6 [January, 



TOUE IN SCOTLAND. 



Botanical Tour in the Highlands of Perthshire : Killin, Finlarig, 

 Auchmore, Kinnell, Ben Laivers, etc. 



The 14tli of July was fine ; and in the morning we started to go 

 up Glen Lochay in quest of the rare Cystopteris montana, a plant 

 only recently known as a British species. Breadalbane is the 

 only district in Scotland where it is known to occur^ and its col- 

 lection is still interesting. Its locality was previously ascertained 

 as accurately as possible. One or several of the numerous ra- 

 vines or correis that intersect the mountain at right angles to 

 Glen Lochay, are said to produce this rare fern. These correis, or 

 correys, are all watercourses, or the beds of torrents that some- 

 times, in summer, contain but little water. The term, which is 

 Gaelic, is evidently from the same root as the French courir, 

 to run, which is from the Latin curro, 1 run. 



This word run is truly characteristic of the streams here, whe- 

 ther they be great or small. In the south of England there are 

 rivers with a current so slow that it is occasionally impossible to 

 tell which way the water flows ; for this fluid seldom runs in the 

 south and east of our island. But in Scotland it is never difficult 

 to ascertain the course of rivers, for they always flow, often run, 

 and sometimes rush with headlong impetuosity. Csesar, in his 

 Commentaries on the "Wars in Gaul, informs his readers that 

 the Arar is so sluggish in its motions that it is impossible to tell 

 by the eye in what direction it flows {in utramque partem fluat). 

 We were once in the same predicament about the course of the 

 Medway, between Edenbridge and Ashurst, in Kent. A straw 

 dropped into the stream from the bridge in a brief space decided 

 the course of the stream, and ours also. 



These correys extend from Glen Lochay up the hiU which sepa- 

 '^'^rates this Glen from Glen Dochart ; and by following them up to 

 the ridge, and descending on the other side. Glen Dochart may 

 be reached. 



This rare Fern has certainly been found in the correys that 

 are at right angles to, and on the right bank of, the river Lochay; 

 but it may be, and probably has been, found on the Ben Lawers 

 side of this glen. It is found on Ben Lawers. The rain com- 

 pelled us to retrace om^ steps, and hindered our seeing it in the 

 correys of Glen Lochay. The same day one of us ^dsited the old 



