BOTANICAL NOTES. 207 



We /rathered it in considerable abundance last August in Loch Kinnord, 

 in the Croniar district of this county, and not two miles north of the 

 Decside Turnpike, (the route to Braemar.) It also produces the other 

 two species, and that in greater abundance. An hour or two spent by 

 the botanist on the placid bosom of this loch, will always be looked back 

 to, as among the most pleasant in his excursion. For yonder little island 

 is almost encircled with a dense thicket of that beautiful and rare grass, 

 Calamagrostis epigejos ; and that bay to the south affords abundance of 

 Carex Jiliforviis, with its long tapering stem, and dark thread-like head of 

 flowers. By a little dexterous 'Spoking" in the muddy bottom, you will, 

 without doubt, ''land" a few specimens of Isoetes lacustris, or Callitriche 

 autumnalis. Add to this the agreeable effect produced by whole sheets of 

 yellow and white Water-Lilies, the graceful racemes of the bluish white 

 Lobelia Dortmanna nodding in the breeze, and all surrounded by the stately 

 stems of the Arundo Phragmitis, which seem to keep watch and ward over 

 their more delicate brethren, with the fringe of silvery beech, (Betula alba,) 

 that encircles the loch, — all are but parts in a picture, that has but to 

 be seen to be admired. But apart from these purely botanical attractions, 

 this loch, though possessing few of the features of a really alpine or High- 

 land one, rejoices in not a few interesting associations connected with the 

 neighbourhood. For, skirting its western shore runs the rocky ridge of 

 Culbleen, which, a little north, finds its highest elevation in ''Morven of 

 snow," both well known as the favoured haunts of Byron, when he "roamed 

 a young Highlander over the heath," while on the loch itself are two 

 islands, (one of them artificial,) on which there are many appearances to 

 lead us to concur with the prevalent belief that here the ancient Scottish 

 kings had a castle, where, in time of peace, they spent the summer months 

 in the exercises of the chase, having then, in all probability, to deal with 

 far more formidable game than now falls to the gun of the keenest sports- 

 man on the 12th., upon the adjacent Moor of Dinnat. 



Gymnadenia conopsea. — We were not a little surprised, two summers 

 ago, in re-visiting, after a few days absence, a spot on which this beau- 

 tiful orchid grew in great abundance, to find that all our little favourites 

 had apparently been spirited away by some charm or other, for assuredly 

 not one was to be seen. But, on closer inspection, we found that where- 

 ever a plant had been, there was now nothing, save a little funnel-shaped 

 hole, carefully scooped out; and a little watching soon revealed the perpe- 

 trators of this shocking deed to be our old friends, the Rooks, who, for 

 some reason or other, had taken a liking to these delicious tubers. By 

 playing us this little trick, Mr. Crow had almost for the time, lost in us 

 an advocate for his preservation, and a believer in the fact that he bears 

 a very important and useful part in the economy of Nature. But at all 



