26 The Scottish Naturalist. 



tain wood in September or October than the Rowan, with its 

 glowing vermillion berries, seen against a bright blue sky. In 

 former times, and even not so very long ago, the tree was 

 reputed sacred, and a sovereign charm against witchcraft. The 

 berries may be used in various ways, but chiefly for making a 

 jelly which is eaten with venison or mutton ; the flavour of this 

 jelly is very peculiar. Lightfoot says that in Jura the juice is 

 used as an acid for punch, and that in some places the high- 

 landers distil a very good spirit from the berries. According to 

 Evelyn, ale and beer used to be brewed from them, and was a 

 common and "incomparable drink" in Wales ; while Withering 

 reports that the berries, dried and ground, make wholesome 

 bread. In Strathspey, on May Day (the ancient Beltane), the 

 sheep used to, and perhaps may yet, be made to pass through 

 a hoop of Rowan wood. 



The White Beam (Pyrus aria L.) is rather rare in a wild 

 state, and scarcely merits notice as an edible fruit-bearer save 

 that the berries have, in the neighbourhood of Perth and else- 

 where, unaccountably acquired the name of mulberries (a fruit 

 entirely unlike the pomes of the White Beam), and are so called 

 by persons who should know better. 



All the above-named plants belong to the Rosacea; the next 

 order producing esculent wild fruits is the Grossulariacece, but 

 few of them have more than a doubtful claim to be considered 

 indigenous in Scotland. 



The Red Currant (Ribes rubrum L.), Mountain Currant 

 (R. alpimun L.), Black Currant (R. ?iigrum L.), and the 

 Gooseberry (R. grossularia L.), are the plants belonging to this 

 order that are included in the British list, but they are more 

 often found in a naturalized than in a really wild condition. 

 Whatever may be said for the others, R. alpinum is not usually 

 considered wild in Scotland ; and as the fruit is scarcely, from 

 its insipidity, worth eating, we need not consider it further at 

 present. The other species are too well known to need descrip- 

 tion. We may, however, note that the young leaves of the 

 Black Currant "tinge spirits so as to resemble brandy," and 

 that the "seeds of Gooseberries — washed, dried, roasted, and 

 ground — are a good substitute for coffee." 



The Elder, or Bour-tree (Sambucus nigra L.), is a well- 

 known plant, but so far north as this it appears to be doubtfully 

 indigenous, though common enough in many woods and hedges. 

 Several parts of the plant have been, and one of them still is, 



