Notes of a Botanical Excursion to Braemar. 123 



dissolving snows ; the Forget-me-not of the mountain sum- 

 mit, whose tints far excel those of its namesake of the brooks ; 

 the Woodsia with its tufted fronds adorning the clefts of the 

 rocks ; the snowy Gentian concealing its eye of blue in the 

 ledges of the steep crags ; the alpine Astragalus enlivening the 

 turf with its purple clusters ; the Lychnis choosing the stony 

 and dry knoll for the evolution of its pink petals ; the Sonchus 

 {Mulgedium) raising its stately stalk and azure heads in spots 

 which try the enthusiasm of the adventurous collector ; the 

 pale-flowered Oxytropis confining itself to a single British 

 cliff ; the Azalea forming a carpet of the richest crimson ; the 

 Saxifrages with their white, yellow, and pink blossoms cloth- 

 ing the sides of the streams ; the Saussurea and Erigeron 

 crowning the rocks with their purple and pink capitula ; the 

 pendent Cinquefoil blending its yellow flowers with the white 

 of the alpine Cerastiums and the bright blue of the stony 

 Veronica ; the stemless Silene giving a pink and velvety 

 covering to the decomposing granite ; the yellow Hieracia 

 whose varied transition forms have furnished such a fertile 

 cause of dispute among botanists ; the slender and delicate 

 grasses, the chickweeds, the carices, and the rushes, which 

 spring up on the moist alpine summits ; the graceful ferns, 

 the tiny mosses, with their urn-like thecse, the crustaceous 

 dry lichens with their spore-bearing apothecia, all these add 

 such a charm to Highland botany as to throw a comparative 

 shade over the vegetation of the plains. 



A party, consisting of Messrs Murchison, Gilby, Ivory, 

 Hewetson, Morse, Douglas, H. Balfour, and myself, met at 

 Aberdeen on the 6th of August 1847, with the view of making 

 an extended botanical trip. Some of the party had been at- 

 tending the Highland Society's Agricultm*al Show at Aber- 

 deen, and had made an excursion with Dr Dickie to Denmore, 

 in the course of which they gathered Diphyscium foliosum, 

 Gooclyera repens, Utricularia minor in flower, and large speci- 

 mens of Drosera anylica. On the 7tli August, the whole 

 party left Aberdeen by the mail for Ballater, a small village, 

 beautifully situated on the Dee, about 780 feet above the 

 level of the sea, and famous as the resort of invalids who 

 wish to enjoy mountain air, and to have the benefit of the 



