324 VOICES FEOM THE WOODLANDS. 



The old fir-woods of Inglismaldie in Kincardineshire, with 

 those of Craibstoue, are associated in like manner with 

 many stirring recollections. Beneath them grows the two- 

 flowered Linnasa, or Linn<za borealis, a humble Lapland 

 plant, emitting at night the sweetest fragrance, and first 

 discovered in this country, beneath their shade, by Prof. S. 

 Beattie; a plant thus named by Gronovius, in allusion to 

 the unobtrusive habits of the great Linnaeus. 



Men affect to despise our tribe ; but are not our rami- 

 fications irregular and beautiful, and picturesque the colour 

 of our leaves and mode of growth, resembling the stone 

 pine in the easy sweep of our slender stems, and in the 

 colour of our bark, which assumes a rich deep brown? 

 Yet some there are who think otherwise ; and the old woods 

 of Invercauld have rejoiced to see around them sixteen 

 millions of stripling firs. The veterans of those woods ! 

 how magnificent were they, many of them above one 

 hundred feet high, branchless nearly to the top, because of 

 their great age, and grey with lichens. Many such have 



