RARER FLOWERS OF EAST RENFREWSHIRE. 47 



Up till a few years ago the hart's-tongue fern (Scolopendriiitn vulgare) 

 was to be found here, but the last one is now gone. The proprietor, 

 Mr. Crura, kindly allows all sorts of picnic parties entrance, and 

 hence this clearance. The hart's-tongue, from its characteristic 

 shape, is easily recognised by non-botanists, and it stands small 

 chance of survival in the neighbourhood of any large town. 



Immediately above the glen we come upon a small loch or dam. 

 On its outer edge there is a very pretty bed of Jacob's-ladder 

 (Polemonium cceruleum), its pale blue flowers looking somewhat 

 out of place among the coarse marsh plants that surround it. It 

 scarcely ranks as a wild flower anywhere, but it is wild enough 

 and secluded enough up here. 



This Capelrig Burn comes down through Mearns Moor (" the 

 moor of the Earn, or east-flowing, Burn ") ; and up there is the only 

 station I know of in the district for the very pretty grass of 

 Parnassus (Parnassia palustris). Strange that this plant (a moor- 

 land one) should be so plentiful in the West, and Renfrewshire 

 with all its moors should have so little of it. 



Take the road back towards our starting point, and in a barley 

 field by the wayside, a couple of years ago, you would have seen a 

 number of hemp plants growing {Cannabis sativa). One question 

 to the farmer — " Hoo came this here withoot the leave o' ye ? " — 

 brings us tidings that here we are face to face with a real German 

 invasion. The field had been sown with Baltic seed. 



On the banks by the wayside we may find a specimen or two 

 of the blue sherardia (Sherardia arvensis). It grows all over the 

 lower portions of the county, but only in small patches, and it is 

 anything but constant. 



In the old lime quarry at Arden there used to be plenty of the 

 wild tulip (Tulipa sylvestris). But its beautiful, conspicuous 

 yellow flower-cups have proved its ruin. Beauty by the average 

 human animal is intensely admired, eagerly sought after and then 

 wantonly destroyed. 



The teasel (Dipsaeus sylvestris), a tall hardy-looking plant, is or 

 used to be got here also. Indeed you may find it occasionally 

 almost anywhere from Arden to Paisley. In Darnley Glen long 

 ago there was a small wack-mill. Teasel heads were used in 

 works of this sort to raise the nap on cloth. Hence these teasel 

 plants. But they are gradually dying out. 



