HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIRE. 19 



under the sun-beams, Alloa, famous for its ale, Carron, for its 

 cooking-stoves, and Kippen, celebrated for its facetious and home- 

 draughting king. We reached Menteith, after a toilsome walk 

 " through the moors, among the heather," in about three hours. 

 The Crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) was the sole interesting no- 

 velty of this long walk ; but we lighted on some ornithological 

 specimens, and in particular upon a covey of the birds that feed 

 on the berries of this plant. The poor little things had not long 

 left the shell. 



By the churchyard of Menteith, opposite to the inn (an inn 

 is an important house in the Highlands, for there inns are few 

 and far between), we noticed some plants of Valeriana pyrenaica, 

 which had no appearance of being natural 'in that spot, although, 

 as reported, it may exist in some of the many woods with which 

 that neighbourhood abounds. By a wall in the village Malva 

 moschata was observed. This plant must be placed in the same 

 class as the Valerian above mentioned, " not wild in Scotland, so 

 far as known to us." Several plants of Malva sylvestris were 

 seen in gardens, or where they had been certainly planted ; but 

 a single example of any wild Mallow never occurred to us in 

 Scotland. We know that our common Mallows, viz. M. sylves- 

 tris, M. moschata, and M. rotundifolia, are registered as the 

 spontaneous productions of the country about Edinburgh, Glas- 

 gow, and Aberdeen ; but we did not see any of- them except 

 those above mentioned, and they were evidently stragglers, if 

 not the descendants of the formerly-cultivated individuals. Our 

 time at Edinburgh was very short ; but large and striking plants, 

 like those of the Malvaceous Order, could not have been passed 

 by unnoticed, if they existed there as they, or two of them at 

 least, do about every town and village in the south of England. 

 In Perthshire we ignore the Mallows entirely, because we believe 

 Nature ignores them ; and in reference to the Valerian of Men- 

 teith, we may bring in the verdict which a Scotch jury is allowed 

 to give when the evidence is conflicting or unsatisfactory, viz. that 

 the claims of Valeriana pyrenaica, as a wild plant in Scotland, 

 are " not proven " by the evidence which we have to offer. In 

 a meadow adjoining one of the cottages at Port Menteith, fine 

 specimens of Sedum Telephium were collected. This plant is pro- 

 bably wild, though it is often kept in cottage gardens : its vul- 

 nerary or sanative virtues are perpetuated in its vernacular name, 



