IN THE HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIRE. 423 
and, a little nearer and to the right appear Benvenue and Ben 
An, the two sentinels which guard the Trosachs, the pass to 
Loch Katrine. Still further on the right is Ben Ledi, the high- 
est portion of the mountain barrier that divides the highlands 
from the level plains of Menteith, Stratherne, and the other 
upper parts of the Perthshire lowlands. Ben Voilich and Ben 
Cruachan, the former near Loch Erne and the latter near Loch 
Awe in Argyleshire, are also visible from Stirling Castle. 
Stirling is an interesting ancient town. The important events 
connected with it are neither few nor unimportant. The great 
battle of Stirling, m which Wallace baffled the most heroic and 
sagacious of England’s kings, was fought in a field which is 
within half a mile of Stirling bridge; and the great battle of 
Bannockburn, the result of which was the independence of Scot- 
land, was fought a few miles from the town on the south; Sau- 
chieburn, a stain upon Scotland’s memory, was also fought within 
a mile or two of the town, in a valley upon the west. 
The ecclesiastical and some other buildings of Stirling are in- 
teresting memorials of bygone times. ‘The situation of the town 
is commanding, scarcely yielding to that of Edinburgh itself. 
The botanical objects of interest about Stirling are not very nu- 
merous, but they are not quite absent. In the churchyard of 
the High Church (which, like several other large sacred edifices 
in Scotland, accommodates two congregations) there is abundance 
of Myrrhis odorata. This plant is as plentiful here as the gout- 
weed, Agopodium Podagraria, is about most towns and villages 
in Scotland: this latter is the commonest of Scotland’s umbel- 
liferous urban or wayside plants, as Bunium flerwosum is the 
common umbellifer of the fields and woods. On the ramparts of 
the castle a solitary example of Vicia lathyroides was gathered ; 
Tanacetum vulgare, Echium vulgare, Rumex pulcher, near the old 
bridge,—this Dock is by no means general in Scotland, so far as 
our observation extends.—A few other suburban plants were 
noticed. 
After a very agreeable stroll of three hours’ duration about the 
King’s Park, the banks of the Forth, the bridges and environs 
of Stirling, we went by rail to Dunblane, famous for being once 
the See of the pious and liberal Bishop Leighton, whose memory 
has entirely perished in the scene of his ministerial labours. An 
interesting chapter might be written about Dunblane and its 
