1858.] NOTES ON THE FLORA OF BRAEMAR. 431 



laiifolium, and a host of other choice plants. Mr. Backhouse, 

 on his visit in 1850, seems to have found it unusually rich in 

 Carices (iii. 769, o.s.). 



5. Lochnagar. — (The greater part of the following description 

 is taken from Macgillivray.) The summit of Lochnagar is three 

 miles or more in length, and presents towards its eastern ex- 

 tremity the great corry, 1200 feet deep, with precipices varying 

 from 200 to 500 feet in height, and a slope of detritus at their 

 base, slanting down very abruptly to an irregularly-oval lake. 

 This lake has given its name to the whole mountain, Lochan-a- 

 ghar, the precipices around it being called Creacan-lochan-a-ghar. 

 The etymology ^f Lochan-a-ghar is difficult ; it has been con- 

 jectured to mean the " little lake of the dyke'^ or wall, as being 

 a shortened form of Lochan-a-gharidh, the dyke being the great 

 precipice. Perhaps, however, the true name is Lochan-a-cear, 

 the "little lake of the hares,'^ of which there are many on the 

 mountain, just as the lake in the western corry is named 

 Lochan-eun — the " little lake of birds'^ — it having been formerly 

 freguented by gulls [Larus ridibundus) . The mountain itself, as 

 has been already observed, is one of the most magnificent in all 

 the Braemar district. Its highest point is 3789 feet above the 

 sea-level (as given by the Ordnance Survey), and, occupying as 

 it does a very central position in the midst of its numerous de- 

 pendencies, it forms a connecting nucleus to all the ranges of 

 hills that occupy the space between Glen Callater and Gleu Muic. 

 It is composed entirely of granite, as are the other masses in its 

 vicinity; but in one part of the ridge of hills that runs down 

 from it to the Lion's Face, and the other rocks opposite Inver- 

 cauld, there is an intermixture of mica-slate, sometimes having 

 the appearance of gneiss, and sometimes of quartz-rock. The 

 granite mountains to the north of the Dee are but scantily 

 covered with vegetation, owing to the disintegration of the rock, 

 which has covered them with loose stones and gravel. Lochnagar, 

 however, and especially the mountains surrounding it, being of 

 harder rock,^ have a considerable covering of peat, and a more 

 luxuriant vegetation. The alpine plants of this summit are dis- 



* The ciystals of felspar and quartz occurring in the granite of Lochnagar are 

 quite small, and the rock is very close-grained ; whereas on Ben-na-buird I have 

 picked up fragments of granite containing crystals from tkree-quarters to an inch 

 in diameter. 



