Excursion of the Scottish Alpine Botanical Club. 353 



Friday, 31st July. — After an early breakfast, the 

 members of the Club drove to Lawers Inn, where we left 

 our conveyance, and immediately commenced the ascent of 

 Ben Lawers, the eighth highest mountain in Scotland, but 

 undoubtedly the richest in botanical treasures. 



The morning being misty, and the grass wet with dew, 

 we made the ascent as far as Lochan a'Chait by the " old 

 peat road." On a steep bank on the west side of Lawers 

 Burn we gathered beautiful specimens of Digitalis of 

 a cream colour, and some pure white — probably the very 

 bank on which Mr M'Nab, in an excursion with the 

 late Professor Graham in 1839, " found a beautiful cream- 

 coloured variety of Digitalis purpurea, a little way above 

 Lawers Inn, by the side of a stream," and recorded the 

 same in the first volume of the Transactions of the 

 Society. 



By the time we reached Lochan a'Chait the mist had 

 cleared away, and the day had become exceedingly hot, with 

 a burning sun over our heads. This rendered alpine 

 climbing somewhat uncomfortable, and we were glad 

 occasionally to get under the shade of the rocks, and 

 on our way to the summit we found the large patches of 

 snow most refreshing and cooling. Upwards of twenty 

 patches of snow were observed on this side of the hill, some 

 of these many feet deep, and covering several acres. 



The whole party reached the summit in the course 

 of the afternoon, and were rewarded with a magnifi- 

 cent view. 



We found most of the good plants known to grow on 

 Ben Lawers, including Cerastium alpinum, L. ; G. lati- 

 folium, Sm. ; Sagina Linnoii, Presl. ; Pote7itilla salisbur- 

 gensis, Hsenke ; Saxifraga nivalis^ L. ; S. cernua, L., 

 one specimen of which was in flower ; Erigeron alpinum, 

 L., in fine flower; Trientalis europcea, L. ; 3Iyosotis alpes- 

 tris, Schmidt (many of the ravines were exquisitely 

 beautiful with this, the prettiest of all our forget-me-nots) ; 

 J uncus triglumis, L. ; J. higlumis, L. ; J. castaneus, L. ; 

 Carex pulla, Good. ; Cystopteris montana, Link. ; and 

 Aspidium lonchitis, Sw. A plant of the last, with very 

 broad pinnaj, was also gathered. 



Another excellent find was Cystopteris montana, in fine 



