I 



REPORTS ON EXCURSIONS. 85 



at Tyndi-iim by a West Highland train, and, after a vain search 

 for them on the hillside, I decided to make some investigations 

 on my own account among the detritus in the corrie, and work 

 right up through it, and perhaps reach the top before any one 

 bad left it. 



" Owing to the snow having lain so long in the corrie, the 

 detritus was very loose and difficult to walk on, consequently 

 it took me longer to make the ascent than I had expected, but 

 by a fortunate accident, just as I reached the grass at the top 

 of the rocks, three members of the Society made their appear- 

 ance. It was a very narrow escape we had of missing each 

 other. Had they been five minutes earlier, or I five minutes 

 later, we should probably never have met. We had, of course, 

 very little time to exchange remarks and do what we had to 

 do, as I thought it best to finish the ascent before returning. 

 One of the party did, indeed, lose his train, and if mine had 

 not been late I should have missed it, too. 



" Ben La.oigh, like others of our Perthshire mountains, is 

 peculiar in having its plants very much localised and growing 

 in unsuspected places, so that if one wants certain plants one 

 must go where they grow, or be content with chance finds. The 

 development of the phyllite schists in connection with this 

 mountain flora would at first appear to support the theory lately 

 advanced in this Society that alpine plants are very much con- 

 fined to that rock formation. Their abundance in this case is, 

 I am persuaded, due more to the moisture thrown over them 

 from Stob Garbh than to the rock formation. In proof of this 

 we find that the drier phyllite rocks on the western side are 

 nearly barren, while the Mica-schistose rocks on the eastern side 

 of Ben Laoigh are compai-atively rich in alpine plants that are 

 not found on the phyllites at all ; and, again, such typical plants 

 as Arabis iidrcea are found all over the moimtain, from about 

 1,000 feet up to near the summit. 



" In a paper read before this Society, 9th January, 1883, I 

 showed that Ben Laoigh made a very good second to Ben Lawers. 

 My investigations of both mountains since then leave me in 

 still the same opinion. I have spent four days on or near Ben 

 Laoigh this year, so that there would be no difficulty in my 

 giving a very fair list of plants as seen by me this year on the 



