1861.] PLANTS OF INVERMAY. 269 



PLANTS OF TNVER]\IAY. 



Seven Hours' Botanizing in the Den of Invermay. 

 By John Sim, A.B.S.Ecl. 



The " Birks of Invermay/' so finely celebrated in Scottish 

 song, I have long wished to visit ; not so much with a view to 

 admire the scenery as to explore the botany. 



The Den of Invermay, which contains the " Birks,'' extends 

 from about a mile below Invermay House until the Ochil Hills, 

 from which the small river May has its source. This rapid 

 stream traverses the entire Den from beginning to end, until 

 within a mile of its junction with the Earn, where the ground is 

 flat on both its banks. 



The May, unlike the sluggish Earn, is a pure and rapid 

 stream, abounding in trout, and adorned with the most exquisite 

 scenery imaginable. The* small river comes bounding down 

 along a rocky channel, at one time purling gently along amongst 

 boulders, at another leaping over precipitous rocks and falling in 

 deep pools, again rapidly pursuing its course onward, confined 

 in deep fissures worn by its waters during the lapse of countless 

 ages already gone by. This is a theme for a geologist, who will 

 find much in these water-worn rocks to amuse and instruct. 



The banks of the May are well wooded with "Birk" (Birch), 

 Oak, Hazel, and Ash, etc., the three former undoubtedly planted 

 by Nature and not by man. The fragrant Birch -trees are cer- 

 tainly of great antiquity, as their immense size plainly indicates. 

 The Oaks too are often large, and well bound with Ivy. 



The river May traverses the parish of Forteviot, and after a 

 course of about nine miles from its source in the Ochil Hills, 

 falls into the Earn, near the bridge of Forteviot, about six miles 

 south-west of Perth. 



As I said, I had long intended to visit the Den of Invermay, 

 but I never, from some cause or other, accomplished my design 

 until the 4th of June, 1861, when I and a young friend took 

 train for Forteviot station, and on arriving there we steered our 

 course directly up the left bank of the May, for the purpose of 

 collecting and examining the wild-flowers which grew in the vi- 

 cinity of this little river. What we got there dui'ing our seven 

 hours' ramble, you shall now see. In sheep-pasture, a little to 

 the^ south of Forteviot station, we saw an immense quantity 



