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of the low country. The granite mountains in the northern part of 

 the island rise quite into the alpine region, and are covered with 

 snow for seven or eight months in the year. Yet, when compared 

 with the mountain tracts of the central Highlands, they will be 

 found to possess few alpine plants. This fact seems to be mainly 

 owing to that predominance of bare rock over grass and heather, 

 which gives them, at some distance, the appearance of an unbroken 

 mass of gray granite. Besides the stony character of the mountain 

 slopes, the thinness and ungeniality of the soil furnished by the 

 decomposed granite, the absence in the higher regions of springs 

 and streamlets, and perhaps the very steepness of the loftier 

 summits, may all contribute to render the alpine flora of Arran 

 comparatively scanty and uninteresting. The commonest plants 

 on the high mountains are Saxifraga stellaris and Alchemilla 

 alpina; the former is scarce on Goatfell, occurring more abundantly 

 on the heights round the head of Glen Sannox; the latter is very 

 frequent on all the higher peaks, and covers, with the graceful 

 drapery of its silky leaves, the ledges of many a granite precipice. 

 Salix h&rbacea the dwarf willow, whose woody stem scarcely rises 

 from the ground is found on most of the principal summits; Oxyria 

 reniformis and Rhodiola rosea grow abundantly in the rock clefts ; 

 Circaea alpina and Saxifraga hypnoides occur occasionally near the 

 summits of the southern hills ; the pretty little TJialictrum al-pinum 

 may be found in many places, as on Ben-Varen, on Goatfell, at the 

 head of Glen Cloy, and on the summit of the pass leading from Glen 

 Eosa into Glen Sannox ; Cryptogramma crispa, the parsley fern, has 

 been noticed in several spots, rooting deep among the loose blocks of 

 stone that strew the mountain- side, while among the other crypto- 

 gamous plants, Polypodium Dryopteris and Phegopt&ris, Cystopt&ris 

 fragilis, Hymenophyllum Wtisoni, and several of the alpine Lycopodia, 

 may be enumerated as denizens of the glens and mountains. 



Regarding the water plants of the island, those which we find 

 in its marshes and streams, there is but little to be said. They are 

 few in number, and not in any way remarkable. The list is nearly 

 exhausted by the names of Hypericum elodes, Ranunculus lingua, 

 Dros&ra Anglica, Littordla lacustris, Alisma plantago and rcmun- 

 culoides, and several species of Potamogeton and Carex. Of true 

 lake plants there are very few ; and this fact leads us to observe how 

 deficient Arran is in this element of the picturesque. Lakes there are 

 several, but, with scarcely an exception, they are placed in the high 

 bleak moors, far above the limit to which trees ascend, and generally 

 away from the higher mountains, so that they add little either of 



