Address of the President. 21 



which is supposed, by tradition, to be above 400 years. It was 

 measured and found to be twenty-one feet in circumference at 

 three feet from the ground. Dalswinton Loch, where the late 

 Mr. Miller made his experiments upon the application of 

 steam to the propelling of boats, a power now so wonderfully 

 worked out, and enabling our Society (whether by water or 

 land) to meet together from distant points. The only plant 

 of real interest met with in the excursion was the Orohanche 

 ■major* a parasite on the broom, and consequently local. 

 Doronicum pardalancJies, Anchusa sempervirens, and Vinca 

 minor, were found in the Dalswinton woods, but most probably, 

 almost certainly, were outcasts from the garden. 



Thanks were voted to Mr. Jeflfray for his kindness in aiding 

 the party in their researches, and the next meeting was appointed 

 for the seventh of July, to explore Morton and Closebum. 



The Society accordingly met at ThornhiU, and examined 

 the natural history and antiquarian collection formed there by 

 Dr. Grierson. The party then set out for Morton Castle, a fine 

 old baronial edifice situate on a lacustrine bank, and listened to 

 an interesting paper, prepared by Dr. Grierson, on the history of 

 the castle and the great leading events of the times in which 

 the families, to whom it has successively belonged, have 

 played their parts. 



From Morton Castle the party proceeded in a southern 

 direction until they struck the Cample Water near the point 

 whence it emerges from the silurian hills, in which it has its 

 source, and enters upon the sandstones of Middle Nithsdale. 

 On the banks of the Cample a line of basalt was noticed at 

 various points, and at one of these it had assumed the colum- 

 nar form, the only instance of this structure as yet known 

 in Nithsdale. At another point the basalt is seen to overtop 

 a sandstone cliff, down which the rivulet descends. The 

 Gatelan bridge and adjoining quarries were also visited, with 



* Smith. The O. rapum of Babiugton's Manual, p. 235. 



