564 Chronicles of Science. [ Oct.» 
steeped in whisky and the mixture drunk, in which condition it is _ 
considered a universal specific, and the people view it in the same 
light that the rustics in England view Holloway’s pills ; and accord- 
ingly they take it freely. 
“Secondly, those plants which are used in the arts :— 
“ Potentilla tormentilla is often used for tanning nets, instead of 
bark. The flowers of the common gorse are in common use as a dye ; 
but the most important of all to the islanders is the common ling ; 
of this they make the roofs of their houses, and bind them together 
by ropes made of the same material; while their beds and floors are 
frequently formed of the same plants. The only plants generally 
cultivated are oats and potatoes. Barley is sometimes grown in 
more sheltered spots; but the oats, and especially the potatoes, are 
what the islanders depend upon. Each family has its oat ground 
and potato patch, and upon the produce of these patches and a 
barrel of herrings they chiefly subsist. For the manuring of their 
patches, they use seaweed, which they gather from the shores of 
the lochs; but besides this they use the roofs and floors of their 
huts. A man about to marry seeks out a level piece of ground, 
pares the grass off it, and round this clearing heaps up stones, which 
are left either loose or cemented with mud; on the top of this half 
wall, half heap, he stretches a skeleton roof, and covers it with heather 
to the thickness of a foot or more; and to make this quite secure he 
binds it together with a network of ropes made from the ling; a 
large flat stone is placed in the middle of the hut, and a peat fire 
lighted. There are two apertures; the door, and a hole in one corner 
of the roof for the chickens to enter in at. This done all is com- 
pleted, and the man brings in his wife, cow, goat, pig, dog, and cat, 
and commences the manufacture of a patent manure for their oat 
and potato patches. The roof, impregnated with smoke, is taken 
off one year and given to the oats, while the floor is dug up the next 
and given to the potatoes. This, strange as it may sound to your 
English ears, is by no means uncommon, especially in the north- 
eastern part of the island. Among the more interesting plants 
we found were the following:—Rzbes spicatwm, Robs., abundant 
on the rocks about Uig and Dunngan Head. Chrysanthemum 
segetum, which fills every patch of cultivated ground. Mimulus 
luteus, which has established itself in many parts of the island, 
covering a considerable extent of ground, and spreading rapidly 
both by seed and runners. Listera cordata, growing in dense 
woods about Ryle Akin. Hriocaulon septangularz, which is not 
confined to one loch at Sligachan, as we were told, and as is generally 
supposed, but which grows abundantly in many of the lochs in the 
neighbourhood.” 
Blights and Cholera—The Rey. M. J. Berkeley thus replies 
in the ‘Gardener’s Chronicle’ to a number of questions recently 
