LANARKSHIRE RAMBLES. 5 



motherwort (Leonurus Cardiaca), the lily of the valley {Convallaria 

 majalis), the perfoliate honeysuckle (Lonicera Caprifolium). Of 

 plants which may be frequently observed as we ramble down by 

 the river, and which, though not uncommon in Clydesdale, are of 

 some scarcity over considerable areas of Britain, mention may be 

 made of the luckengowan (Trollius europceus), the cross-leaved 

 bedstraw {Galium boreale), the helleborine (Epipactis latifolia), 

 the hairy St. John's-wort (Hypericum hirsutum), and the stately 

 giant bellflower (Campanula latifolia), which, with its long pinkish 

 white racemes, adds some grandeur to our summer woods. The 

 tuberous comfrey already referred to may often be observed with 

 corollas bee-bitten at base. There is, too, that beautiful May- 

 flowering bush, the bird-cherry (Primus Padus), with profusion of 

 pendulous racemes of sweet white blooms. 



We pass out of the gorge, and the banks widen into sunny 

 slopes of green pastures, strawberry beds, gooseberry gardens, 

 apple orchards ; and a little past Lanark Old Bridge there is a 

 Roman bridge over the romantic Mouse, which has just emerged 

 from a picturesque gorge of its own making, known as Cartland 

 Crags (Excursion 23rd August, 1890). This gorge evidences 

 wonderful intensity of steady erosion, all apparently since the end 

 of the great Age of Ice. There is a profuse vegetation resembling 

 that at the Falls, with many of the plants already mentioned, as 

 the rock-rose, the narrow-leaved bitter-cress, the wood-vetch, etc. 

 The willow-leaved spiraea (S. salicifolia) grows naturally, and the 

 lily of the valley is quite wild here, more distinctly so than about 

 the Falls. Landshells occur in some abundance and variety, and 

 on the occasion of an excursion of the Society, Vertigo pusilio was 

 found by Mr. James Steel — a new record for the district. 



On the uplands to the east is the ancient town of Lanark, 

 where the statue of Wallace over the kirk door is busked every 

 Lanimer day — a worship right and becoming to the great patriot. 

 On the town moor grows the moonwort. 



Northward lies Lee Castle, the seat of the Lockharts, famous 

 for the " Lee Penny " — Sir Walter Scott's Talisman — that in the 

 times of over-belief was held when dipped in water to give it cura- 

 tive powers over plagues in man and beast. Just beside the castle 

 is an oak (Quercus Robur) known as the " Pease Oak," with some 

 tradition, probably baseless, connecting it with Cromwell. It is 



