Mar. 1905.] | BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, 85 
gained in the course of four visits. First in 1889, which was 
my first introduction to Alpine botany after meetings of the 
East of Seotland Union of Naturalists’ Societies held in 
Alford. Three of us walked from Ballater by Loch Muick, 
Dhti Loch, Carn Bannock, Glen Callater, Glen Clunie, and 
Glen Beag, arriving at the hotel in the small hours of the 
morning. The plants I gathered on this visit were named 
for me by Dr. John Macfarlane, a fellow townsman, once a 
prominent fellow of this Society, and now of Philadelphia, 
U.S.A. On that occasion we met Mr. William West of 
Bradford, and had several outings with him. Then in 1890, 
after the Montrose meetings of the Union, we were 
accompanied by Mr. Barclay and Mr. Meldrum of the 
Perthshire Naturalists’ Society. Next in 1897, Mr. Ewing, 
F.LS., President of the Glasgow Natural History Society 
and I explored the district for grasses and carices. In 1904 
we were back again, accompanied by Mrs. Ewing, who is a 
splendid hill-climber and an enthusiastic botanist. This last 
visit was almost wholly occupied with searching for hepatics, 
assisting Mr. Maevicar in his records of their distribution in 
Scotland. As I had no idea, on any of these occasions, of 
making a record list of the flowering plants of the district, 
this paper cannot claim to be anything like complete in that 
respect. I have therefore made it more of the descriptive 
and less of the catalogue type, which I trust will not offend 
any of the traditions of this venerable Society. 
I propose taking you, in imagination, first to Caenlochan (a 
tramp of about ten miles), the richest in Alpine plants in the 
district. Starting from the hotel at 8 a.m. we walk up Glen 
Beag, which is shut in at its upper end by the conical-shaped 
mass of the Cairnwell. A gradual rise of 1000 feet takes 
place in six miles, the summit of the mountain rising 1060 
feet higher. The pass is very narrow; practically room only 
for the burn at the bottom of the “ V,” made by the hills on 
either side. By the roadside we notice abundance of our 
native edelweiss—Gnaphalium supinwm. Near the summit 
of the road, and on the steepest part of it, there are two 
awkward acute angles in the road, forming the letter Z, 
called the Devil’s Elbow—a most difficult place to negotiate 
with a coach and four. A little further on and we are 
standing on the watershed between Tay and Dee. Leaving 
