2 BOTANICAL TOUR IN THE 



be this presumed species, where is G. urbanum to be found in 

 Scotland ? All the examples observed appeared to belong to one 

 common type ; and if so, either G. urbanum or G. intermedium 

 is absent in those parts of Scotland which we traversed, or per- 

 haps, with a modest conviction of our own somewhat lax obser- 

 vations, it should be said that we did not see well-marked examples 

 of the two supposed species. Our account of the botany of the 

 King's Park, inclusive of Arthur's Seat, St. Leonard's Crags, 

 must be of the same negative character. As the park is distin- 

 guished by the singular absence of trees, so the rocks appeared 

 to be as bare of vegetation. Several plants of Dianthus deltoides 

 were collected, but all were of the common or usual form ; the 

 var. D. glauca was not visible. We cannot say that we were 

 unsuccessful in our hunt after Asplenium septentrionale, for we 

 did not look for it, prudently judging that we should lose our 

 time and get wet feet "to the bargain/' (We visited the park 

 twice, and the second time was early in the morning, when the 

 dew lay thick on the grass.) Plenty of Geranium pyrenaicwn 

 was observed in a very elevated part of St. Leonard's or Salisbury 

 Crags, the part next to the palace (we are not quite clear about 

 the nomenclature of these far-famed localities) . On going up to 

 the summit of Arthur's Seat we collected a few stunted and de- 

 formed examples of Astragalus hypoglottis. I believe this is the 

 entire result of our botanizing in the King's Park; yet this locality, 

 though rugged enough to please a hunter for the picturesque, is 

 far from being a barren tract. The turf is close, and the herbage 

 is as green " as grass can be," and the colour is a sufficient proof 

 of the succulency of the pasturage. Yet the whole has, to eyes 

 accustomed to the luxuriancy of the sweet south, a desolate, 

 bare, and unpleasing aspect. That trees would grow here is 

 very evident; for just outside the park wall, where the locality is 

 more exposed to the unfriendly effects of the sea-breezes, there 

 is a belt of thriving wood. A few trees scattered here and there 

 would improve the landscape. They would break the long rigid 

 lines of frowning, beetling rocks, and hide the somewhat dreary 

 aspect of the bare hills. The greatest of Scotia's poets petitioned 

 for trees to clothe the naked wildness of Bruar Falls. He gave 

 utterance to what Bruar water might have said through its 

 water sprite, if gifted with a sense of the beautiful and endued 

 with the gift of song. Would that he, the poet, had petitioned in 



