537 



but few specimens in flower. It is said to flower in April and May, 

 but I am quite satisfied that in this locality it was only coming into 

 flower at the time I gathered it: and if I recollect rightly, a dried 

 specimen which I received some years ago, was labelled as having 

 been gathered in July. Of Tofieldia palustris I got just two speci- 

 mens, and of Juncus triglurais only a few. The four plants just named 

 I observed in no part of the ground I traversed, except along the mar- 

 gin of Loch Callader ; but in that station I gathered also Saxifraga 

 stellaris, the viviparous variety of Festuca ovina, and Apargia Tarax- 

 acij now sunk into a variety of Apargia (or Oporinia) autumnalis. The 

 lake itself seems to contain very little that may interest the collector 

 of " weeds." At its southern end, or head, I observed a few plants of 

 Utricularia vulgaris, not then in flower. 1 may here digress so far as 

 to remark, that this plant occurs, very sparingly, in several localities on 

 Deeside ; and that in one locality at least, a moss in the parish of 

 Banchory, U. minor is abundant : neither of these plants, so far as I 

 know, flowered last season. To retuni to Glen Callader. The end at 

 which the lake lies presents some interesting botanical ground, which 

 1 am sorry I had not time to visit. It is surrounded by high rocks, 

 the clefl;s of which contained at the time a few patches of snow. 



My route now lay over the shoulder of a ridge that skirts the east 

 side of Loch Callader, and here commenced my ascent from this inte- 

 resting locality to the still more interesting mass of rock and moun- 

 tain named Loch-na-gar. Instead of at once chmbing the nearest 

 height, I made a considerable circuit through a sort of hollow to the 

 northward ; and, though for some time I could not see the top of the 

 mountain, I felt pretty sure that I was gradually winding in the direc- 

 tion of it. In this zigzag ascent the fii'st plant of any interest that I 

 met with was a solitary bush of Betula nana. As it had neither flower 

 nor fruit, and as I confidently expected to meet with more of it, I 

 plucked but one specimen ; more, however, I did not find. Lycopo- 

 dium aimotinum occurred sparingly. There was, as I have invariably 

 observed in the alpine localities I have visited, abundance of liubus 

 Chamgemorus not flowering, and only a patch here and there partly in 

 flower and partly in fruit. Imbedded in moss, which was saturated 

 with the water of a pei-petual spring, and near perpetual snow, I pick- 

 ed three specimens of a small plant, with a decumbent rooting stem 

 and large blue flowers, and thought I had found the rare Veronica al- 

 pina, on examination, however, it appears to be no more than the va- 

 riety of V. serpyllifolia which is termed humifusa ; I could not detect 

 another specimen. Dr. Murray, " without being certain " that this 



