76' The Scottish Naturalist. 



chrijsopkyliu}?i, and Tjichosiu/nuin neglectum Wils. MS. Much more 

 unexpected than any of these was the fungus Amanita vaginata, var. ritfa, 

 growing in a sheUered corner without a single bush within a mile of it, a 

 discovery which astonished me as much as my finding Rnssula emetica 

 growing with Mulgediutii alpinum^ within a few hundred feet of the summit 

 of Lochnagar ! A rarer fungus got a little lower down was Puccinia 

 bistortcv, a species which had been got shortly before in England. * In Glen- 

 clunie it was very scarce, only a few specimens having been seen. 



After spending two good hours there, I took the road again, and scarce 

 slackened pace until the top of the Cairnwell was reached. It is the scene 

 of many a thrilling story of Catrins and funerals in the olden time, a weird 

 and lonely place, Avith the appearance of graves and the smell of ghosts 

 about it. Here too one is within a hundred yards or so of that dreadful place 

 *'The Devil's Elbow," and unconsciously finds himself keeping a sharp 

 look out, and hurrying onwards with a creeping, electric sensation about 

 his scalp, and with his hat actually rising an inch or two above its usual 

 place of rest. No botanist has ever had the courage to prosecute his studies 

 there for more than a minute or two at a time. For my part, after 

 *' putting myself outside of something " at the well to sustain my courage, 

 and snatching from the way side a leaf oiAlchemilla covered with Uromyces 

 I sped onwards until the cheerful green hills of Glenshee and the whole of 

 Glenbeg came into full view. Half way down the southern slope of the hill, 

 limestone again becomes conspicuous, and once more an ineffectual search 

 was made for Anacalypta. Quantities of TorUtla io'tuosa in fruit were 

 found here, however, and lower down I found lortida Hornschuchiana^ veiy 

 far above the limits at which I had supposed it stopped. It is quite a rare 

 Scottish species. 



By this time the sun had gone down behind Cor-hee. The light was 

 beginning to fade away from the sky. Suddenly a tliick summer-evening 

 mist filled the glen to the top of the Glasmhaol and Ben-Ghuilipin. The 

 blackrheaded sea-gulls from Loch-nan-ean, and the white-headed ones from 

 Loch Bainie, had lost their way in it, and, fearing that they could not get 

 home before morning, were flying; about, east and \^'est, up and down 

 north and south, in the wildest distraction, and screaming like mad. As I 

 walked down the glen, I felt that, after all, the man who has beneath his 

 feet a good firm road along which many wayfarers have passed before him 

 is vastly better off than those creatures who seek a pathway in the air or in 

 the sea. At last, in the gi'ey gloaming, I reached the Manse of Glenshee, 

 which a friend of mine had taken for. summer lodgings for a few weeks, 

 and after being made very comfortable, slept the sleep \vhich is too sweet 

 and sound for dreams. 



* We gathered Puccinia histortoi in Braemar three or four yeai-s ago. — 

 YA). Sc. Nat. 



