Feb. 1900.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBUKGII 



jS'otes on a Visit to the Dovrefjeld, Norway, in 

 July and August 1899. By John Montgomerie 

 Bell, W.S. 



(Read 8th February 1900.)* 



Having been interested in the flowers of Norway on 

 previous visits, and having learned that the Dovrefjeld was 

 the best botanical ground in that country, I arranged to 

 visit that district last summer along with Mr. Alexander 

 Cowan, of renicuik, a well-known collector of plants. 



The Dovrefjeld is a large mountainous district, separating 

 southern from northern Norway. It may be reached either 

 from Trondhjem, on the north-west, or from Christiania, on 

 the south-east, as well as in other ways. Our plan was to 

 reach it from Trondhjem, and to work through it till we 

 reached the railway to Christiania. We sailed from 

 Grangemouth on 12th July in the s.s. "Norway" for 

 Ekersund, at the south-western extremity of Norway, with 

 tickets enabling us to return from Christiania. After a 

 tolerable voyage — the North Sea is seldom more than 

 tolerable — we landed at Ekersund early in the morning of 

 the 14th, and proceeded by rail to Stavanger, a run of two 

 and a half hours. The route lay chiefly along the sea- 

 coast, and the flora, as seen from the train, seemed similar 

 to what we have at home, except that we observed Arnica 

 montana growing in the meadows, and the blue lupin 

 (Lupinus angnstifolius), neither of which did we meet with 

 again. 



From Stavanger, next day, we had a beautiful sail in 

 sheltered waters to Bergen. This old town is picturesquely 

 situated on a hilly peninsula overlooking the sea, with steep 

 lofty mountains in the immediate background. We had 

 only time for a drive to various points of interest, in- 

 cluding the large villa belonging to the composer Edouard 

 Grieg, as we had to sail the same night by another steamer 

 for Trondhjem, which was reached at 2 a.m. on the l7th. 

 In passing Molde we saw the German Emperor's yacht, the 

 " Hohenzollern," lying at anchor. Trondhjem, a town of thirty 

 thousand inhabitants, which was founded about a thousand 

 years ago, and in which the Kings of Sweden and Norway 



TRANS. BOT. SOC. EDIX. VOL. XXI. U 



