26 BOTANICAL TOUR IN THE 



as well as domestic animals may be improved, yet their dis- 

 tinctive natural characters remain the same. It may be sub- 

 mitted that there is no evidence that domestic animals and cul- 

 tivated plants ever existed, or could exist, without the aid of man. 

 Cereal plants could not long exist unless the soil were kept clear 

 of weeds ; they would soon be choked by the myriads of hardier 

 plants which, in their turn, would be superseded by other forms 

 of vegetation. Few garden flowers grow wild in a neglected 

 garden. How long would the capercailzies and pheasants of 

 our lowland woods, and the hares and rabbits of our hills, exist, 

 if the vermin (the beasts and birds of prey) were not kept under 

 by the establishments of game-keepers and trappers which are 

 everywhere maintained by the owners of the soil and the pro- 

 tectors of the game ? It is not to be gainsaid that wild plants 

 (plants naturally wild) are transferred to gardens, and do become 

 useful and ornamental objects of cultivation. But, on the other 

 hand, it is firmly asserted that the vulgar notion that all our fine 

 flowering plants were originally wildings, and that all our Cereal, 

 Leguminiferous, and esculent plants, 'of whatever sort they be, 

 were, at some remote period, only existent in a wild or natural 

 state, is not only unsupported by any reliable evidence, but is 

 now incapable of satisfactory proof. 



We had now zigzagged about two- thirds of our way to Killin. 

 Our way from Callander to the Braes of Balquhidder was in a 

 nearly direct course north-west. Beyond this the road bends 

 north-east to Lochearn Head. From this point our course up 

 Glen Ogle to the summit of the Pass was north-west. When this 

 was reached, our way again turned in a north-easterly direction to 

 Lix, where the great road from Stirling to Fort William branches 

 off to the left ; and our course was then about north-east, follow- 

 ing the line of Glen Dochart, which forms a continuation of the 

 vale of Loch Tay. 



On the roadside through the Pass of Glen Ogle, another acqui- 

 sition was made : Alchemilla alpina was noticed here for the first 

 time. On the table-land at the summit of the Pass we came 

 upon a small alpine loch, of which the name has escaped us. 

 Here, and in the brook which issues from the said lake and flows 

 into the Dochart, we looked for alpine aquatics, but without success. 



The Pass of Glen Ogle is remarkable only for its great extent. 

 It contains of course a brook or stream, one of the never-failing 



