458 WILD FLOWEBS OP 



proceeded to the base of the G-lyder Vawr, bearing up 

 along the bed of a torrent that had made sad havoc 

 with the entrails of the mountain. This course proved 

 exceedingly delightful, and was fraught with ever 

 varying interest. The torrent here spent itself in 

 threads of silver over precipitous ledges of rock, there 

 almost entirely lost amidst vast disrupted masses, 

 allowed its bed to be traversed with impunity ; again 

 gathering its waters to one head, with chafing roar, 

 it bounded athwart the declivities impatient of delay, 

 whirling its eddies in deep pools among the stones. 

 Now silent, now furious, now a brook and anon a 

 cataract, its vagaries gave a continual zest to the 

 ascent, especially where in some places it fell into 

 cavities whose perpendicular sides must be scaled ; 

 or tumbled in a hundred channels, where its vocal 

 waters, washing the smooth stones, rendered them too 

 slippery to bear the leaper in his passage from channel 

 to channel. Hence many a slip, many a plunge, mid- 

 leg deep in the mountain stream, and many a boister- 

 ous laugh. By the side of this torrent various highly 

 beautiful and delicate flowers were located, particularly 

 the Yellow "Welch Poppy (JMeconopsis Cambrica), still 

 in full flower, and that fairy gem with flowers of 

 stainless lustre, the Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia 

 palustris) . 



It would take up too much space to dilate upon all 

 the cryptogamous vegetation that exhibited itself 

 abundantly in this ravine, especially where bushes 

 garnished the edges of the rock; but a species of 

 Rivularia* had an extremely curious aspect on the 



* I believe identical with Rivularia calcarea of HOOKER'S British 

 Flora. The spongy crust of my specimens was very stiff, though not 

 absolutely stony j when dry of a greyish green, and not reviving again if 

 immersed. It appears calculated to exist for a long time. 



