172 



HA RDWI CJ^E ' S S CIENCE - G SSI P. 



beyond the gorge, on dry banks above the village, 

 Aiidropogon IschcEtmim. At Schwarzenegg, on the 

 road to Berne, is a boggy marsh producing several 

 good sedges : Ildconastcs, limosa, filiformis ; with 

 Scheuchzeria pahistris ; Vacciitiiun tiliginosttvi ; An- 

 dromeda polifolia ; Eriophoron alpinum ; gracile. Sec. 



MY FIRST VISIT TO THE HEART OF THE 

 GRAMPIANS. 



Part II. 



A FEW warm and deceitfully genial days towards 

 the end of September, induced me to bid fare- 

 well to the bright vale of Clyde, and to plunge into 

 the stern and gloomy desolation of that most ancient 

 country of the Grampians ; there to dwell for a time 

 with the foxes, ptarmigan and white hares, among the 

 grey micaceous stones, grey water, and greyer skies 

 of the Rannoch district. High perched as is this 

 Celtic tarn, some 668 feet above the sea level, its un- 

 ruly waves are ever surging to the wind ; so that hard 

 winters, like that of 1880, transpire without wholly 

 disfiguring with ice the fair mirror of summer, leaving 

 at the worst of seasons a recollection of delight for 

 the casual wayfarer. Yet although the birches hung 

 bright in gold and purple sheen, welcoming me to the 

 land of mountains, and glens, and of heroes ; late 

 autumn glistered with but transient smile on favoured 

 Rannoch, and wind and tempest soon closed in a 

 proverbially wet and disastrous year in the Highlands. 

 Indeed the only ascent of any interest I undertook 

 was a climb with an acquaintance of mine up the 

 burniethat pours over the rugged flank of Schiehallion, 

 a mountain that raises its bald and fairly conical head 

 to an elevation of some 3547 feet above the sea level. 

 We set off to the task nerved with strong determin- 

 ation. At the foot of the water-course {d, in view) we 

 entered a small gully, where the junction of some slate 

 layers, perhaps of great age, with a superimposed 

 sandstone was seen ; and then, as we ascended, rounded 

 blocks of purple stone, apparently clay-slate, very solu- 

 ble in water, and what appeared interesting containing 

 fragments of a coarse granite embedded in their mass 

 were from time to time observed. Grown weary with 

 the rocks we next commenced to clamber after the , 

 mountain plants that hung from the damp crevices of 

 the waterfalls. Here we picked a late blooming 

 yellow saxifrage, and there tore down the elegant 

 sprays of an old world lycopod, one of the last of its 

 clan. How has this mighty forest of the coal period 

 perished on these mountains, that now cherish the 

 last traces of their former beauty in their dwarf ferns, 

 horse-tails, and club-mosses ! Yet what a terrible 

 time of ague a life in a dripping coal forest would 

 have been to us mortals ! The more modish waxen 

 leaves and glossy berries of the alpine creepers next 

 incited the curiosity of my companion, so we turned 

 a-berry hunting. On the rocky ledges the blae- 



berries shot up higher in the shade ; and among the 

 decaying crimson of the heather, the inky crowberry 

 {Empetriun nigritni) bristled thick. Here and there 

 a tuft of the smooth scarlet bearberry {Arctostaphylos 



Fig. 118.— Scarlet '&^2x\i&XTy (ArctosiaphyJos Uva-ursi.) 



Fig. 119. — Moth [Pachnoliia hyperborea). 



Uva-ursi) trailed its waxen 

 sprays, and I think I noticed 

 too the leaf of the bramble- 

 like cloudberry, called by 

 northern poets the Grampian 

 Edelweiss. The bog-bilberry, 

 cowberry, cranberry and 

 black bearberry were how- 

 ever wanting, and to obtain 

 the latter, I expect we should 

 have had to proceed as far 

 as the scalped back of 

 the Athole Sow. At least 

 so saith the author of the 

 " Berries of Rannoch." 



Of these berries the crow- 

 berry must be especially 

 interesting to evolutionists. 

 We in this case notice all the 

 margins of, let us suppose 

 the original leaves, syste- 

 matically doubled over and 

 joined beneath with a white 

 line of cellular tissue, as 

 if they had been thus sealing-waxed. What agency 

 can have been at work on such nicknacks the wisest is 

 left to guess. Berries naturally seek a foil in ferns, but 



Fig. 120. — Crowberry 

 {Empetrian nigrjan). 



