culti- 
vation is gradually advancing southwards over this sandy 
tract, and probably, in a few years, fields and gardens will 
occupy the place now claimed by Juncus Balticus, Ammo- 
phila arundinacea, and such like plants. At present, how- 
ever, it affords a rich field to the botanist, who will here find, 
