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little closer examination. The dell all the way up is a perfect picture-gallery of sweet 

 little water-falls, and an hour spent in exploring their varied beauties cannot fail to he 

 pleasantly remembered in after years. To the lover of Flora it will furnish an excel- 

 lent preface to the mighty volume of Ben Lawers, of which I will say something to 

 your readers by and bye ; and the first thing he should do on reaching this snug little 

 inn, is to enquire for the Falls of Lawers. — William Gardiner, jun. ; Ben Lawers Inn, 

 July 6, 1842. 



192. Note on the British Pyrolce. The " Enquiry respecting Pyrola media '' by 

 INIr. Simpson (Phytol. 237), is one of which I should like to see many more examples. 

 I am persuaded the two species P. media and rotundifolia are often confounded : with 

 regard to the latter Hooker observes — "Yorkshire and many places in Scotland are 

 assigned as stations for this plant ; but it is so often confounded with the two follow- 

 ing species (media and minor), that I cannot quote them witli equal certainty." From 

 what I have seen of Pyrola minor in its living state, I should think that no one could 

 confound it with P. media. The rose-coloured, pink or nearly white, and much small- 

 er flowers, and its short style and broad stigma imthout erect points, serve at once to 

 distinguish it. Pyrola media is a much stouter plant, with larger flowers, which are 

 generally whitish, sometimes tinged with pink or rose, and a protruding style, which is 

 almost invariably deflexed and slightly curved, seldom quite straight : the stigma is 

 rightly described as having " five erect points." I have never seen living specimens 

 in flower of Pyrola rotundifolia, and therefore cannot speak so confidently with regard 

 to its being distinct from P. media : from the dried specimens in my possession I can 

 however say that the remarkable curvature of the style, which is considerably longer 

 than that of P. media, seems to me to render the diff"erence between the two very visi- 

 ble, even at first sight. With respect to the leaves I think it is next to impossible for 

 the most acute observer to distinguish between the three species above named, until 

 they are in flower. Pyrola secunda is a very distinct species ; its ovate and serrated 

 leaves and "greenish white'' secund flowers, which do not spread themselves open like 

 those of the other Pyrolas, render the plant at once distinguishable. Pyrola uniflora, 

 now separated from the genus and named Moneses grandiflora, I have never seen 

 except in a dried state : for many years it has not appeared in the two stations near 

 Brodie House ; the other station in Moray I have not visited. With respect to the 

 distribution of the Pyrolee in the only localities with which I am particularly acquaint- 

 ed, I may mention that in my opinion P. minor is the most extensively distributed 

 within the county of Moray, and next to it P. media. P. secunda is rather local. In 

 this district, or rather in the small part of it which I have examined, the two species 

 media and minor are equally and rather abundantly distributed ; while I have not 

 been able to detect more than a single patch of P. secunda, containing about twelve 

 or twenty specimens, and not in flower this season. The only station in which 1 have 

 had an opportunity of seeing P. rotundifolia is that mentioned in the ' Collectanea for 

 a Flora of Moray.' This I visited in July, 1 834 ; the plant was not then in flower. 

 By the way 1 would observe that the Pyrolse in general seem to flower during the 

 months of June and July, not of July and August, as is generally stated. They grow 

 best in shady places, but Pyrola media is often found in heathy ground, and there it 

 flowers earlier, and the flowers assume a whiter hue, tinged with more of pink or 

 rose-colour. — James B. Brichan ; Manse of Banchory, July 7, 1842. 



193. Rhinanthus major and Crista-galli. Some years ago having heard doubts ex- 

 pressed respecting the existence of a real specific distinction between the two species 



