278 THE GARDENER. [June 



time they had many hundreds of little rootlets ramifying through 

 the peat in all directions. Nothing can be so easily removed when 

 thus managed, for either forcing or to rearrange in the borders, clumps, 

 or elsewhere. G. Dawsox. 



LOCAL I^OTES ON HARE OR UNCOMMON WILD PLANTS. 



NO. IV. YETnOLM AND THE CHEVIOTS. 



** Everybody" has heard of Yetholm, it being the capital of that 

 "mysterious race" the gipsies in Scotland; there they still have a queen 

 and keep up a semblance of royalty, but as a distinct race they are 

 fast disappearing: and also of "Cheviot's mountains blue," famed in 

 Eorder song and story. The once great forest of Cheviot was the scene 

 of " Chevy Chase," but now there are very few remnants of the forest 

 left, and not a vestige of the roes and red-deer that found shelter in it. 



The Cheviots are a range of porphyritic hills, occupying an area of 

 about 300 square miles; Cheviot, the highest, is 2G76 feet above sea- 

 level. The view from the top of Cheviot is magnificent ; to the north 

 and north-west, the valley of the Tweed and Teviotdale lies spread 

 out like a gigantic map, beyond which rise the Lammermoors ; east- 

 ward is the sea ; southward the view stretches over Northumberland 

 and Durham to Yorkshire ; while to the south-west the eye wanders 

 over a series of rounded hills, each of which has its name and story, 

 until lost in the distance. 



On the roadside, between Kelso and Yetholm, we find Lepigonum 

 rubrum and Cerastium arvense : this, our only ornamental Cerastium, is 

 common hereabouts, although rare in most parts of the country. On 

 the moor at Bowmont Forest there is plenty of that fine bog plant, 

 Parnassia palustris, and Eadiola millegrana. In the plantation on 

 the roadside, at " Patie's o' the Muir," there is abundance of the Globe- 

 flower, Trollius europseus, long cultivated in flower-borders, and well 

 worthy its place there. Goody era repens grows in an adjoining planta- 

 tion, which, so far as I am aware, is the most southerly station for this 

 plant in Great Britain. 



About a mile from Yetholm lies Yetholm Loch, a fine sheet of 

 water, of about 40 acres in extent, at the north-east end of which was 

 the original of Sir W. Scott's Castle of Avenel, now the site of Loci - 

 tower hinds' houses. What a change between then and now ! But at 

 the time of which Scott writes, the Loch would extend for several 

 miles — to Bowmont water on the east, and to near Linton Loch on 

 the west; but the lochs and bogs are fast disappearing, and with 

 them many interesting plants which grow in them. On the north side, 

 overlooking the Loch, is Lochside, the finely-situated residence of 



