\_May, 1858.] 417 



NOTES ON THE FLORA OF BRAEMAR, ABERDEENSHIRE. 

 By John Barton. 



{TFitJi a Map.) 



1. Cairntoul. — Leaving Castleton by the road which leads up 

 the valley to the Linn of Dee, we arrive, after a walk of some 

 nine miles, at the confluence of the two burns which combine to 

 form the Dee, — the first, called the GeauUy burn, taking its rise 

 in' the mountains of Cairn Eelar and Scarsach, and the other, 

 which is the Dee proper, joining it from the north. Our route 

 lies up the valley of the latter, and, after proceeding along it 

 three or four miles, we find ourselves confronted by a dark wall 

 of precipitous rock, abutting far out into the valley, and forming 

 the salient angle between Glen Dee and Glen Giusachan. This 

 enormous natural buttress is known by the name of Bod-an- 

 diaoul, and is a projecting shoulder of Cairntoul. Leaving it 

 on our left, and proceeding up the valley, we are greeted by the 

 twin giants, Ben-na-muic-dhui and Braeriach, towering up one 

 on either side of the vaUey a few miles in front of us, while 

 high up on our left a thin white streak of foam marks the course 

 of a stream down the eastern precipice of Bod-an-diaoul, evi- 

 dently forming the outlet of some mountain tarn high up in the 

 mountain fastnesses. This is the stream of the Garachary, and 

 it is a matter of some dispute amongst the local authorities 

 whether it does not more truly claim to be the actual source of 

 the Dee, than the other stream which has its sources some three 

 miles higher up, in those singular springs called the " Wells of 

 Dee." However this may be, the sources of the Garachary are 

 well worth a visit for the sake of the botanical rarities to be 

 found there. High up on the precipices which form the eastern 

 and northern face of Cairntoul grow the xwce Cerastium trigynum ^ 

 {Stellaria cerastoides, L.), C.^latifolium,^Saxijragarwularis, 

 Carex leporina','C. saxatilis, and many rare Hieracia, oi yvYach. 

 Mr. Backhouse could give a much better account than I can. 

 Indeed, as I have already remarked, it bids fair to be the richest 

 botanical district in the Grampians. The scenery of Glen Dee 

 is very grand, from the extreme narrowness of the valley, and 

 the stupendous height of the towering masses on either side of it. 

 The distance between the summits of Ben-na-muic-dhui and 



N. S. VOL. 11. 3 H . 



