Botanical Eoocursions into ilie Highlands. 35S' 



of its seeds if it could ripen tliem. Mr Drummond, I believe, 

 knew more stations ; but no other living botanist had seen this 

 plant growing in Britain beyond the limits of one small shelf 

 of rock. We saw it in five new stations, two of them more 

 than two miles from the original spot; and not one person 

 among us has the slightest doubt of the plant being really in- 

 digenous. When we know this, — when we see it as certainly 

 proved that Lychnis alpina is indigenous, — when we recollect 

 the discovery in Glen Callader, during our excursion two years 

 ago, of Carex Vahlii, and of Astragalus alpinus in Clova last 

 year, and this season of Thlaspi alpestre and Gentiana wi- 

 t;aZ«> in Glen Isla, and of Carex Vahlii in Clova, — when 

 we see how wide the range of mountains is, and how very cir- 

 cumscribed the stations of all the remarkable plants in the dis- 

 trict, so that the last four plants I have mentioned had escaped 

 even the practised eye of Mr Don, I do think it would re- 

 quire a much stronger case than has yet been made out to shake 

 the credit of Mr Don for perfect sincerity *. 



I shall now give a list from both parties of the plants noticed 

 by them, and not robbed of their interest by the account given 

 of former excursions ; marking the observations of the first and 

 second parties by the figures 1^ and 2. added to the names of 

 plants. In conclusion, I shall give, in his own words, the ob- 

 servations kindly communicated to me by Mr Watson, regard- 

 ing the elevation at which he found plants to grow in different 

 parts of his route. 



Acinos vulgaris, 1. — Dry pastures eastward of Forfar. 



Ajuga alpina, 1, 2 — This plant was seen in large quantity, particularly above 

 Bachnagairn and in Glen Isla. After having been gathered by some of 

 the first party, it was thrown away by them, as not different from A. 

 reptans. I fear they were right ; for, though it is certainly the plant fi- 

 gured in Eng. Bot. as A. alpina, and though there is a very slight diffe- 

 rence in habit from the ordinary low country form, I cannot observe any 

 real specific distinction. It produces abundance of stolons, though not 

 on every plant. 



• We have always expressed our indignation on hearing the hints thrown 

 out against the veracity of the late Mr Don, whose honour was unimpeach- 

 able ; and who, as an acute, active, and successful observer and collector, was 

 fully equal to any of the Scottish botanists of the present time — Edit. 

 VOL. XTII. NO. XXVI. OCTOBER 1832. Z 



