18G3.] KEViEw. 443 



solidatiiig, heating, drying", and healing, as Comfrey, Bugle, Self-heal, or 

 any other of the compounds or vulnerary herbs wliatsoever.' " 



There are many whose faith is but small in the healing quali- 

 ties of these plants, but who will assent to the creed of the good 

 old herbalist "that Sanicle is as eftective as Self-heal/' 



" The ruins of the Castle of Balvenie yield some botanical rarities. 

 Near the Castle you meet with one of the Winter Greens, Pi/rola secunda ? 

 On the walls grow Eroum Jiirsidum, Authriscus vulgaris, Matricaria Par- 

 thewium (Feverfew), the last being an introduced plant, but now growing 

 wild in several parts of the country. This plant was held in old time to 

 be under Venus, and to have great healing virtues. Among its other 

 qualities, ' the distilled water taketh away freckles, and other spots and 

 deformities in the face.' Another of the same genus is a most noxious 

 weed in every part, M. inodora, with a variety having fleshy leaves, which 

 grows along the seaside. In some parts of the county this plant goes 

 by the name of ' Horse Gowans,' whilst in other parts, another, and a 

 much more handsome plant, the Ox-eye Daisy, bears that name. In a 

 field near the Castle grows Thlaspi arvense (Penny-cress), a somewhat 

 rare plant. It gets its name from the form of its seeds, htmg flat pouches. 

 It is named Penny-cress i'rom a fancied resemblance in the size and form 

 of the seed-vessel to a silver penny. It bears also the names of Smooth 

 Treacle or Mithridate Mustard, because it is best for compounding what 

 old medical men called ' Treakle and mithridate, for it is held to be itself 

 an antidote resisting poyson and venome.' The seeds are said to yield 

 more oil than linseeds. The plant has the smell of Garlic, and if cows 

 eat it, it imparts that flavour to the milk. 



"We are soon on the road for Tomintoul, eighteen miles ahead of 

 us, with a gloomy sky and wet roads. With stout legs and merry hearts 

 we pi-oceecl, and land in Mr. Findlater's duck-pond, a little above the 

 station. It yielded Bartsla Odontites and Jimciis biifonius, both common 

 plants. The fields about Dufftown are gay with Sow-thistle, Sonckus 

 arvensis, a tall handsome yellow flower of the Coynpositce . It, as well as 

 another, S. oleraceiis, is abundant. Dufl'town is soon in our rear, and we 

 are ofl" the highway into every bog, and ditch, and field, but meet with 

 little remarkable. In a bog in a small wood beyond Dufftown, and before 

 coming upon the farm of Lettoch, we meet with our old friend Drosera 

 rotundi/olia, also Triglochin palustre. Sediim villosum makes its appear- 

 ance. It is one of the Stonecrops, so called from their growing on the 

 tops of dykes, and on rocks with a thin coating of soil. Another species, 

 having bright yellow flowers, is abundant. It is Sedum acre (Wall Pep- 

 per). x\n old herbalist says : ' It is under the dominion of the moon, 



