Antiquities of Eskdalemuik. 13 



it is found only in Wigtownshire in the west of Scotland. Is 

 Vicia liitai, from Cluden Mills, the true plant, as it is generally 

 found on shingle on the beach? No doubt Q!Jnant/ie pi/npiiteiloides 

 and G^naiithe LachenaUi are the same plant, as the former is a 

 South of England plant. The same remark applies to Ulex nanus 

 and Ulex Gatlii, which are often confounded. Ulex nanus is a 

 Midland and South of England plant, but has been gathered in 

 Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. Has Aspleninm nian'mim 

 been gathered in Dumfries ? Is there any recent account of 

 finding Li/copodium aiuwtiuuin in Dumfries? Surely Myosotis 

 .^lllmtica for Wigtownshire is a mistake. All the foregoing plants 

 require elucidation, and if our botanists, in the absence of finding 

 new records, were to turn their attention to some or all of the 

 doubtful plants I have indicated, good work would be done. It 

 is in this hope, and not in the spirit of any carping criticism, that 

 I have made the foregoing observations. 



II.— The Antiquities of Eskdakmnir. By Rev. JoHN C. DiCK, 

 Eskdalemuir. 



It is recorded of a certain individual, that on making his first 

 acquaintance with Eskdalemuir as it is approached from its 

 Western boundary, he scanned the prospect far and wide for 

 some sign or trace of human habitation, and presumably finding 

 none gave vent to his astonished feelings in the words, " This is 

 a country of winch it may be said that its principal inhabitants 

 are sheep." This reminds me of another individual, an inveterate 

 punster, by the way, who, tog-ether with a party of people he was 

 supposed to lead, found himself, after wandering about for hours 

 " in endless moorlands lost," suddenly face to face with a peat 

 stack, whereupon (as the story goes) he perpetrated the following- 

 under the circumstances perhaps pardonable enough pun, " a 

 peatiful country indeed." The beauty of these observations lies 

 obviously in their truthfulness, for it will cot be called in question 

 either that Eskdalemuir is " peatiful," Cz'.e.^ full of peats, or that 

 sheep vastly exceed in numbers all other forms of animated 

 existences. But while this is abundantly and heartily conceded, it 

 will be my pleasing duty and aim to-night to point out to you that 

 there are other and more noteworthy objects than peats to be seen 

 and studied within the compsss of our moorland Parish, and that. 



