NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE ISLAND OF BARRA. 185 



and the vegetation all abont is rank. Here, a little 

 above the shore, Osmunda regalis is seen in 

 frequent patches, while Nymphcea alba adorns 

 the lochlets and Littorella lacustris fringes their 

 margins. 



On the north — the seemingly more protected side 

 — are two or three large farms, one held by the 

 family of a brother of the late well-known naturalist, 

 Professor Macgillivray of Aberdeen. The tide recedes 

 here to a considerable distance. 



The western exposure is of quite another character, 

 for, excepting at the bold south headland of Doir- 

 linn, which runs out in the teeth of the Atlantic, 

 it consists of a stretch of sandhills and light pastoral 

 land known as " machir land " where the crops are 

 said to ripen a fortnight earlier than in Skye. 

 The soil consists largely of minute fragments of 

 sea-shells, and of the dust of two species of land 

 shells — Helix ericetorum and Bulimus acutus — which 

 are to be seen alive in myriads among the herbage 

 and grass. 



This sandy tract presented in July the appearance 

 of a garden, so richly was it ornamented with such 

 wild flowers as Papaver dubium in brightest scarlet, 

 Lotus corniculatus in brilliant yellow, Cakile inari- 

 tiina in delicate purple, Erodium cicutarium in 

 rosy red, Lycopsis arvensis in deepest blue, and 

 Matricaria inodora in milk-white and gold. These, 

 with many others, were all in abundance, while 

 the elegant foliage of Thalictrum minus caught the 

 eye here and there. 



Close to the western side, and yet only a mile 

 and a half from Castle Bay, is the Tangusdale Loch 

 whose level is very little above that of the sea. It 

 is more than half surrounded by a sandy shore, and 

 has its surface so sheeted over with the reddish- 

 green leaves of Potamogeton natans that from a 

 neighbouring hill-top we seem to look down on a 

 sandbank left bare. In the water, at one side was 

 a belt of Myriophyllum of the two species spicatum 



