[April, 1862.] 



BOTANICAL LETTERS EEOM AEGYLESHIEE. 



By James Lothian. 



No. III. An Hour at Machrihanish Bay. 



Sir, — To talk of field botany and botanical excursions in drear 

 December and bleak January is pleasant enough seated beside a 

 cheerful parlour fire, or to look back on excursions made during 

 the long sunny days of July and August, or even to chalk out, 

 in our mind's eye, a series of ramblings when the merry month 

 oi" May has once more sprinkled our banks and lanes with golden 

 Primroses and blue Violets, — when the beautiful May-tree, the 

 poet's 



" Milk-white tlioru that scents the evening gale," 



has again filled the air with its balmy perfume, — wlien our mea- 

 dows teem with beauty and verdure, and 



" Daisies and buttei'cups gladden the sight 

 Like treasiu'es of silver and gold ; " 



the very air thus giving buoyancy to our spirits, and the swift- 

 ness of the roe to our feet, giving the botanical wanderer an eye 

 of far keener edge than the most expert detective. 



To take the fields however in reality in the midst of a January's 

 pitiless storm is a very different thing, even although having the 

 prospect of being amply rewarded by a full vasculum of Ferns or 

 Mosses, or a choice basketful of dulse. But after all, there are 

 days, times, and seasons, which, as we trudge on our way on the 

 journey of life where duty leads, often compels us to take the 

 fields during the brumal period of the year ; and, if only for a few 

 minutes, it is seldom that the botanist and naturalist will fail to 

 profit by them. 



During the Christmas and New-year's holidays, many who, as 

 Cowper says, are immured during the season in the " city's smoke 

 and dusky alley," so often longed for, now escape, for a few days 

 at least, from the vicissitudes of its pent-up atmosphere, — glad, 

 ay glad, even amidst the rigours of a winter's storm, to escape 

 and revisit the valleys and the hills, where the breeze is balm, 

 ever fresh, ever free. Many a youthful student who, during the 

 preceding months, has pored over his studies by the midnight 

 lamp, now, as soon as his instructors have announced in the 

 class-room that he and his colleagues are free for a Aveek or tea 



N. S. VOL. VI, o 



