204 BOTANICAL NOTES. , 



tanee, througli the kind offices of a friend, of a gentleman, •who already on 

 the ground, was destined to be the much-prized companion of most of my 

 future rambles. I refer to Mr. Croall, of Montrose, a botanist who yields 

 to none in a practical, and at the same time thoroughly scientific ac- 

 quaintance with the productions of this interesting district, — add to which 

 his extreme readiness to communicate his information to others, a quality 

 to which the writer of these pages is indebted for anything of scientific 

 interest they may contain, and which he would now gratefully acknowledge. 

 As I looked on the bright heaps of yellow Hieracia, blending with the 

 more delicate hues of Astragalus alpinus and other alpine plants lying before 

 me, the lines of Wordsworth v. ere forcibly recalled to my memory: — 



"No floweret blooms 

 Throughout the lofty ranj^e of these rough hills, 

 Or in the woods, that could from him conceal 

 Its birth-place; none whose figure did not live 

 Upon his touch." 



On the following day I set out with my companion to Morrone, a pretty 

 lofty hill to the west of the village. The first part of our ascent lay 

 through a dense natural growth of birch, (Betula alba,) whose light and 

 silvery drapery, springing from the most verdant flower-enamelled sward 

 one could well wish to see, stretches quite round the north and east sides 

 of the hill, almost unmixed with any other tree, down to the very brink 

 of the river. Springing from a profusion of common plants, we perceive 

 Oymnadenia conopsea, Geranium sylvaticum^ Polygonum viviparum, with 

 abundance of the bright golden balls of the Globe-flower, (TroUius Euro- 

 pceus,) and the no less acceptable flowers of the Primula veris, yet sparingly 

 in flower. Nor did the rocks and trees appear less niggard than the lawn 

 from which they rose, in supplying a rich harvest of the common crypto- 

 gamic plants, all of which it would be tedious, and perhaps out of place 

 here, to enumerate; suffice it to mention, I gathered from the former, 

 Tortula tortuosa^ and the long, creeping, golden sprays of the Hypnum 

 sericeum ; while the latter was no less rich in beautiful tufts of Orthotricum 

 Drummondi. 



(To be continued.) 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



BY W. SUTHERLAND, ESQ. 



TnR occurrence of white flowers on plants, which normally produce coloured 

 ones, is a subject of considerable interest to the botanical student, connected, 

 as it is, with the colouring principles that operate in producing the beautiful 

 tints which everywhere greet the eye in the vegetable kingdom. Their 



