508 RARE PLANTS IN ABERDEENSHIRE. 
the neighbourhood of Settle, in Yorkshire, and actually carried 
away with him a large hamper full of Aspidium Lonchitis, pluck- 
ing up with unsparing hand, root and branch, every morsel of the 
Fern he could meet with; so that now it is scarcely, if at all, to 
be found in that neighbourhood. An excellent resident botanist 
at Settle, and a most kindly communicative one, I believe, still 
knows of one specimen growing in the district, the whereabouts 
of which he will reveal to none, and I greatly applaud him in 
this instance for his reserve. 
On my former visit to Chedder I had failed to notice—or else 
I had strangely forgotten—the astonishing profusion in which 
Polypodium calcareum grows there, especially on the less rocky 
places and the upper part of the valley. To say that it grows 
by the acre would be speaking far within the mark: it occupies — 
extensive tracts, growing as copiously as Pteris aquilina does on 
many a waste common; so that unless this part of the country 
should some day be brought under tillage, this species at least 
may defy the ravages of all fern-dealers and vendors of rare or 
local plants. I did not observe either of the allied species, P. 
Dryopteris and Phegopteris, in my ramble on the Mendips. I 
was pleased to find that since my first visit to Chedder, and after 
having in the meantime seen many other examples of fine rocky 
scenery on a very much grander scale, still these very beautiful 
cliffs had lost nothing, in my estimation, on a second visit. 
Allesley Rectory, August 8th, 1856. 

Rare Plants in Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire, etc. 
To the Editor of the ‘Phytologist.’ 
I have returned from a hasty run through some of the northern 
parts of Scotland, where a month has been passed in an agreeable 
if not profitable manner ; and now, to redeem my promise, I send 
you a few odd notes on the journey. The paris visited are per- 
haps scarcely so interesting to a lover of plants, as a journey on 
the western side might have been; my own was a rising route 
through the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine, Murray, 
Forfar, Perth, and the eastern part of Inverness, with a day or 
two about Edinburgh. 
From London to Aberdeen, a pleasant voyage, by steamer, of 
