1906-1907.] Wild Flowers in the Vicinity of Penicuik. 339 



atum). Some chemical constituent in the soil may account 

 for this, but I have never been able to determine the cause. 



Other plants commonly met with in the moor are the milk- 

 wort (Polygala vulgaris), the marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), 

 the devil's-bit scabious (Scabiosa succisa), two species of St 

 John's-wort (Hypericum pulchrum and H. humifusum), the 

 field gentian (Gentiana campestris), the sneezewort (Achillea 

 Ptarmica), and the cuckoo-flower (Lychnis Flos-cuculi). In a 

 deep basin or hollow, retaining stagnant water, a plentiful crop 

 of bur-weed (Sparganium ramosum) is to be seen, though 

 rather difficult to reach. 



It may not be out of place here to mention that about a 

 quarter of a mile eastwards from Pomathorn Station are the 

 ruins of what used to be known as the Eoads farm-steading, 

 once leased and tenanted by Thomas Denholm, a local 

 herbalist, who in his day had a great reputation for curing 

 certain maladies, both in children and in adults, even when 

 medical men had agreed in pronouncing their cases hopeless. 

 He would doubtless find his abode favourably situated for his 

 many herb-gathering excursions ; and one can picture this 

 honest man wending his way through the moor on a summer 

 morning or evening when he required to have his homely 

 medicine- chest replenished. As far as I can learn from those 

 still living who were acquainted with him, he took little or no 

 remuneration for rendering such valuable service, — the sole 

 object, apparently, of his praiseworthy labours being to 

 alleviate human suffering when it lay within his power to do 

 so. A few are still living in this district who well remember 

 being under his treatment, and they one and all testify to his 

 great kindness of heart, and have never forgot the gentle touch 

 of his hand. The story of this humble herbalist has never yet 

 been written, but some day it may receive worthy treatment. 



Exploring Pomathorn and Auchendinny moors in a north- 

 easterly direction, we enter on the Firth estate, whose 

 woods and deep ravines, so prolific both in ferns and in 

 flowering -plants, have long been favourite haunts of the 

 botanist. Here the oak fern (Polypodium Dryopteris) and 

 the beech fern (P. Phegopteris) find the shelter and shade 

 which their delicate fronds require ; while other species — 

 such as Polystichum, Lastrsea, Athyrium, and Blechnum — 



