Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

56 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY
BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS.
Stellaria nemorum, Z., and S. aquatiea, Scop. Although in
Scotland the first-named species does not seem to be recorded
farther north than 57 30', there seems no reason why
it should not
be found, and I think it
probable that it was this plant that was
found by Robert Dick (Smiles's "Life," p. 338) on the banks of the
river Thurso.
In Lapland it was found at K011e, 70 55' N. Lat., by Mr. P.
Sewell ! it occurs in Finland and Russian ;
Lapland up to 69 40';
"abundant in the birch region at Kongas and at Menikka, 69 26"
(Wainio, in "Flora Lap. find.," 1891, p. 61). In Sweden, extending
up to Nordland ;
in Norway ;
in South and North Norway up to
71 7' (Mager0) ;
and last, Finmark.
In the " Compend. Cyb. Brit.," p. 122, 400 yards is given as
its highest elevation in Britain (Humber) ; but the Rev. E. S.
Marshall found it in 1892 at 3000 feet in Aberdeen 1 : so that its
altitudinal range is considerable.
Stellaria aguatica, Scop., entered by Lowe among the plants of
Orkney, does not extend so far north as nemorum. I have seen
specimens gathered by Messrs. Stirling and Kidston in Stirlingshire,
and it is
reported from Lanark, Roxburgh, and Forfar but I know
;
of no recent confirmations of these counties. In Finland this
occupies a belt extending up to 62 N. Lat., and from about 20
to 38 E. Long. In South Norway it extends only to 63 28'; and
in Sweden north to Gefleborgs lau about 62.
In Russia it extends north to the Government of St. Petersburg,
while nemorum extends to the Kola peninsula (67 N. Lat.).
Both occur in Denmark ;
but neither is recorded from the
Faroes or Iceland.
Only nemorum appears in Sir J. D. Hooker's " Outline of the
Distribution of Arctic Plants." Of this, written forty years ago, we
much want a new edition.
Thus aquatiea seems to bear out elsewhere its climatal distribution
in
Britain.
I trust that any botanist going far north in Scotland will keep
these two plants in his mind. A. BENNETT.
Spergula arvensis, L., in Scotland. Mr. G. Nicholson drew
attention in 1880, in the "Journal of Botany" (pp. 16-19), to the
forms that occur in Britain, and stated that of the two (sativa and
vulgaris), sativa alone was known to him from Scotland, where
he had sought for vnlgaris in the shires of Edinburgh, Perth, and
Aberdeen without success. Mr. G. C. Druce, in the "Journal of
Botany "in 1889 (pp. 173-175), named a large number of counties of
1
"Journal of Botany," p. 229, 1893.