166 Rev. D . Landsborough on the Fructification 



XX. — On the Fructification of Polysiphonia parasitica, Grev. 

 By the Rev. David Landsborough*. 



[With a Plate.] 



Were I to be asked by a friend to point out the richest field on 

 our Ayi'shire coast for a botanical ramble, I would without hesi- 

 tation point to Portincross in the parish of West Kilbride. It is 

 however a place of so much beauty and interest, that I would 

 advise my friend to spend an hour at least in enjoying the scene 

 before he enters on his botanical researches. 



The name of the place carries us back to olden times. It was 

 called Portincross, it is said, from being the harbour from which 

 it was usual to sail, when the body of any of the kings of Scot- 

 land was to be carried to lona, where the remains of so many of 

 our Scottish monarchs were deposited. The ancient castle on the 

 rocky shore carries us back also to a remote age ; for though it 

 is of more recent date than the period when lona was a place of 

 note for learning and religion and royal sepulture, yet it is so 

 antique that we have no sure history of its erection. An ancient 

 cannon, seen at the castle, brings us within the range of histo- 

 rical memorabilia, for it was brought up from the deep after the 

 wi'eck of one of the vessels of the Spanish Armada, when Provi- 

 dence so evidently interposed in behalf of our land. The name 

 of the proprietor of the castle and of the adjoining lands awakens 

 pleasing recollections. Crawford of Auchenames sounds well in 

 the ears of every lover of Scottish song, as an ancestor of the 

 present proprietor wrote some of those sweet pastorals which have 

 been rendered still more precious by being married for several 

 generations to some of the sweetest of our Scottish airs. 



I shall not attempt to describe the scenery, for that would re- 

 quire a gifted pen to do it any justice. Let our botanist feast 

 his eyes for a little, and then let him enter on his pleasant work. 

 Is he in search of Phsenogamous plants ? In rambling along the 

 sunny ' banks and braes,^ he will not be long in filling his vas- 

 culum. Is he a muscologist ? There, some half-score years ago, 

 along with Mr. George Gardner, now in Ceylon, and well known 

 in the botanical w^orld, I for the first time met with Hookeria 

 lucens and Neckcra crispa, which though not the rarest are among 

 the most beautiful of our mosses. There, are muscosi fontes, and 

 shaded rocks, and veteran stone-dykes, and decaying stumps of 

 trees, favomite habitats of the mossy tribes. And when he has 

 perambulated the sunny braes, and explored every pendent cliff 

 and crevice of the rocks, and robbed of its golden garuitm'e every 



* Read to the Botanical Section of the Glasgow Philosophical Society, 

 25th June, 1841, by William Gourlie, Jun. 



