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Art. LXIV. — Sketch of an Excursion to the Clova Mountains, in 

 Juhj and August, 1840.* By William Gardiner, Esq., Jun. 



In company with a botanical friend, I left Dundee on the morning 

 of the 27th of July by the first railway train for Glammis, where we 

 arrived about half past 10 o'clock. Between that place and Kinie- 

 muir nothing of consequence attracted our attention, except abun- 

 dance of Galeopsis versicolor in the cornfields, and the unusual beauty 

 and exuberance of the more common flowers. We despatched our 

 baggage to Clova from Kirriemuir, and walked on ourselves for the 

 purpose of botanizing by the way. From the latter place to Cortachy 

 there was little to cheer us save our own glad thoughts and joyful an- 

 ticipations, and the beauty of the scenery through which we passed, 

 steeped in the bright radiance of a summer sun. Beyond Cortachy, 

 however, we began to come among the mountains, and some traces of 

 subalpine vegetation made their appearance. Agrostis vulgaris var. 7. 

 pumila was our first acquisition, and soon after we came upon Habe- 

 naria bifolia and Narthecium ossifi-agum, both very common to sub- 

 alpine places, such as the Sidlaw Hills. We next met with Viola 

 lutea in grassy places by the waysides ; and this beautiful mountain 

 violet occurred more or less profusely all the way up the glen to its 

 very top. On little knolls beyond a miserable public-house dignified 

 by the high-sounding appellation of the Red Lion Inn, we met with 

 Habenaria albida : and being now at the foot of the mountains we made 

 a short deviation from the road, and gathered firom a large detached 

 rock Alectoria jubata var. (3. chalybeiformis and Andra3a rupestris. 

 By the sides of rills abundance of Saxifraga stellaris and aizoides 

 showed themselves, and on the heaths we picked a single stalk of 

 Erica Tetralix with white flowers, and one or two of the pink-flowered 

 variety of E. cinerea. Farther up the Glen we found Meum athaman- 

 ticum in abundance by the waysides, and by the margin of the Esk 

 grew Carex aquatilis in great luxuriance, along with Galium boreale, 

 and here and there a specimen of Cnicus heterophyllus. Some little 

 distance beyond the " smithy" Pyrola media occurred, though spar- 

 ingly and past its prime, as was Polygonum viviparum with which it 

 was associated. Alchemilla alpina now showed itself, and was our 

 constant companion wherever Ave went, during our stay at Clova. 



Pretty well loaded for the first day, we reached the hamlet of Clova 

 in time to enjoy the glorious spectacle of an alpine sun- set, and soon 



*Reacl before the Botanical Society of Edinburgli, Deoember 10, 1840. 



