JOTTINGS ON THE MOUNTAINS. 339 
ture constellations, adorning the dark recesses among the moulder- 
ing débris. Veronica alpina, Epilobium alpinum and alsinifolium, Ca- 
rex atrata and pallescens, Saussurea alpina, Thalictrum alpinum here 
display their richest luxuriance. The first however seems to delight 
more in the dry grassy banks along the streams, and where the grass is 
not too close; and in such situations on the banks of the White Water 
it grows abundantly and very fine. 
On reaching the summit, the peaty flats supplied us with Rubus Cha- 
memorus and Cornus Suecica in fruit, and Vaccinium uliginosum in 
flower and fruit; these however seldom ripen, and generally drop off at - 
the first touch of the sacrilegious hand of the gatherer. 
Splachnum sphericum was plentiful on the bare peaty soil, and at 
each end of the shankbone of a deer a tuft of the small form of the S. 
mnioides occurred, and on a bank close by a fine tuft of S. angustatum. 
It is curious to observe the predilections of plants for certain localities. 
These elevated and spongy moors are the chosen habitat of Rubus Cha- 
memorus, yet in sheltered hollows, and in places where by a species of 
natural drainage the peat has been converted into a more genial soil, 
the Rubus displays a far more luxuriant foliage and a more tempting 
fruit; here however the fruit will hardly be ripe before the end of 
September. 
On the west side of the stream between Craig Mair and Craig Ken- 
net, a little before its descent into Glen Dole, Hypnum revolvens was 
fructifying abundantly. At the northern base of a dripping rock, be- 
tween the Fealah Burn and the White Water, where large patches of 
snow still cooled the atmosphere around, Thalictrum alpinum was only 
yet coming into flower. Between this and the White Water, in hollows 
among the boulders, Polypodium alpestre was first met with, but the 
fronds were delicate and the fruit scarce. On crossing the White Water 
however, near the shieling of Linkar, it occurred in abundance, pre- 
senting all the ordinary forms in the frond of Athyrium Filix-femina. 
Some of the fronds were tall, rigid, the rachis of a pitchy-brown colour, - 
the pinne and pinnule distant and more or less decurved ; others 
were broader, of a pale-green colour and delicate texture, the pinne 
and pinnule flat and more approximated. The fronds were here of 
larger size than anywhere else, either in Glen Dole, Glen Fiadh, Glen 
Callater, or Lochnagar, and the fruit more abundant. 
On descending the stream between Craig Maid and Craig Rennet 
