N.S. Vol. XXII. THE TRANSACTIONS AND Journal of Proceedings DUMFRIESSHIRE AND GALLOWAY Natural History and Antiquarian Society FOUNDED NOVEMBER. 1862. SESSION 1909-1910. PRINTED AT THE STANDARD OFFICE, DUMFRIES, and PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 1911. N.S. Vol. XXII. THE TRANSACTIONS Journal of Proceedings DUMFRIESSHIRE AND GALLOWAY Natural History and Antiquarian Society FOUNDED NOVEMBER, 1662 SESSION 1909-1910. PRINTED AT THE STANDARD OFFICE, DUMFRIES, and PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 1911. — — — Office=Bearers for 1909=1910. President H. S. Gladstone of Capenoch, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. Honorary Vice-Presidents. James Barbour, F.S.A.Scot., Dumfries. J. F. CoRMACK, Solicitor, Lockerbie. John M'Kie, R.N., Kirkcudbright. Dr Ja:\ies Maxwell Ross, Duntrune, Dumfries. Robert Service, M.B.O.U., Dumfries. Professor G. F. Scott-Elliot, M.A., B.Sc, F.R.G.S., F.L.S., Newton, Dumfries. Vice-Presidents. William Dickie, Merlewood, Dumfries. James Lennox, Provost of Dumfries, F.S.A.Scot., Edenbank, Dumfries. Dr J. W. Martin, Charterhall, Newbridge, Dumfries. Dr VV. Semple, M.A., B.Sc, Ph.D., Mileash, Dumfries. Honorary Secretary. Samuel Arnott, F.R.H.S., Sunnymead, Dumfries. Honorary Treasurer. M. H. M'Kerrow, Solicitor, 43 Buccleuch Street, Dumfries. Honorary Librarian and Curator of Museum. George W. Shirley, Ewart Public Librarj', Dumfries. Honorary Departmental Curators. Antiquities John M. Corrie. Coins and Tokens Rev. H. A. Whitelaw. Natural History—Dr J. W. Martin. (leology Robert Wallace. Herbarium —Miss Hannay and Professor Scott-Elliot. Honorary Secretary Pliotograpliic Committee. W. A. Mackinnel, The Shieling, Dumfries. Members of Council. The President ; Honorary Vice-Presidents ; Vice-Presidents ; Secretary ; Treasurer ; Librarian : and Curators ; and the following —Rev. H. A. Whitklaw, W. a. Mackinnel, J. B. W^addell, James Houston, Peter Stobie, James Davidson, J. P. Milligan, R. Wallace, Frank Miller, Miss M. Carlyle Aitken. —— — — ———— — —— CODSTTEITTS. SESSION 1909-10. PAGE. Office-Bearers for 1909-10 3 Annual Meeting 9 Dust and its Importance to Plant Life Pr-ofessor G. F. Scott-EUiot ... 9 The History of the Scottish Peat Mosses Professor F. J. Lewis ... 19 The Place Names of Irongray Bev. S. Dtmloj) ... ... ... ... 20 The Natural Regeneration of Forests Frank Scott ... ... ... 24 Presidential Address Htigh S. Gladstone .. ... ... .. ... 31 Notes on the Sex Problem in Birds— Hn/jh S. Gladstone ... ... ... 35 Rev. James Thomson of Quarrelwood Reformed Presbyterian Church Bev. W. M'Dowall 43 Dry Rot in Timber James Barbour ... ... ... ... 49 The Scalacronica (Sir Thomas Gray), II. —Dr ^. J. C/iinnof^' ... ... 56 Charters relating to Lincluden College Dr E. J. Chinnock .. 83 Notes on the British Starling Bohert Service 100 Some Wild or Common Fragrant Plants—& ^r??o« 103 J. R. Wilson, Sancjuhar, Memorial Notice ... ... ... ... ... 108 The Ruthwell Cress and the Story it has to Tell Ber. J. L. Dinwiddie 109 Weather and Natural History Notes for 1909—/. 7?M<Ae»;/brd 122 Scenes from the Northern Sagas B. Bremner ... 126 The Geology of the Cluden Basin and its Relation to the Scenery B. Wallace 128 X-Rays Photography—X)r /. Z). i?o?wo»i 137 Notes on Out-door Plant Photography— & ^r«o<< 137 Some Incidents in Troqueer, 1690-1710— G. W.Shirley 138 Autobiographical Notes by Thomas Murray, with Further Notes— J. A. Fairley ... 162 Eskdale and the Western Border— /. W. Beid 192 — — 6 Contents. The Stamps of (4reat Britain —i/'Mg'/KS'. Gladstone ... Trawling in the Solway— \V. H. Armistead Buittle James Affleck The Kelhead Fossils and their Significance R. Wallace Potter's Marks on Samian Ware—Bev. H. A . Whitelaio Field Meetings— Comlongon Castle and Ruth well „ Stapleton Tower Castle ,, Ken mure Presentations Exhibits Exchanges... Members of the Society Index EDITORIAL XOTES. The contributors of the papers are alone responsible for statements the and views expressed therein, and pubHcation is not ^' '"'' '^"^ concurrence '"^ of the Society or the Editor Rainfall Records for 1909-10 will be found in the previous volume, pp. 210-213. ^''"'' '° ^acknowledge °!< his indebtedness to the EditorsFH-/^'"Offthef "Dumfries and Galloway " Standard," Dumf rie! and Galloway Conner and Herald," and "Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser or reports of meetings; also to Miss Harkness for typing the Inde.x. All communications regarding the ^^ purchase of copies of the ' "^ P'-"'"' °^ '""""^ subscriptions should sentsentT!r'°S' be to the Honorary Treasurer, Mr M. H. M'Kerrow, 43 Buc- cleuch Street, Dumfries. Exchanges, Presentations, and Exhibits should be sent to ^''"""" '""^^-^' ""''''' ^"^^- Library, Dlfrie": °' '" G. W. S. o, ,, , 31st March, 1911. Proceedings and Transactions OP THE DUMFRIESSHIRE AND GALLOWAY NflTURflL HISTORY X ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. SEsszonsr iqoq-io. 20th October, 1909. ANNUAL MEETING. Chairman—Mr William Dickie, V.P. The Secretary and Treasurer submitted their annual reports ' which were approved of. As Professor Scott-Elliot desired to be relieved