1883.] EXCURSION TO ETTRICK FOREST. 6] 



indeed it alone grows in the highest and most exposed corner, becoming there a 

 stunted tree or shrub, but still holding its ground, although evidently sore 

 battered by the winter winds. There are a good many Scotch Firs {Pinus 

 sylvestris) along the line of the Bowhill woo 1, and a few occur at a distance from 

 the wood. Some specimens of the Ash {Fraxiaus exceJsior) are scattered up and 

 down the whole area, but not one Oak, Beech, or Elm, nor a single Holly. Next 

 to those ah-eady mentioned, the most conspicuous objects are tlu-ee species of 

 Sallow, — Salix aurita, S. caprea, and S. cineria, — which are abundant and flourish 

 viiTorously, S. coyorea of ten rising to the dignity of a well-stemmed tree. When I 

 have named these eight species, I have exhausted the list of native trees, and 

 tree- like shrubs growing in Howebottom, fori scarcely think a place in the list 

 should be given to the solitary Plane {Acer pseudn-platanus) on which I lighted. 

 As regards smaller shrubs, the Raspberry is pretty abundant ; but I saw only 

 one Rose-bush {liosa canina), and no trace of the Bramble. A few plants of 

 Juniper {Juniperus communis), which is rare in the district, grow among the 

 heather on the height. About 27 years ago, some Deodars, Spruce Firs, and 

 Common Yews were planted in Howebottom. They have grown well, and 

 present an agreeable diversity among the rounded and bushy forms of the native 

 shrubby trees. About the foreign character of the Deodars, of course, there 

 can be no mistake ; but in one sense it is unfortunate that, in a space abandoned 

 to nature, and where one looks only for indigenous trees, the Spruce and the Yew 

 should have been introduced. But for the information I received, I should, 

 although with some surprise, have regarded these as self-sown. The same remark 

 applies to a large thicket of Dogwood {Cornus san^rwi/iert), which quite fills the 

 upper part of the dell of Shielshaugh Burn. This, too, was planted, upwards of 

 40 years ago, some idea having been entertained, I am told, by a foi-mer factor 

 on the estate, of utilising the wood in the manufacture of gunpowder. The lower 

 course of this burn, I may add, presents the flora of any similar dell in the 

 district. The barren fronds of Blechnum horeale hang pendent from the banks ; 

 Hazel and Alder (not, as far as I could see, fovind elsewhere in Howebottom), and 

 Birch fill up the wider spaces : and the Male Shield-Fern and Lady-Fern, with 

 their congeners, adorn the course of the little stream. The lesson I draw from the 

 Howebottom experiment is that in the old Forest of Ettrick there was not a 

 stately and uniform growth of large timber. I infer that the ground along the 

 valleys was clothed with a dense brushwood of Hawthorn, Birch, and Sallow, 

 Mountain Ash mingling with these, but flourishing more freely on the hill-sides : 

 while above this lower growth rose at intervals ' many a semelie tree,' — the Fir, 

 the Ash, the Oak ; for although Howebottom offers no evidence that the Oak is 

 indigenous to the district, remains of it preserved in our peat-bogs attest that it 

 once flourished as a native in the vales of Ettrick and Yarrow." 



Every member of the pra-ty corroborated with his whole heart the 

 enthusiastic verdicjt of Mr. Farquharson as to the exquisite and unique 

 beauty of the Hained ground. At each successive vantage spot admira- 

 ation grew, and the veteran Mr. McCorquodale found fitting expression 

 to the general sentiment when be declared that as an example of land- 

 scape forestry, it was the most perfect he had ever seen. The laying-out 

 and planting of the property had been done under the personal supervision 

 of His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch. The walk through the Natural 

 Forest and up to Nethan's Knowe, over a thousand feet above the level of 

 the sea, and admirably furnished to the top with thriving woods, was 

 most thoroughly enjoyed. The only occasion on which the tape was 



