SOME Loca. PLANTS. 57 
this swamp may be found the Bog Bean or Marsh Trefoil 
(Menyanthes trifoliata). In summer it sends up trefoil 
leaves, the leaflets being not unlike those of the cultivated 
Bean, and its inflorescence consists of a raceme of beautiful 
pink and white flowers, which suggest the cultivated 
Hyacinth. 
The Basket Willow, or Common Osier (Salix viminalis), 
also grows in this vicinity. The ancient Britons were ex- 
pert basket-makers, and their baskets were sold to the 
Romans, who admired them and paid a large price for them. 
On the north side of Cargenbridge the Willow-leaved 
Spirea can be seen in great strength from the roadway. It 
is a shrubby species, four or five feet high. The leaves are 
oblong, serrated at the edges, and smooth; the flowers rose- 
coloured and in dense racemes. It belongs: to the same 
genus as the Sloe, Bird Cherry, and Meadow Sweet or Queen 
of the Meadows. 
Beneath a large typical Scotch fir on the roadside, west 
of the railway bridge at Doweel, there is a handsome showy 
plant, which is at its best from May to August. It grows 
to three feet in height, and has branched leafy stems well 
furnished with leaves. Its flowers, are in drooping cymes, 
the colours vary on different plants—pink, white, purple, and 
yellow. Its ordinary name is Common Comfrey, and the 
botanical name Symphytum officinal®. Formerly it. was held 
in great repute as a healer of wounds. 
Meum athamunticum, or Spignel, a very highly aromatic 
plant, belonging to the umbelliferous tribe, grows by the 
roadside near Amisfield. Its leaflets are divided into many 
thread-like segments. The aroma from its herbage in 
spring is communicated to the milk and butter of cows 
grazing on it. 
Water Hemlock (G!nanthe crocata), a perennial, also of 
this tribe, flourishes at the southern end of Dalscone Merse. 
Instances are numerous of cows having been poisoned by 
eating the roots. The Common Hemlock (Conium macu- 
latum), a graceful plant with finely cut foliage and white 
flowers, may frequently be met with in out-of-the-way places. 
It also is poisonous, but is easily distinguished from the 
