266 Mr. J. T. Syme on some Plants observed in Orkney. XXVI. — Notice of some of the rarer Plants observed in Orkney during the Summer o/'1849. By John T. Syme, Esq.* Having passed tlie greater part of last summer in Orkney, and during that time having examined the natural history of the parts of it which I visited, I now lay before the Society a notice of a few of the rarer plants which I observed. I would have drawn up a list of all the species which I met with, but as I had opportunities of botanizing only in the southern part of the mainland and in the islands of Hoy, Burray and Flota, I have thought it advisable to defer this until I shall have made some acquaintance with the botany of the other islands, which I hope to accomplish next summer. The flora of Orkney is by no means extensive, and excepting some alpine plants which are found at a lower elevation than usual, it embraces very few species of interest ; — as is to be ex-pected from its bare and treeless condition and the uniformity of its geological formation; the old red sandstone, with here and there a trap-dyke, being the only rock to be met with ; while the incessant winds charged with saline particles and the low summer temperature forbid the growth of the more tender plants, as well as those which rise above the shelter of the sur-rounding vegetation. In addition to these adverse circumstances, by far the greater proportion of the ground is flat and moorish, which still more contributes to give a sameness to the vegetation ; so that I think we may account for the paucity of species from the physical con-ditions of the Orkney islands, without having recourse to any theory of centres of vegetation and migration of plants. 1 shall now proceed to give the names of the plants I met with, nearly in the order in which I noticed them, with the dates when the various trips were made, as extracted from my journal. On the 5th of June last, I went on board the screw steamer " Northman,^' at Leith, and after a tedious passage of forty hours, arrived in Kirkwall Bay. The morning was wet and windy, but being impatient to examine the botany and entomology of a district new to me, and feeling the desire of again walking on terra firma, as is natural to a landsman after a sea voyage of longer duration than he is accustomed to, I set out for Swan-bister, the place of my destination, about eight miles south-west of Kirkwall. I soon found, however, that novelties or even rarities were not to be expected, for I did not in the whole of my walk find a single plant worth drying. In the town of Kirkwall I saw Stachys ambigua (not yet in * Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Feb. 14, 1850.
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