HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIRE. 3 



behalf of Arthur's Seat,, which is seen by hundreds of thousands 

 who never heard of Bruar and its grand Falls ! 



We next visited Roslin Castle and Chapel, together with Haw- 

 thornden, places eminent in the early history and classical re- 

 miniscences of this ancient kingdom. The very names of these 

 places will cause life's current to swell in the hearts of all lovers 

 of Scottish melody, song, and poetry. But our business is with 

 the botany; and the antiquities and the poetical associations 

 connected with this spot must be left untold, as here they would 

 be as much out of place as trees are out of the King's Park at 

 Edinburgh. If we were disappointed in realizing our botanical 

 expectations about Auld Reekie, the woods of Roslin and groves 

 of Hawthornden made ample amends for the meagre results of 

 the earlier part of the day. The Roslin railway-station is within 

 less than half a mile of the woods, and not a mile from the 

 Chapel, which is one of the celebrities of Scotland's metropolis. 

 We reached the ground about twelve o'clock, and had six or 

 seven hours to spend in botanizing. 



The plants of the greatest interest to us Southrons were Gera- 

 nium sylvaticum and others, unknown in the extreme south of 

 England. Even in the Craven district, where we had previously 

 seen this fine species, it did not reach the luxuriance and beauty 

 it attains in the Scottish woods. The size of the flowers, their 

 ever-varying shades of brilliant colours, from bluish-purple to 

 red, exceeded the finest cultivated or wild examples which we had 

 seen. This beautiful plant adorned our path through all Perth- 

 shire till we had reached the culminating point of our tour; 

 then it gradually gave place to its usually more lovely relative, 

 G. pratense. May the readers of thii and the succeeding papers 

 on this subject have only as much pleasure in accompanying us, 

 as we had enjoyment of the lovely Wood Geranium, which we 

 met for the first time this season in the woods of Roslin ! The 

 Ferns here were magnificent in size, beautiful in form, and of 

 the most lovely colours; but as no rarities in this Order were 

 noticed, we pass them over. Equisetum sylvaticum, one of the 

 handsomest of the genus, was observed in profusion. Luzulas 

 were also in abundance and very luxuriant. On the old castle, 

 a very fine ruin, if a ruin can be fine, situated in a charming 

 spot, and a place of considerable strength in the olden times, 

 several mural plants were collected as mementos of a day's bo- 



