A Ramble tJirouo-Ji Roxburs;h and Selkirk 



475 



favourite the ^largill, compared further with 

 which it is a much hardier and freer grower, as 

 well as a more abundant and certain bearer. 



Of two young specimens of that rather rare 

 fungus (the large puff-ball, Bovista gigantea of 

 Linnaeus, and theLycoperdon giganteum of more 

 recent authors),which were growingtogether in the 

 avenue, we had thesatisfaction of partaking some- 

 what largely at dinner, they having been cooked 

 as recommended by "A Rural D.D." in The Far- 

 /;/67-of Aug. 23, 1865, and can bear testimony to its 

 being "a delicious dish. Sliced andseasoned with 

 butter and salt, and fried in a pan, no French 

 omeletteishalf sogood in richness anddelicacyof 

 flavour."' What a pity that prejudice should 

 debar the use of young puff balls, as well as many 

 other excellent and nutritious fungi, while only 

 a little careful observation is all that is needed 

 to distinguish between them and the compara- 

 tively few that are really deleterious. But it is 

 not to arboriculturists and horticulturists alone 

 that WoU presents much that is interesting. 

 For farming, as the proprietor does the whole 

 estate, besides a large farm at his native place 

 in East Lothian, his agricultural doings are 

 equally, if not still more interesting and impor- 

 tant. Prominent among these is the draining, 

 breaking up, and cropping of out-lying moor- 

 lands, as well as the improving of more in- 

 land arable ground, with the view of laying 

 down the whole or nearly the whole with 

 superior permanent pasture. On a portion 

 of the former, where oats scarcely ripened last 

 year, he this season cut Sherriff's Early Fellow 

 Oat from the 20th to the 24th of August, and had 

 all stacked by the 5th of September. That other 

 new oat, Sherriff's Fine Fellow, was only a few 

 days later, and while he considers the first to be 

 much earlier than any of the earliest old varieties, 

 he looks upon both as being great acquisitions 

 for growing in high late districts. Two of the 

 more inland divisions are this year sown out with 

 mixed grass-seeds ; and that the young plants 

 should have the advantage of shelter and shade 

 without being deprived of their due nutriment 

 by accompanying corn crops, a slight mixture of 

 barley was added, with the view of its being 

 eaten down when green. This is, however, found 

 to be a mistake, as the plants shot too rapidly into 

 car, and the awns are so annoying to the sheep 

 that they reject both stems and ears, so that for 

 this purpose oats will be substituted for barley 

 in future. And, as shewing the remarkable earli- 

 ness of the past season, we may mention that a 

 lo-acre field, averaging fully 800 feet in altitude, 

 which was sown with tares slightly mixed with 



oats, and intended for being eaten off by sheep, 

 exhibited such an abundant and well-ripened 

 crop in August that they were cut and stacked 

 for seed. 



In going from WoU to Minto on the 14th we 

 noticed only two fields of corn in course of being 

 cut, and as both were finished before evening that 

 date may be taken for the conclusion of reaping 

 in that usually very late district. Several old 

 belts and clumps of plantation, seen from the 

 public road, and which had evidently been in- 

 tended for shelter, exhibited the common error 

 of planting only the summits or ridges for this 

 purpose, whereby the wind is allowed to sweep 

 through under the branches when the trees grow 

 up, and the plantation shade is cast too far over 

 the adjoining lands. To avoid which it is better 

 to run the upper fence a little under the highest 

 ground, and the opposite one considerably lower, 

 so that the shade is shortened, and effectual 

 shelter from wind is provided by the branches 

 of the lower placed trees, forming a protecting 

 mass, opposite and under the bare stems of the 

 highest ones. On banks by the roadside at 

 Hassendean we observed a profuse growth of 

 that excellent, but in Scotland entirely neglected 

 spinaccous plant, the Good King Henry, tota 

 bona, fat hen, or perennial spinach (Chenopo- 

 dium bonus-Henricus), which, from being only 

 found about ruins and old inhabited places, is 

 looked upon by some as a doubtful native, at 

 least of North Britain, being considered as only 

 the offspring of cultivation in past ages, when its 

 usefulness as an early spring and summer 

 culinary vegetable was better known and 

 appreciated. How the wives and bairns rushed 

 to their doors, staring and wondering at seeing 

 a carriage stop near the village school, and one 

 get out with spud in hand, to grub up and 

 appropriate what they looked upon as only 

 " midden dokens." Doubtless their Border 

 reiving forefathers better knewthe uses and worth 

 of these now neglected and despised weeds. 

 Arriving at Minto, we proceeded to the grand 

 and romantic crags, where Dickson of Hassen- 

 dean, in the early part of this century, found the 

 rare Asplenium alternifolium, better known 

 among modern fern growers by the less appro- 

 piate name of A. germanicum ; and although it 

 has occasionaly been found there since — Pro- 

 fessor Balfour and his class obtaining a specimen 

 or two within the last two years— we could not 

 discover a single plant. A common opinion 

 prevails that the A. alternifolum is a hybrid or 

 mule between the A. septentrionale and the A. 

 ruta muraria, but while we saw many plants of 



