38 Dr. Balfour's Botanical Excursion. 



on the Clyde, but I have not been able to see it in that locality. I 

 have gathored the plant abundantly near Oxford and in other parts of 

 England, but I never before picked it in Scotland. 



The shore on the south side of Loch Gruinart is partly gravelly 

 and partly sandy. The sand occurs near the Nave, and on the west 

 shore exposed to the Atlantic. The dunes of sand in this quarter 

 attain a great elevation, and are as usual kept together by grasses 

 and sedges. In* lint fields near Gruinart, Camelina sativa was ob- 

 served, and on the sandy shores Draba incana, Gentiana campestris 

 and Amarella, and Arabis hirsuta. Scutellaria galericulata grew 

 profusely among the pebbles on the shore, Papaver Argemone and 

 dubium, in sandy fields, and Juncus maritimus in salt marshes ; in 

 moist places near the loch, Callitriche verna and pedunculata, Po- 

 tamogeton pusillus and crispus, Helosciadium inundatum, Myriophyl- 

 lum spicatum, and Scirpus glaucus. 



Loch Gruinart has a sandy bottom, and it is nearly emptied when 

 the tide is low. Sand-banks exist in many places, and on these we 

 saw numerous seals sporting in the sun. The tide flows here with 

 great rapidity. At the mouth of the loch a bar of sand extends across, 

 and at its head there is an alluvial plain. The shores to the south- 

 west of the point of the Nave are rocky and inhospitable, and exhibit 

 reefs of various extent The cliffs become more elevated as we pro- 

 ceed south, and caves occur in many places. The interior of the 

 island in the neighbourhood of Loch Gruinart is composed of boggy 

 and peaty soil, furnishing such plants as Droseras, Rhynchospora 

 alba, and Utricularia minor. On Nave island Crambe maritima is 

 said to grow. 



In this part of the island there are the ruins of the old church of 

 Kilnave. It is a building of considerable antiquity, and seems to 

 have had only two windows, the arches of which are very peculiar. 

 In the churchyard there is an old stone cross, which differs in the 

 curvature of the cross portion from those which are seen at Campbel- 

 ton and in Iona. 



August 2 Is*.— Early this morning I started for Bally tarson, and 

 gathered Anthemis nobilis in abundance. This plant is by no means 

 common in Scotland. In Islay it occurs in several places, and 

 always associated with limestone rock. After breakfast we prepared 

 for a visit to the south-eastern district of the island, but the stormy 

 nature of the weather caused no small alarm to some of the party, 

 and the number of zealous botanists willing to encounter a long and 

 and wet walk was found to be very small. One of the party preferred 

 botanizing near Ealabus, within sound of the dinner-bell. Undis- 

 mayed by the desertion of friends, our little band proceeded in one of 

 Mr. Chiene's conveyances as far as Kintra, at the southern extremity 

 of Laggan sands, and thence walked towards the Oo. On the sands 

 the chief plants were Convolvulus Soldanella, Poa pratensis var. 



