34 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the bright oraDge Trcmella mesmterica, twisting and 

 curling its gelatinous substance into every conceiv- 

 able shape, and contrasting well with the blackened 

 surroundings. Lower down on the stems dense clusters 

 of llie beautiful -7^'. vchitipes, with dark brown, 

 velvety stem and rich orange-brown cap, shading 

 olT to yellow near the edge, formed the transition 

 step from the bright orange above to the rich brown 

 peat below. A search on the furze stems for the 

 remaining British Namatdia, N. viresccns was made, 

 and for some time without success ; at last, " I have 

 it," was heard at a distance, and in my hurry to see 

 what we had entered into a league to find, if possible, 

 before going home, caught my foot against a stump, 

 and " brought up," as the sailors say, in the very 

 heart of a dead furze-bush. The work of the next few 

 minutes can be more readily imagined than described. 

 After collecting my specimens, for, as a matter of 

 course, the vasculum flew open, we turned homewards, 

 the last thorn taken from a damp ditch yielding a 

 splendid group of PrototrichiaJlagcUifera. Altogether 

 sixty-two species of fungi were collected, also a few 

 mosses and lichens, and the day, although at a season 

 when pseudo-naturalists imagine there is nothing to 

 do in the country, proved one of the most enjoyable 

 of the many we have had together. 



George Massee. 



HOLIDAY RAMBLES 



In Far Kintail. 



By G. C. Druce, F.L.S., Hon. Sec. Oxfordshire 

 Nat. Hist. Soc. 



'"-pi 



*IiE wettest and coldest summer I can re- 

 member," said the guard of the Strome 

 train as, tired with the long journey, we got out at 

 Strome, the terminus of the West Ross-shire Railway, 

 which for the last few miles had run close by the side 

 of Loch Carron ; and we were by no means inclined 

 to contradict his statement, since, whether stopping at 

 Achnasheen, that focus of all the wind of the west, 

 or struggling down Glen Docharty against driving 

 rain or mist, when not even the sundews could look 

 cheerful, or the golden saxifrage bright, or simply 

 waiting for the sun that would not appear except in 

 fitful gleams that served only to reveal heavy showers 

 scudding across towards the east. Then again 

 dense whirling, driving mist, hiding Loch ^L1ree and 

 its grand rocky ramparts, then again cleared by some 

 mighty gust rushing over the lake, raising its waves 

 till they rolled in sea-like size, and blowing back 

 and upwards the waterfalls on Ben Slioch till the 

 mountain looked as if some huge peatfire were 

 smouldering in its corries, while the strangest con- 

 trasts of colours were seen along its slopes, as we 

 watched it from Kinlochewe, waiting for the summer 

 sunshine that did not come. So that when we heard 



at Strome that this made about the twenty-eighth 

 wet day our spirits fell almost as low as the 

 barometer, and our expectations of revealing great 

 treasures in Ross, faded more and more ; however 

 the evening was sufficiently clear to admit of a walk 

 back along the railway towards Attadale, the line 

 being made at the base of lofty hills which have been 

 here and there cut tlirough to form the line ; down 

 these hill slopes we counted in two miles twenty-one 

 waterfalls of respectable size, by whose sides grew 

 ferns in great profusion, principally common ones, 

 such as Filix-fccmina, dilatata, spimdosa, Blechimm, 

 AdiantHm-7iigriirH, Phegopteris, trichomancs, Cysto- 

 peris, Dryopteris, Oreopteris and Ruta-iiinraria^ 

 but in one place a great mass of Hymeno- 

 phyllum Wilsonii intermixed with Ilypnum triijuetriim 

 and splendens. Here and there a few globe-flowers 

 yet retained their lovely lemon-coloured petals, and 

 the yellow composite Crcpis paludosa was as common 

 as elsewhere in West Ross. The hawkweeds, A/igli- 

 cum and viilgatiim occurred on these rocks, which 

 also were enlightened here and there with the pretty 

 Scdicm A7igliat?ii ; here, too occurred the only Orchis 

 viasciila, Asperiila cdora/a, and Scilla initans noticed 

 in the vice-county. The shores of Loch Carron are 

 most decidedly rocky, and maritime rocks mean no- 

 great variety of flowers, Atriplcx Babingtonii and 

 Silene maritima being almost the only plants able to 

 subsist in this shingly home, but nearer Attadale the 

 stones became smaller and sufficiently mixed with mud 

 to form a little saltmarsh on which were found B/ysmns 

 rtifiis, Glaiix, Triglocliin marilimirm, Lipigomnn rit- 

 pestre, Cochlcaria officinalis, J^iiiiciis Gerardi, and Siicda 

 maritima. On the shingle were some fine specimens- 

 of Zostera t/iaritia, and brilliantly coloured Echini. 

 Here it will be well to explain that the principal 

 object in visiting West Ross was to make a list of all 

 plants met with, as it is almost the only county which, 

 has no record of its common plants in " Topographical 

 Botany," or in subsequent publications of the Botanical 

 Record Club, and Mr. Watson (whose recent death 

 all botanists must lament, the gap made being one 

 most difficult to fill) was very anxious to get Western 

 Ross worked before republishing " Topographical 

 Botany." 



To resume : the noting down of eveiy plant seen 

 led one to ponder over the absence of plants, 

 sometimes the almost unaccotintable absences ; for 

 instance, up to this time about a hundred miles had 

 been walked in West Ross without seeing Hdiaii- 

 ihcfmim vidgare, Crepis virciis, Silene iiijlata, or 

 Triticiim repcns. On the rail near Strome the three 

 latter were seen, as were also Arenaria serpyllifolia, 

 Cardamine kirsiita, Papaver argemotie, and Vicia 

 saliva, the four latter probably introduced. Iris Pseu- 

 dacortts was frequent ; here too for the first time were 

 noticed Arrhenatherjim avenaccimi, Siiiapis arvciisis, 

 Lapsana rare, Ileraclemn, the third Umbellifera seen. 

 Many plants, the commonest weeds in the South, were 



