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Art. CXXIX. — Notes of a Solitary Ramble to Loch-na-gar Sj-c, with 

 Remarks on several species of Plants collected in the course of 

 it, on the \Uh of July, 1842. By Mr. J. B. Brichan. 



Wearied with a walk of at least twenty miles, 1 arrived at Castle- 

 ton of Braemar about 9 o'clock on the evening of Wednesday the 1 3th 

 of July. For several miles, further down the Dee, I had found the 

 pretty alpine plant, Alchemilla alpina, in situations where neither river 

 nor torrent could have carried it from its native bed. In these situa- 

 tions, therefore, it is strictly wild, but at what height above the sea I 

 am unable to say. This plant is found also within a iew miles of 

 Aberdeen, where it has undoubtedly been washed down and planted 

 by the river. 



At half-past 7 the next morning I left Castleton, and proceeded in 

 the direction of Loch Callader, which lies to the south-west of the 

 "dark Loch-na-gar," and the vicinity of which has been visited and 

 explored by botanists times and ways innumerable. In my walk to 

 this localitiy, to which one half of the road runs through Glen Calla- 

 der, and through ground which is altogether highland, I met with no 

 plants strictly alpine, except Alchemilla alpina, Oxyria reniformis, 

 Saxifraga aizoides and S. stellaris. The sides of the road and ground 

 adjacent were covered with hosts of plants, which, as they are, gene- 

 rally speaking, found in all situations and at all elevations, I do not 

 consider in any sense alpine. Polygonum viviparum, for instance, I 

 have frequently seen at almost no distance from the sea, and at hardly 

 any height above its level. Oxyria reniformis, Saxifraga aizoides, 

 and, if 1 mistake not, Saxifraga stellaris also, are, like Alchemilla al- 

 pina, found at a great distance from their natural habitats, by the side 

 of the river already mentioned. I believe the same is the case with 

 respect to many other alpine productions, and with respect to every 

 river that has its source among the hills. 



When I had arrived at Loch Callader, and had learned from the 

 occupant of the solitary abode at its northern extremity, the best way 

 to Loch-na-gar, I proceeded along the western margin of the lake, 

 where, as the same obliging individual informed me, most tveeds are 

 to be found. I was first struck with the minute leaves of Thalictrum 

 alpinum growing among the stones and moss close to the water. I 

 saw them in great abundance almost to the head of the lake, but I 

 could not detect more than half a dozen perfect plants, and these al- 

 most entirely in fruit. The beautiful Saxifraga oppositifolia next at- 

 tracted my attention ; there were a good many tufts or patches of it, 



