456 BOTANICAL TOUR IN THE 
In the evening we lectured on Botany to the boys and girls 
of the school, and to one or two good-natured people who con- 
descended to listen to what was expressly adapted to the capa- 
city of a juvenile audience. On the 8th we paid another visit to 
Loch Katrine, wandered along the shores of the lake an hour or 
so, and retraced our steps to Callander. The next day, which 
was to be our last day at Callander, an expedition to Menteith 
was both planned and executed by a walk over the hills, as nearly 
as possible, in a south-westerly direction. The distance to the vil- 
lage and Loch of Menteith from Callander is seven miles; half of 
this distance was walked, before we saw either the lake or the 
church, across a trackless, high, moory waste, with here and there 
only a sheep-track to guide us. From these hills we had very 
extensive and some very interesting views. The chief of these 
were the Ochils, the Fintry Hills, Stirling and its romantic 
Castle, the Forth (with its widened expanse of water), glittermg 
under the sun-beams, Alloa, famous for its ale, Carron, for its 
cooking-stoves, and Kippen, celebrated for its facetious and home- 
draughting king. We reached Menteith, after a toilsome walk 
“through the moors among the heather,” in about three hours. 
The Crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) was the sole interestimg no- 
velty of this long walk; but we lighted on some ornithological 
specimens, and in particular upon a covey of the birds that feed 
on the berries of this plant. The poor little things had not long 
left the shell. 
By the churchyard of Menteith, opposite to the inn (an inn 
is an important house in the Highlands, for there imns are few 
.and far between), we noticed some plants of Valeriana pyrenaica, 
which had no appearance of being natural in that spot, although, 
as reported, it may exist in some of the many woods with which 
that neighbourhood abounds. By a wall in the village Malva 
moschata was observed. ‘This plant must be placed in the same 
and mixtures and varieties in Skye, Mull, at Killin, on the top of Ben Lawers, but 
nothing like the rain on Ben Ledi did I ever behold before or since. In an instant, 
and without warning or preparation, the showers descended in one broad stream, 
like a cascade from the clouds, and in an instant they ceased again. If the low- 
lander carries an umbrella, it may be useful for him to know, that if there is a but- 
ton to undo or a ring to slip off he will often be wet through before either can be 
effected. There is an interval of fair weather ; even the cloud which is to produce 
the rain is not very obvious, when, in an instant, and without a sprinkling or even 
a harbinger drop, the whole is let go on your head as if a bucket had been emptied 
on it.” 
