112 Excursioii of the Scottish Al^nne Botanical Club. 



Lobelia. The Lobelia seuds its comparatively large flower right on 

 to the surface of the "water. The hard fern Blechnum horeale, was 

 growing in profusion by the sides of the small rivulets running into 

 the lake, many of its fronds being bifid and trifid. At the break-neck 

 Avaterfall, a celebrated botanical station, Carex riqjestris, rock sedge, 

 was obtained — a great rarity, but a very poor plant to look at, Carex 

 varjinata, C. atrata, and many other species, were also gathered. 



In Crombie's delightful little book on Braemar,* it is stated that 

 Saxifraga oppositifolia is scarce here. He can hardly have said 

 so from personal experience, as it was found above the loch, not 

 high on the slope, the whole turf full of it, mixed with Thalic- 

 trum alplnam. The other mountain Saxifrages, S. aizoides, 

 stellaris, and hijimoides, were growing everywhere. We started 

 away over the face, and gradually ascended the slope by a steep 

 watercourse, where I could see the rough, crack in the precipice, 

 where the blue sow thistle, Malgedium alpinum, grows in great 

 profusion, secure as yet from all collectors. 



The Scottish asphodel, Toficldia palustris, in beautiful flower, with 

 the Greenlaudic scurvy grass, Cochlcaria alpina, were everywhere 

 in fine state. The starry Saxifrage, >S'. stellaris, has to be seen here, 

 with its drooping crimson-spotted corolla, to form any idea what a 

 gem it is, nestled at the margin of some oozy spring. Here it Avas 

 growing in the wet moss principally, as well as close to the edge of 

 the stream. What delighted me most, however, was a profusion of 

 mossy Saxifrage, Saxifraga hypnoides, with petals of the most delicate 

 pink, which I dug away at for a long time. Alas ! their corollas fade, 

 and my dried specimens give a faint idea of the beauty of the 

 originals growing on their native soil, and bathed in the dews of 

 Cairn Glasshie. The alpine willows festooned the rocks with a 

 hoary coronal. The woolly -leaved Salix lanata was perhaps the most 

 uncommon, but it was gathered in plenty, and grows on my rock 

 border in Berwickshire, luxuriantly bearing in spring its long golden 

 catkins, A charming rock plant, Salix Sadleri, was sparingly 

 gathered. A minute, silky round leaved species was also obtained, 

 considered to be a hybrid between S. Sadleri and >S^. Lapponum. 



Be7i Macdhui, 6th Augud 1883.- — The ascent of the Ben is 

 generally made from Glen Derry, but as some of our men wished to 

 go to the Wells of Dee, and ascend the Ben from that point, a 

 course was taken to the left by the back of the keeper's house for 

 the Dee, and thence up Glen Dee. About six miles distant a few 

 diminutive specimens of Arahis petrcea,, alpine rock cress, occurred 

 in granitic debris, with small crenulated leaves, very difi"erent in 



* Braemar : its Toimgraphij and Natural History, by Rev. James Crombie, 

 M. A. Ediu. : W. Blaokwood & Sous, 1861 (now out ofpriut). 



