1859.] DUNKELD WOODS AND BIRNAM HILL. 101 



VISIT TO DUNKELD WOODS AND BIRNAM HILL. 



By John Sim. 



In August, 1856, I first visited Dunkeld Woods and Birnam 

 Hill, in search of rare plants. The woods around Dunkeld being 

 part of the Duke of AthoFs domains are, in the literal sense, 

 forbidden ground : not so Birnam Hill ; this, being the property 

 of another, is free of access to all visitors. I took the train 

 from Perth to Birnam (three-quarters of a mile south from 

 Dunkeld), and proceeded along the road (leaving the wood on my 

 left) until I reached the junction of the Braan with the Tay, which 

 is about half a mile north-west of Dunkeld town. In returning I 

 discovered in the plantation the following plants : — Cystopteris 

 fragilis, Melampyrum alpinum, Circaa alpina, Geranium lucidum, 

 Spiraea salicifolia? and Digitalis purpurea, the latter in abundance: 

 this plant, though generally and abundantly distributed through- 

 out the northern parts of Aberdeenshire, is very local and rare 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Perth ; the cause of this I am 

 unable to determine. I soon arrived at the foot of Birnam Hill, 

 and commenced a laborious ascent : this hill is wooded about half- 

 way to the summit. On entering the plantation, near its foot, 

 I gathered Polypodium Phegopteris. It is plentiful, as is also 

 Allosorus crispus, among the rocky debris on the eastern slope 

 of this mountain. On arriving at the other side of the planta- 

 tion, by the side of a small mountain rill, I found a few plants 

 of Saxifraga aizoides, the first I ever saw. A little further up I 

 came upon a lovely carpet of Moss, composed of Bartramia fon- 

 tana and Dicranum squarrosum, through which the water trickled 

 in pellucid drops. Having reached the eastern summit, but not 

 the highest, I sat myself down on its rocky eminence to rest my 

 weary limbs and observe the extensive panorama of Nature 

 around so grand and glorious. Looking westward my observa- 

 tion was limited, the mount on which I stood intercepting the 

 view. Northward rose the huge Grampians, piled as it were 

 one above another in endless confusion ; eastward, as far as the 

 eye could reach, was the spacious valley of Strathmore, bounded 

 on the south by the wooded range of the Sidlaws, and on the 

 north by the lofty mountains of Clova ; close by, in the fore- 

 ground, was the little town of Dunkeld, with its Gothic cathedral ; 