of the duties of President, Mr Hugh S. Gladstone was appointed to that posi- tion. ^ On the recommendation of the Council the Olfice-bearers were appomted for the Session (See p. 3). Dust and its Importance to Plant Life. By Professor G. F. Scott-Elliot. In some parts of Switzerland, and at certain seasons of the year enormous clouds of pollen are blown from the pine forests much of this falls into the lakes, and great quantities are up carried to the snowfields and black rocky precipices of the Alps, so that one would think at first that there must be an appalling o wasie pollen, for surely but one pollen grain in a hundred thousand lulhls the purpose for which it was made. But a very sure rule in the working of plant life is that anv- 10 Dust and its Importance to Plant Life. thing which may be of value is never lost, and this rule applies even to these apparently lost pollen grains. For in the snow solitudes of the Alps there is an interesting series of organisms contrived to make the best of this wandered pollen, and one specially adapted to live in these cold and incle- ment altitudes. Not only the snow alga (Chlamydomonas nivalis) but a special insect and a snow mould fungus will together utilise all the nitrogeneous and other material which will again reappear as rich fertilising silt in the water of some small Alpine rivulet. The stigonemas and lichens which cover rock precipices and pinnacles depend for their foodsalts upon chance pollen and similar stuff brought by the rain and wind. In the lakes also the annual harvests of plankton algae and of the minute animals which feed on them cannot be uninfluenced by the masses of pollen which decay in the water. But my object to-night is to trace what happens to those pollen grains which fall upon the foliage of other plants. It is, of course, unnecessary to confine myself to the pollen, which is only part, though by no means a negligible constituent, of atmospheric dust. This dust is of a most interesting dix'ersity. Part of it im- doubtedly once belonged to other worlds than ours, having, perhaps, followed in a comet's train or formed part of some shattered planet. Other dust particles have been extracted from the earth's interior by the great volcanic eruptions of South America or Japan. Deserts, ordinary sand dunes, and motorcars also furnish contingents to it. I have myself seen a steamer's deck covered with fine dust from the Sahara although we were many miles from the African coast. The usual trades' dust is, however, composed of minute algse (Tricho derma Hildebrandtii var atlantica), allied to the form which is responsible for the name of the Red Sea.* The household fires of Glasgow and of other great cities contribute many carbon and other particles which have been detected even on mountains several miles away.f But, wherever it has been examined, a very large proportion of the dust is found to be of animal or vegetable origin. The ingenious researches of Pasteur, Miguel, Hansen, Aitken, and * Reinsch, 1904. t Aitken. ; Dust and its Importance to Plant Life. 11 " ' Saito have also shown that the motes ' existing in it are always changing. Even when two flasks are placed side by side and their air contents examined at the same time, the results may be utterly different. One flask may contain many motes and germs, whilst the other has a very small number, and there may not be any similarity in the character of the motes themselves. It is possibly safe to say that for three or four thousand feet above our heads the air is full of motes, and especially of spores some are floating by themselves, others are entangled in " clouds." They are all apparently moving not only because they do not quite travel with the earth's rotation, but because bodies so light and minute are at once set in motion by any the slightest current or eddy in the air and by the very faintest breath of wind. There is a continual supply of such spores and of germs. A piece of decaying material, say, for instance, the drying sputum of a consumptive person, if left upon the street, will give off bacteria which may be carried up and in at a fifth storey window. Professor Cieslar has shown that the spores of the larch disease fungus may be blown up by air currents to a height of sixty feet above the earth. Yet no such estimates are at all reliable, for, when once launched in the atmosphere, there is no assignable limit to the voyaging of a dust particle, for it might quite well travel three times round the earth and come to rest anywhere upon its surface. Many curious facts of distribution are best explained by these considerations. Thus the snow alga mentioned above occurs not only on the Alps but on the Andes and even on Ruwenzori.* Certain mosses and lichens are found not only in the Arctic but also in the Antarctic region, and though there are a few lonely mountain summits between the North and South Pole on which they may occur, yet there are wide intervals over which they were probably carried by the wind or possiblv bv birds, t When rain is about to fall the drops condense upon a dust particle and carry down with them many others whilst falling.