Feb. 1900.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 285 



ings in Norway, it has to be recorded of this also, that it 

 has been repeatedly injured by fire, and wholly destroyed 

 in the sixteenth, and again in the eighteenth, century. A 

 thorough restoration to its early form is now going on, the 

 stone used being the bluish soapstone (kltebersten), from 

 quarries near Trondhjem, and marble from the island of 

 Almenningen. 



Taking train from Trondhjem for about forty miles to 

 Storen, a pretty place at the confluence of the Sokna and 

 Gula rivers, we hired a carriage on 27th July for a 

 two days' drive to our botanical ground, and we had not 

 proceeded far before we came to a sign-post at a cross-road 

 with the words, " Fra Trondjhem till Kristiauia over 

 Dovre." This looked like getting to business at la^t, 

 and one could not help thinking that if the Norwegian 

 language were all as plain as this, any Scotsman might 

 travel through Norway without any trouble as regards 

 the language. But unfortunately it is not so, and the 

 greatest help a Britisher gets in making himself under- 

 stood arises from the humiliating fact that English is 

 spoken in all the parts of Norway which are frequented 

 by tourists. 



Early in the twelfth century the King of Norway 

 caused roads to be made and inns to be established for 

 the use of travellers crossing the Dovrefjeld. Some of 

 these mountain inns, or posting stations, are still subsidised 

 by the State. 



Our drive this day was interesting in many ways, from 

 the varying scenery and the plants met with, or at least 

 seen from the carriage ; and as we were often going up 

 hill at a foot's pace it was possible to leave the carriage 

 and gather a specimen from time to time. We got as 

 far as Stuen, where we spent a night very comfortably. 

 A stove in the sitting-room at night was welcome, as it 

 is a cold region ; indeed, for the next ten days we rather 

 missed our winter clothing in the evenings. Among the 

 plants observed were — Saxifraga cotyledon, S. aizoides 

 (with its var. aurantiaca), and S. stellaris ; Erioplwrum 

 cdpinum, a very delicate plant growing in great abundance 

 in marshy uplands, and not likely to be disestablished by 

 drainage, as has been the case in Scotland ; Campamda 



