66 BOTANY OP THE BREADALBANE MOUNTAINS. [MaVch, 



interspersed here and there with C. capillaris and Draba incana. 

 Sagina saxatilis was common on barren spots which had been 

 recently covered with snow. As we chmbed still higher and 

 higher^ steering amidst the clouds, we met with Veronica himii- 

 fusa in abundance; also Sibbaldia procumbens, Salios herbacea, 

 Aira alpina, and a profusion of Saxifraga nivalis. On the high- 

 est ledges were Draba conjusa and Luzula spicata. Except an 

 occasional glimpse, we were enveloped in cloud all the day, and 

 only escaped from it by descending to a lower level in the 

 evening. 



On another occasion, a few days subsequently, we had the 

 satisfaction of finding what might truly be called ^' the home" of 

 Woodsia alpina. Just think of luxuriating in the sight of tufts 

 bearing sixty-five, eighty, and even one hundred fronds, from 

 two to four inches high. On one ledge of rock I counted seven 

 tufts, all visible without moving a step. Some are difficult to 

 reach, and even dangerous. One most luxuriant tuft of (appa- 

 rently) forty to fifty-five fronds remains in a conspicuous posi- 

 tion, quite near enough to show its true character, but guarded 

 by crags that threaten almost certain destruction to any one who 

 dares to attempt to touch it ! 



No one who has seen the true W. alpina growing in the pro- 

 fusion which we did, would doubt its entire distinctness from 

 W. ilvensis : the erect, dense tufts of silvery-green, narrow 

 fronds of the former are very diverse, both in habit and appear- 

 ance, from those of the latter, of which we found a few days 

 afterwards fourteen plants, in less than an hour, in the Dum- 

 fries-shire mountains. 



On Ben Lawers we were rewarded, as all who venture to scale 

 its high crags and broken, silvery-looking, micaceous ravines, 

 will be, with the beauteous tufts of Myosotis alpestris, whose 

 dense clusters of deep-blue flowers throw into the shade the 

 charms of all our other native " Forget-me-nots." Near the 

 summit we saw many scores of plants of Saxifraga cernua, some 

 of which were three inches high, but none in blossom, and se- 

 veral specimens of Draba rupestris. We also saw lower down 

 (on the crags) Gentiana nivalis several times, hundreds of tufts of 

 Arenaria rubella, and one plant of Erigeron alpinus. On less 

 elevated parts, Pseudathyrium alpestre was the common Fern, 

 associated with Polystichum Lonchilis of unusual size. The 



