603 



my sight. It was the only wild thing in the shape of a flower that 1 

 had seen since I left Morayshire. Between Loch Insh and Kingussie 

 there stretches a vast alluvial plain, in which are dug up the roots and 

 trunks of fir trees, known in Scotland by the name of " moss fir." It 

 is well known that the whole district was once covered with pine. 

 Kingussie signifies "the head of the fir-wood," and Badenoch, "a clump 

 or patch of trees." The plain must have formed, at one time, the 

 bottom of a lake, of which Loch Insh is all that remains. 



The weather, as I returned to-day, was equally delightful as be- 

 fore, and wood, and moor, and mountain, seemed " to listen for the 

 rustle of their leaves." Vanessa Urtica), our earliest butterfly, flutter- 

 ed around me in considerable numbers. The district, in point of cli- 

 mate, seems not far behind the " How of Moray." Another week, or 

 fortnight at most, would bring it up to the point which the lower and 

 more temperate district had reached when I left it. 



The Cairngorm group has frequently witnessed the enthusiastic 

 rambler after " weeds " scaling its craggy sides, gathering its treasures, 

 and laving his burning brow or parched throat in its cool and delicious 

 fountains. I am not aware that the district of Badenoch has often 

 been botanically perlustrated ; but I am quite sure that its richly va- 

 ried scenery — the extensive plain alluded to — its inferior ranges of 

 hills — the rocky steeps of the "wild and majestic" Craig-dhu — the 

 sweet sequestered Loch Uvie — and the beautiful Loch Laggan, 

 which, though not so large or so well known, may vie with Lochness — 

 would afford to the botanist who could devote a summer month to its 

 examination, as rich a treat and as abundant a harvest as any other 

 part of " the stern Scottish Highlands." 



April 18. — Dalnashauch Inn, near Bridge of Avon. I have just 

 passed over fourteen miles of excellent road between Grantown and 

 this uncouthly named locality ; and I must bother you a little more 

 with almost the same negation of Botany which at present chsuractcr- 

 izes the district above described, and my description thereof. I am 

 near the wildly situated Bridge of Avon (pronounced Awn), and hear 

 the unceasing sound of that rapid mountain toiTcnt which issues from 

 Loch Avon, at the foot of Scotland's highest hill — Ben-mac-dui, and 

 of which the honest old farmer, mentioned in Sir T. Lauder's 'Moray- 

 shire Floods,' said, alluding to a piece of ground of which the Avon 

 had just deprived him, "I took it frae the Avon, and let the Avon hae 

 its ain again." Certainly this has very little to do with Botany, and 

 amounts to something very like a negation of it. But that I may not 

 be altogether barren on the subject that is dear to all phyloloijicai 



