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with, but it is well fitted for dry lands. Italian rye-grass might be 

 sown with advantage, as it thrives in a mild climate. We did not see 

 this grass during our walk. Catabrosa aquatica is a very nutritious, 

 saccharine grass, which does well in wet land where draining cannot 

 be carried on easily. In Belgium, Dr. Parnell informed me, it is 

 much used for fodder, and the cows there are said to give excellent 

 milk and butter. Near Taynlone this grass occupies a great extent 

 of the sea-shore, and the seeds might easily be collected in large quan- 

 tity. The poisonous darnel-grass was met with among the crops in 

 several places ; although it did not occur in such quantity as to give 

 rise to injurious effects, so far as we could ascertain. It ought, how- 

 ever, to be extirpated, as cases of poisoning have occurred from using 

 it in the preparation of bread. 



Besides the part of Can tyre to which I have alluded, on our return 

 from Islay, we also examined part of the shore of Loch Tarbet, near 

 its northern extremity, and the neck of land between west and east 

 Tarbet, which is not much more than a mile broad. Boats are some- 

 times carried across from one sea to the other ; and there is a curious 

 fable mentioned by Pennant, that Donald Bane ceded the western 

 Isles to Magnus, as the condition of his receiving the aid of Norway 

 against the fainily of Malcolm. By the contract, Magnus was to 

 have all the islands, — the definition of an island being, whatever 

 could be circumnavigated. The Norwegians, it is said, caused his 

 boat to be drawn across the isthmus, between the two lochs Tarbet, 

 and thus included Cantyre in the bargain. This story is considered 

 as a mere fable by Macculloch. 



The shores of Loch Tarbet are beautiful and picturesque, and the 

 sail up the Loch in a fine day is very interesting. The country around 

 has an undulated surface, with here and there some fine woods com- 

 ing down to the water's edge, and surrounding cultivated spots of va- 

 rious extent. We made a few additions to the Flora of Cantyre, on 

 the shores of the Loch, by picking Milium effusum, Circaea interme- 

 dia, and large specimens of Salix pentandra. 



I now proceed to give an account of our excursion to the island of 

 Islay, and in doing so, I shall allude only to the more interesting phane- 

 rogamous plants and ferns, inasmuch as the mosses, lichens and sea- 

 weeds observed by the party, possessed no attractions as regards rarity. 



