HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIEE. 47 



reserved for another time. We can adopt Wordsworth's beautiful 

 language, full as it is of exquisite poetic feeling and truthful ex- 

 pression, merely changing Yarrow into Ben Lawers : 



" If care with freezing years shall come, 



And wandering seem but folly, 

 Should we be loath to stir from home, 



And yet be melancholy, 

 Should life be dull and spirits low, 



'T will soothe us in our sorrow, 

 That earth has something yet to show 



The bonny holms of Yarrow." 



For the bonny holms of Yarrow let " the views from proud Ben 

 Lawers " be substituted. But we believe naturalists are not often 

 troubled with the megrims or vapours. They need not go to Ben 

 Lawers nor to any other remote locality to dissipate their melan- 

 choly. Wimbledon Common, Roehampton and Putney Heaths, 

 even the Isle of Dogs, Woolwich and Plumstead Marshes, have 

 charms for the fraternity. Botanists have excitements of a 

 simple nature, capable of curing any attack of dullness or 

 " spirits low." 



It was certainly to be regretted that time did not permit us to 

 remain longer, for the next day was clear and fine too, from 

 end to end; but as arrangements had been made for our re- 

 turning, return we did, every now and then looking back and 

 regretting that the weather was not so propitious during our stay 

 as it was on our departure. We had however the pleasure of 

 learning, on authority which we have no permission to state, 

 but in which we have the fullest confidence, that this very season 

 Alsine rubella, Saxifraga cernua, Gentiana nivalis, and Dryas 

 octopetala had all been collected on Ben Lawers, and in flower. 

 From the same authority a more important item of intelligence 

 was derived, viz. that Veronica fruticulosa had been rediscovered 

 on Ben Lawers. 



This fact, which we hope duly to announce, will render the fol- 

 lowing extract from the first volume of the ' English Flora/ 

 p. 18, deeply interesting to British botanists: " V. fruticulosa, 

 Lin., etc. On the mountains of Scotland and in wet places. 

 Gathered on Ben Cruachan, in Argyleshire, by the Rev. Dr. 

 Walker, from whose original plant, cultivated in his garden, I 

 have specimens. Mr. R. Brown, whose accuracy is also beyond 



