242 A BOTANICAL SCRAMBLE, 



in order to have sacrificed the more for the sake of the prize. I soon 

 had enough of difficulty however, for though the Silene was to be had 

 without setting a foot on the Orag, yet in order to get it in flower, no 

 small amount of climbing and balancing was required. The truth is, I was 

 like many people in pursuit of less harmless pleasures, behind time; I should 

 have been a month sooner, and then such a show of flowers as no lowland 

 botanist could believe, without the unmistakeable evidence of the multitude of 

 capsules. After much hair-breadth posturing and anxious searching, I at la.st 

 succeeded in finding two patches of the plant in flower; they were the first T 

 had ever looked on in a fresh growing state, and on the hill where for centuries 

 they had kept lonely watch. No dried specimen, were it ever so perfect a 

 pattern of pressing, could aflford such pleasure; 1 could have danced with joy, 

 but my position required the utmost caution, and dancing forms no part of 

 the naturalist's qualifications. The Silene gi'ows in dense tufts, and at a 

 distance might be mistaken for patches of Thyme, (Thymus serpyllum,) but 

 that the masses are much denser, and the leaves brighter, and perfectly free 

 from hairs. The fiowers are only one on a stalky and have much the same 

 colour as Thyme, 



I shall but stay to mention two more plants found associated with the 

 plant of the day, although I might run out a list of no end. Arenaria 

 vema, not a rare but a very beautiful plant, is deserving of being picked 

 from its rocky seat even by those who know nothing of botany. The Alpine 

 Lady's Mantle, whose satin leaves we might suppose the little folk, the fairies, 

 used to deck out a Titania or some other Queen, here decorates the bare 

 hard rock. This last mentioned plant, with the Oxi/ria reniformis and the 

 Silene, form a trio by no means to be despised. For the benefit of those 

 who have not the time or perseverance, for I do really think, without much 

 self-conceit, that it requires a little to ascend Dunmail, I may state that 

 two of them, namely, the Oxyria and the Alchemilla, grow in Ashness Gihyll, 

 about two miles from Keswick, the latter but sparingly, though it may be 

 had in basket-fulls at a Ghyll above Applethwaite, under Skiddaw. The 

 Silene must be sought however by Grisdale Tarn; or, if the tourist will ven- 

 ture some twelve miles up Borrowdale, he will perhaps find it and Saxifraga 

 oppositifolia, on Great End Crag, where they were found by H. C. Watson, 

 Esq. 



After all there is nothing to be compared to a boyish ramble on the hills, 

 warm and tiresome though it be, it seems as if every day so spent was to 

 add a little to ones span of existence, and sure I am that whether it 

 adds in time it will add in pleasure, for who would not look back with a 

 beating heart to a day spent with the Creator on one of his majestic 

 mountains? 



Keswick, July 20th., 1852. 



