66 P^OOD PLAXT>i. 



Eng-li'sh county, but a phonetic corruption of some Gaelic 

 word. 



Terregles, small district and possessing- few names, g-ives us 

 two extremely interesting- hill epithets — Beacon Hill and Belton 

 Hill. The latter, very probably, dates back to the days when 

 May-day festivals and sun-worship were solemn rites and part and 

 parcel of the religion of our forefathers to an extent hardly 

 credible to us nowadays ; and, on the broad summit of the height 

 which forms so conspicuous a feature in the landscape of the 

 extreme East Stewartry, no doubt, in " the good old days," when 

 English raids and Highland ravag'es were frequent, a far-reaching 

 blaze of red flame flashed the signal down the Nith and up into 

 the lonely glens of Cairn from the Beacon Hill. 



II. — Food Plants, Flowerless Phmts. By Mr Peter Gray. 



As everyone knows, the balk of our vegetable food is derived 

 from the higher or cotyledonous plants ; but the more lowly or 

 acotyledonous genera also furnish more or less nutritive substances, 

 which in some countries are in constant use, and in others utilized 

 in times of dearth as substitutes for the more valuable products of 

 the dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous tribes. 



To begin with the highest grade of flowerless plants, ferns 

 are used by several races, either commonly or in times of scarcity, 

 as food. In several species ferns have farinaceous rhizomes, or 

 underground stems, which are roasted or boiled, being usually first 

 steeped to get rid of the bitter and astringent principle they con- 

 tain. Of these the chief are species of pteris, diplaziuni, nephro- 

 dium, and marrattia. When Cook visited New Zealand, the root 

 of a species of fern was in common use, and that and fish and 

 human flesh constituted the main articles of diet in the islands ; 

 for the moa and other large ostrich-like birds had been long exter- 

 minated, and there were no quadrupeds in the country save a 

 small species of dog kept as a pet, and another about the size of, 

 and allied to, the rat. 



Neither the fern allies — mosses, hepaticre, nor characeoe — are 

 utilised as food ; but many of the lichens supply wholesome nutri- 

 ment both to man and beast. The genus gyrophora saved the life 

 of our townsman, Sir John Eichardson, when engaged in Arctic 

 exploration, at a time when the travellers were reduced to feed 



