HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIRE. 13 



beautiful meadow and some very fertile fields. The base of the 

 famous mountain Ben Ledi, which is bounded by Loch Ven- 

 nachar on the south and by Loch Lubnaig on the north and 

 north-east, is washed as well as bounded by these two branches, 

 which, by their union, form the Teith. 



In the evening we walked out across the Teith on the cow- 

 pasture lying to the west of Callander, between the road which 

 is the nearest way to the Trosachs but not the coach-road 

 and the road to Port Menteith. In the boggy places here, we 

 collected Pinguicula vulgaris, Narthecium ossifragum, not yet in 

 flower (4th of July), Gymnadenia conopsea, the most fragrant of 

 our native Orchids, especially in a moist or dewy evening, and 

 the Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium), a plant famous in 

 Celtic poetry : 



" Oh, what is fairer than the Canna, waving in the breeze, 

 When summer laughs in flowery pride, and verdure clothes the trees ?" 



A greater minstrel than the author of these neat lines notices the 

 Canna in another state, 



" Still is the Canna's hoary beard." 



On the banks and along the bottom of a small rill adjoining, 

 Mimulus luteus was well established ; it was also observed in the 

 ditch by the side of the Menteith road, but not so plentiful 

 as in the above-mentioned locality, the little drain through the 

 meadow. 



Another very interesting walk from Callander is along the 

 Comrie road, which leaves the village on the east and slants up 

 the base of the hill which is crowned by Callander crags. This 

 road crosses the Keltic burn, and passes through Glen Artney, 

 having Ben Voirlich on the left and the Braes of Doune on the 

 right. This is a very desolate tract, of great extent, but of a stern 

 and inhospitable aspect. Peat-mosses, wide moors, bluff, round, 

 heathery hills, and miles of very rough pasturage, comprise the 

 scenery of this uninviting landscape. In this direction there is 

 no cultivation visible. A very few Rowan-trees (Mountain Ash) 

 skirt the kailyards of the few dwellings of the herdsmen ; every- 

 where else, in this region, trees are as rare as they are in the 

 King's Park at Edinburgh. On the Callander side of the hill, 

 Habenaria bifolia and //. chlorantha were collected, the former 

 in great force, the latter only sparingly ; witk these, Orchis ma- 



