252 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



scholar who should make the best collection of 

 wild-flowers during the summer ; and Mr. Robert 

 Geddes, shoemaker there, a man of considerable 

 intelligence, resolved that his daughter should gain 

 the prize. He accordingly went out with his 

 children, and induced them to gather every plant 

 which they saw to differ from another. He 

 knew nothing about botany beyond the popular 

 names of a few of the common flowers. I assisted 

 him in naming them, and often went out with him 

 in his excursions, showing him how to distinguish 

 different species and varieties. As he had a keen 

 eye, and had acquired a great liking for the 

 work, he made a large and interesting collection. 

 Among the plants brought to me was a piece of 

 Ledum, which he told me he had found in Lecropt 

 Moss. It was quite ne^v to me, and in order to 

 find out what it was I went to the moss and saw 

 it growing amongst the heather in considerable 

 quantity. It was not in flower, but the seed-vessels 

 of the previous year were still visible. I took a 

 piece of it to my friend the late Mr. Croall, 

 President of the Stirling Field Club, of which I was 

 a member, but he had never seen the plant before, 

 and we spent an evening fruitlessly trying to 

 identify it. We were inclined to think that it was 

 an exotic which had somehow been introduced into 

 the Moss. I afterwards gave Mr. Croall some 

 plants for his garden. Soon after that I was called 

 away to England, and had forgotten all about the 

 "find" until five years later, when it was brought to 

 my recollection by the receipt of a letter from Mr. 

 Croall in which he wrote : " I was amused the other 

 day by one of our doctors coming in, and, after 

 unfolding a pajjer parcel, exhibiting a branch of 

 Lecluin palustre, informing me that an Edinburgh 

 doctor had sent saying that he had been told 

 it grew in abundance under the walls of Stirling 

 Castle, and Avished to have a quantity of it. I 

 informed him that the nearest locality to Stirling 

 Castle was my garden, and that its presence there 



