142 THE REV. MR BAIRd's ADDRESS. 



but tliougli many interesting plants wore noticed, no addition was 

 made to the Flora of the county or district. 



The cherry and the gooseberr}'- were both found in tolerable abun- 

 ance on the wild and precipitous side of Stainsheil Hill, a situation 

 which may be regarded as interesting in reference to the question, 

 whether or not these are to be considered indigenous plants. Perhaps, 

 however, the most interesting plant observed during the excursion 

 was the Littorella lacustris, growing in great abundance on the side of a 

 pond at Primrose Hill, the second time only the plant has been 

 gathered in Berwickshire. It would be endless, however, to eniimerate 

 the other plants observed and admired. Many of those most beautiful, 

 though common plants, but not less beautiful on that account, which 

 adorn our wooded banks and sunny glades, our verdant meadows and 

 marshy grounds, were here scattered in great jorofusion, Menyanthes 

 trifoliata, Cistus Helianthemum, Geranium syhaticum, and G. pratense, 

 different species of the beautiful genus Hypericum, and many others, 

 "But above all," as our Secretary adds in the minutes, " the glorious 

 forest of whins on the side of Stainsheil Hill," then in full bloom, was 

 no doubt a noble sight, and "will long be remembered with delight 

 by those who witnessed it ;" nor will it be less memorable on account 

 of the severe penance endured in forcing a painful and thorny passage 

 through them. 



But if nothing new was added to the Flora or Fauna of the district 

 by this day's walk, an interesting addition was made to our knowledge 

 of its geology, scarcely any other part of Berwickshire, perhaps, pre- 

 senting, in so small a compass, so many geological appearances, 

 interesting in themselves, and important to illustrate the geology of 

 the county. As the result of the observations made on that occasion, 

 however, with a more extended geological survey of the neighbouring 

 district, has been promised to be laid before the Club in the shape of 

 a regular paper, it is needless at present to do more than to notice the 

 subject in the most general manner. The prevailing rocks at Preston 

 Bridge, and for about a mile and a half above it, are merely slates, 

 sandstones, and other rocks, apparently belonging to the coal forma- 

 tion ; — not that the general aspect of the rocks themselves, which are 

 exceedingly unlike those of the coal formation in other parts of the 

 country, still less any appearance or any probability of coal being 

 found among them, indicate them as belonging to this class of rocks, 

 but the position they occupy with reference to other rocks, which will 

 be noticed immediately, and the difficulty of regarding them as mem- 

 bers of any other formation, seem to forbid us from arriving at any 

 other conclusion. After travelling over these strata upwards of a mile 

 above the bridge, in which distance we find them frequently traversed 

 by dykes of claystone, porphyry, and basalt, they are succeeded by 

 what is undoubtedly the old red sandstone formation, and this again, 

 at no great distance, is succeeded by the greywacke and greywacke- 



