HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIRE. 45 



Lawers. The descent even from the upper end of the lake 

 was not accomplished in less than an hour. It may have 

 cost us more time than this. But we got down well, and were 

 thankful. 



In the dusk of the evening Chaerophyllum temulum and Carum 

 Carui were collected in the churchyard of Lawers. The same 

 evening one of us went to the station of Vicia sylvatica, which 

 abounds in the lower part of the Den of Lawers, not far from 

 the mill. Specimens were brought for the herbarium rather as 

 a memorial of our visit to Lawers than because the species 

 was not already adequately represented in our collection. Hy- 

 menophyllum Wilsoni has been gathered below the falls near the 

 station of the beautiful Wood Vetch. This we did not see. 



The night was drizzly, and the next morning chilly and uncom- 

 fortable ; but about seven o'clock the fog cleared away from the 

 summit of the mountain, and we determined then to pay it an- 

 other visit. From what we saw on the afternoon and evening of 

 the 17th we rightly concluded that we had broken the neck of 

 our undertaking, or, in other words, we had seen nearly all the 

 plants that we were likely to see in Scotland this turn ; yet the 

 desire of picking up only the gleanings from so exuberant a field 

 induced us to breast the hill and brave the inclemencies of the 

 atmosphere a second time. 



On the morning of the 18th of July, about eight o'clock, we 

 started again from Lawers Inn, and, profiting by yesterday's expe- 

 rience, followed the stream, or walked on the peat-road as far as 

 it went ; then followed the stream and the shores of the lake, till 

 we reached the upper end of Loch-na-Gat. We gradually worked 

 our way upwards under the lee-side of the rocks which sheltered 

 us from the driving rain and the high wind, which blew keen and 

 cold from the north-west. 



Geum rivale, Geranium pratense, and G. sylvaticum reach a 

 high elevation on these rocks, along with several species neither 

 prized for beauty nor rarity. Among these latter ignobles, Leon- 

 todon Taraxacum was very conspicuous. The Hieracia noticed 

 by us were neither numerous nor recherches. H. holosericeum of 

 Backhouse's monograph was secured, and, on an inaccessible cliff, 

 what was probably H, cerinthoides was seen ; but neither the spe- 

 cimen which we did secure nor the one seen which we could not 



