1857.] TOUR IN SCOTLAND. 31 



bearing on the erect stalks one or two large white flowers. The 

 other formSj except in the magnitude of the flowers, differed but 

 little from C. triviale, which also abounds there. The capsules 

 were not far enough advanced to enable us to detect any distinc- 

 tive character in this organ. The leaves had the same shape and 

 the stems the same erect, slender, and unbranched habit which 

 often characterizes C. triviale. The flowers alone obviously dis- 

 tinguished it from that species. About the stones and hollows 

 in the little craggy places which environ the base of this immense 

 almost perpendicular rock, Polystichum Lonchitisf Polypodtum 

 Dryopteris^ and Cystopteris fragilis "^abounded. The latter fern 

 appeared in almost every possible variety of form and size, from 

 an inch to above a foot high, from a large, dilated, luxuriant 

 frond to a stunted size, somewhat resembling Woodsia hyperborea 

 in substance and outline. Of P. Lonchitis there were no very 

 luxuriant specimens at this early period; the longest of them 

 were only about a foot long. Though we have often seen larger 

 fronds, we have never seen them in greater profusion than they 

 are here. 



Higher up in the ledges and in the crevices of the lofty rocks, 

 several old acquaintances were recognized. One of the most con- 

 spicuous for its foliage, and which gives a character to this savage 

 landscape, is Sedum Rhodiola,on\j some of it in flower, seated 

 often on inaccessible cliffs, and enjoying the dripping moisture 

 which abounds on these crags. The last time we saw this plant, 

 growing wild, Avas on the Foalfoot of Ingleborough. There the 

 plant had long passed its prime (we saw it in September) ; here it 

 appeared in all the loveliness of its early bloom. 



But the most showy flowers of these cliffy rocks were those of 

 the Trollius europeeus, a plant which had shed its flowers in most 

 localities of a moderate altitude, and was now in fruit. Here 

 however its yellow blossoms, of extraordinary size and brilliancy 

 of colour, remained to remind us of the great elevation to which 

 we had reached, and the much lower temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere by which we were surrounded. Humbler situations at the 

 foot of these crags reminded us of the same facts. Here the 

 Wood Anemone, the Wood Sorrel, and the Golden Saxifrage 

 {Chrysosplenium op.) were still, at this late period, in full flower, 

 though in a more southern latitude and at a lower elevation the 

 two former had been long decayed. Several plants of a very 



