22 The Scottish Naturalist. 



a prominent place in future Reports. We have much pleasure in making 

 this request known in hope that it may come under the notice of botanists 

 not yet members of the Club. 



The Recorder then alludes to various additions to the County Records, 

 to the General Locality-list, to the list of Re-appearances and Extinctions, 

 and to the list of Aliens, Casuals, and Escapes — all these lists being given 

 in the remaining 22 pages of the Report. We are glad to observe the 

 record of the re-appearance of that very rare British orchid Cypripedium 

 Calceohis, which was found in plenty in 1873-74 in two denes in Durham 

 (the names of which "though not withheld are for obvious reasons sup- 

 pressed") neither of which is the old recorded station for this plant — 

 Castle Eden Dene. " Like Epipactis," says one of the discoverers, "the 

 Cypripedium seems to lie dormant in shade, and only springs up when the 

 sun gets to the ground" by the cutting down of trees and underwood. 



THE EDIBLE WILD PKUITS OF SCOTLAND. 



By F. BUCHANAN WHITE, M.D., F.L.S. 



DEEP in the hearts of all men, however high may be the 

 culture to which they have attained, or however wrapt 

 they may be in those pursuits— be they politics, or commerce, 

 or literature — which seem farthest removed from all communion 

 with nature — deep in all hearts (often indeed so deep, that 

 seldom or never does it consciously reveal itself) there lurks, 

 I believe, a love of the beauty of things in a wild and free 

 state, unaffected by any human influence. Thus it is that the 

 wild grandeur of the mountains, and the almost monotonous 

 immensity of the sea, are so attractive ; and it is doubtless this 

 same feeling which makes it so difficult to effect the civilization 

 — within a few generations at least — of savage tribes. 



But, in civilized nations, it is the naturalist — not the mere 

 classifier of species, nor he who gathers together a collection of 

 objects of natural history as he would a collection of postage 

 stamps, coins, or old china, but the true lover of nature — who 

 is the chief inheritor of this love of the wild freshness of the 

 earth's morning, still lingering on the mountain's side, in the 

 depths of the primeval forest, or amidst the waves of ocean. 

 And thus it seems to me that to the naturalist, wild flowers and 

 fruits will always be more beautiful and attractive than all the 

 richest treasures of the garden. 



But a comparison should scarcely be made, perhaps, between 

 wild fruits and those which have become subject to man. The 

 whole character of the latter has become changed ; the bitter 



