378 NOTES OF A BOTANICAL RAMBLE ON BEN LEDi. [December, 



the Rev. G. E. Smith, is much interfered with, both pictorially 

 and botanically, by the ugly gash cut right through it by the 

 railway. Ou both accounts, now even, it is still well worthy a 

 visit. 



To go a mile or two beyond your correspondents^ range, but 

 in the same district, I may add that a recent visit to Lympne 

 (November, 1861) yielded Smyrnium Olusatrum and Lavatera 

 arborea. At Lympne, the greensand range ends, or rather di- 

 verges from the coast line, and the flats of Romney Marsh begin ; 

 here moreover the antiquary may find much to interest him in 

 the stalwart remains of the old Roman encampment, and of the 

 raediseval castle and church, — the latter on the brow of the hill, 

 the former nearly at the bottom, — a position due in some degree 

 to the frequent landslips. A rambler with natural-history tastes 

 finds so much generally besides natural history to attract his^^at- 

 tention, that I may be excused for adding a word or two on the 

 Roman walls of Lympne, especially as your correspondents have 

 had their say about Richborough. There the walls are mainly of 

 flint with bands of tile, and here and there masses of tufa, brought 

 probably from Italy as ballast : this at least is the suggestion of 

 a practical geologist and naturalist. At Lympne the walls are of 

 greensand, Kentish rag, and — sandwich-wise — layers of thick tile. 

 The condition of the stone, especially of the rag, is seemingly as 

 good as it ever was, — a fact for the House of Parliament Decay 

 Commissioners to ponder over. At both Richborough and 

 Lympne Helix lapicida may be found. M. T. M. 



NOTES OF A BOTANICAL E AMBLE ON BEN LEDI. 



On a beautiful morning, about the middle of July, a few ar- 

 dent lovers of Flora left the Scottish capital for the purpose of 

 exploring the botanical treasures of Ben Ledi. That noble moun- 

 tain is about three miles west of Callander, in Perthshire, and 

 rises nearly 3000 feet above the sea-level. It does not seem to 

 be much noticed in botanical works in indicating the localities of 

 Scottish alpine Flora. The party referred to, of which the writer 

 was one, were resolved to see with their eyes what plants were 

 really to be found on its rocky sides and bald grey summit. We 

 ascended the mountain from the banks of Loch Lubnaig, and 



