The northern flora, or, A description of the wild plants belonging to the north and east of Scotland, with an account of their places of growth and properties. Part. 1 / by Alexander Murray.

Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The northern flora, or, A description of the wild plants belonging to the north and east of Scotland, with an account of their places of growth and properties. Part. 1 / by Alexander Murray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    uiANDUiA.] PINGUICULA. U that the last-named species is never observed ; whereas P. Lusitanica may be there called a common plant. Pinguicula alpina has only been recently added to the British Flora, and is at present con- sidered exclusively confined to the stations mentioned, which are, I understand, all in the Black Isle. Having received the following information regarding the discovery of this species, it may be introduced, as the usual accounts are not entirely correct. Mr. G. Campbell Smith, Land-surveyor at Banff— who possesses an useful combination of botanical with professional zeal, which leads him to embrace the opportunities afforded by his ordinary duties, of directing some attention to the native produc- tions of the tracts with which he is occupied—first observed Pin- guicula alpina, in June, 1831, upon the Rosehaugh property (part of the Black Isle of Ross, lying between the Friths of Beauly and Cromarty), which he was then surveying for Sir James W. Mac- kenzie. Mr. Smith communicated his specimens to Mr. Gordon, Minister of Birnie, who visited the quarter mentioned during the same summer; and, subsequently, other discerning botanists had an opportunity of inspecting the plants, gathered either by Mr. Gordon or Mr. Smith, but these not being closely examined, were merely regarded as P. Lusitanica from a new and remarkable ha- bitat.* The credit of ascertaining this to be a new Pinguicula is due to Mr. H. C. Watson, who decided it to be P. alpina of Lin- nseus. The distinctions of our three species, as given in the Species Plantarum of Linnaeus, are indeed very simple, relating mainly to the nectary or spur, which is cylindrical in the 1st, conical in the 2d, and thickened at the point in the 3d. It has been said that the late G. Don met with P. alpina either in Aberdeenshire or Angus ; and Lightfoot (Appendix, p. 1133.) ob- serves, Pinguicula alpina is said to have been found in Orkney, , and between Erwin and Air, in moist ground plentifully; but these statements stand in need of confirmation, particularly as Lightfoot is not very correct regarding names in this genus, and indeed the same thing may be said of Linnaeus himself. In the above species of Pinguicula the flowers and scapes have no little similarity; and the leaves of all are radical, rolled in at the margin, and more or less overspread with small crystalline bodies. The name of this genus is thought to come Uompinguis, fat; owino- to the greasy feel of the leaves. The leaves of common Butterwori have been applied to sore nipples. It is mentioned in the cheap and interesting Florigraphia Briiannica that they are put into broth by the common people in Wales, and taken as a cathartic f ; also, • It is undoystood that Sir .James Smitl. also mistook for the LusUanica, speci- mens of P. alpi7ia, sent to him by Mr. Mackav, in 1794, from Sky t Since tl.e above vvas written, I have met with a similar remark by Ray, who adduces st.ll older authority for it. Cambrobritanni (teste Parkinsono) ex h ba 'ynipum confici«iit, quo seipsos purgant. '^'sono; ex n( i oa B
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