768 



tion, or springing from seed accidentally dropped. It should be 

 omitted in like manner from all our general and local floras, having 

 no plea to urge in favour of retention beyond unmeaning adherence 

 to custom from blind submission to precedent and authority, or from 

 a desire to increase as much as possible the apparent botanical riches 

 of a district by a parade of borrowed wealth. See Mr. Watson's 

 pithy remarks on this subject in ' Cybele Britannica,' vol. ii. p. 341. 



Wm. A. Bromfield. 

 Eastmount, Ryde, Isle of Wight, 

 November, 1849. 



(To be continued.) 



Some Account of a Botanical Trip in Scotland. 

 By James Backhouse, Jun., Esq. 



In the early part of 7th month (July) last, our little party, compris- 

 ing my friend John Tatham, of Settle, my father and self, left the 

 railway at Forfar to spend a few days among the Clova and Glen lsla 

 mountains. During the excursion we visited Glen Phee, Glen Dole, 

 the ravine of the White Water, Glen Callater, Doch Dhu (Dhuloch), 

 Lochnagar, the Glass Mhiel mountains and Canlochen Glen. As all 

 these localities have been previously explored and their botanical ra- 

 rities described, it will be unnecessary to occupy space in the 'Phy- 

 tologist' by minute detail. I shall therefore only touch upon those 

 points which may convey fresh information, or manifest some de- 

 cidedly interesting feature. 



On " The Bassies," the mountain due west of the hamlet of Clova, 

 a form of Hieracium Schmidtii (Tausch), H. diaphanum (Fries and 

 Bab.), with fewer and larger flowers than usual, occurs : the stem-leaf 

 is half-clasping, if not decidedly amplexicaul. Was the true] H. 

 amplexicaule ever really found on the Clova Mountains by G. Don ? 

 or was it only some shaggy and strongly amplexicaul form of H. 

 Schmidtii like this ? 



The range of hills comprising " Carlowie," " The Bassies " and 

 "The Scorie," is composed of mica slate, covered on the top with 

 granitic sand or gravel. On the granitic knolls at the top Azalea 

 procumbens forms fine tufts. On the summit of Lochnagar, which is 

 entirely granitic, it grows in still greater luxuriance, covering the 

 ground in some places like a carpet studded over with exquisite little 

 pink blossoms. ^ 



