OSMUNDA. 253 



12 feet, or thereabouts, and being remarkably equal in size. The 

 ground on which they grow is peaty, but firm under the tread in dry 

 weather, covered with a green even sward, dotted with numerous 

 mole hillocks, and threaded with narrow paths formed by the sheep 

 and highland cattle as they pass through it to graze, or to gain the 

 opposite banks. Northwards of the wood there is a broad margin 

 from which every tree has disappeared, and it is now a coarse pasture 

 studded with hassocks of grass and rush bushes ; but the woodside 

 on the south is very swampy, dangerous to pass over, and so wet, in 

 some spots, that the Reed-Mace, the Buckbean, the Iris, Sedges and 

 aquatic Carices grow there temptingly. The water drains from the bog 

 by a runlet cut deep in the soft soil, and which takes a course west- 

 wards. As this drain gets free from the wood, the banks approach 

 each other, and form a narrow valley, occupied partially, on each 

 side of the drain, with copses of dwarf Willow intermingled with 

 Brambles. The Willows or Saughs are loaded with grey lichens ; and 

 about their roots there is a varied and abundant growth of the most 

 beautiful mosses, many of them in fruit. The mosses are of the 

 genera Bryum and Hypnum ; and tufts of several Orthotrichae adorn 

 the stems. Then again the valley widens, and, as the banks rise 

 higher and steeper, it acquires the character of a dean. Of this the 

 northern bank is covered with long heather, and with a sprinkling of 

 large Juniper bushes and of Whins, and with a few scattered Birches 

 of small size. But the opposed bank is a dense brushwood of rather 

 difficult intricacy, wherein Saughs, Hazel, Birch, Sloe, Briers and 

 strong Brambles are confusedly intermingled. A cover of the Whin 

 hues the uppermost edge of the thicket, where there is also a good 

 deal of the Juniper ; but the fragrant and resinous Gale mingles 

 in the throng, and sets its rich brown catkins in close contrast with 

 the hoary catkins of the Willow. In spring the Dog- Violet, the 

 Wood-Sorrel, the Wood- Anemone, the Adoxa, the Pilewort, and the 

 Primrose shelter in this copse and gem the ground underfoot, im- 

 parting a pleasure to the botanist that no novelty nor rarity can give ; 

 in summer it is alive with migratory songsters; in autumn often 

 violated with merry nutting parties ; and in winter rich with lichens 

 of many species, and with a most soft and pleasing carpeting of 

 mosses. 



The brushwood and its banks are coextensive ; so that when you 

 issue from the wood, you enter on a bog almost level with the moor, 

 which expands on each side ; and you look forwards on a wide and 

 open prospect bounded by the Cheviots and the hill of Flodden. The 

 burn holds slowly on its westward way ; it gets into a harder channel 

 and crosses a sort of road ; and thence suddenly throws itself over 

 an abrupt precipice about 10 feet in height. It is there that the 

 Osmunda grows. The burn now hurries down a deep woody glen ; 

 and almost immediately leaps the much higher and more beautiful 

 lynn, — the Routing-lynn. This is an attractive scene, richly em- 

 bowered with wood, and covered with every gift that our northern 

 Flora deemed suitable to its adornment ; — but we must re-ascend, for 

 we have passed unnoticed some things worthy of a note. 



