BOTANICAL EXCURSION IN 
vegetable peculiar to the North, unless, 
perhaps, we may so account the Sycamore. 
The soil is every where a red sandstone. 
Here and there the scenery is beautiful, 
especially on the banks of the Emont, 
where the ruins of Brougham Castle afford 
a picturesque object; and from most points 
of the road, the distant mountains of the 
Lakes form a noble boundary. Of these 
. Saddleback stands conspicuous, both by its 
apparent size, its detached position, and the 
boldness and irregularity of its form. 
Some apparent improvement in the wea- 
ther induced me, on the llth, to make a 
second approach to Cross Fell (I had in- 
tended to walk there from Birkdale), but 
the evening was again wet and dismal, and 
2th was no better. Mr. Salkeld's 
pastures, mentioned in the Botanist's Guide 
as the station of several rare plants, are at 
a farm called Ranbeck, which is situated 
to the East, and not to the North of Kirk- 
land, as marked in Crutchley's large ma 
of England. A limestone hill, to the North 
of Kirkland, gave me Osmunda Lunaria, 
Ophioglossum vulgatum, Habenaria viri- 
dis, Cistus Helianthemum, and Anthyllis 
vulneraria. Rosa villosa, in the form of 
R. mollis of English Botany, occurs oc- 
casionally, but the variety where the calyx 
divisions are not quite entire, is much more 
common, and I confess myself unable to 
draw any line between this and R. scabri- 
uscula, or between scabriuscula and to- 
mentosa. The short straight stems of R. 
villosa gradually pass, through the inter- 
mediate state of R. scabriuscula, into the 
long and gracefully bending shoots of R. 
tomentosa, and a similar gradation takes 
place in the straightness of the prickles, 
and in the simpleness of the segments of 
the calyx. Veronica spicata and montana, 
Scirpus sylvaticus, Agrostis spica-venti, 
Sesleria cerulea, Arundo Calamagrostis, 
Gentiana campestris, Andromeda polifo- 89 
lia, Potentilla verna, Trollius Europeus, 
Thlaspi alpestre, Arabis stricta, Erodium 
moschatum, Geranium pheum, G. Pyre- 
nawum, Orobus sylvaticus, Orchis ustu- 
n _ lata, Listera cordata, are all mentioned as 
. rowing in this neighbourhood ; but I saw 
THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 295 
none of them; partly, no doubt, because 
I was too late in the season, partly because 
I did not visit the precise situations in 
which they are found, and because the 
thick mist and heavy rain damped my ex- 
ertions, and prevented me from observing 
the best places: but some are probably 
inserted by mistake. Arabis hirsuta grows 
here and there in several spots, and we 
have examples elsewhere that this has been 
mistaken for Arabis stricta. G. Pyrenai- 
cum is a plant which occurs in several 
places, in the neighbourhood of towns, 
especially in a light but fertile soil, and it 
seems to be increasing, but I doubt ifit be 
any where an original plant of the country. 
T, Es M sa tha n on 
160m 
ids i - t 
Grass of the springy ground in this part. 
Sedum villosum I observed about Blencarn, > 
and Pteris crispa (the first time I met with 
it in this excursion) on the grit rocks of 
some of the lower offsets of Cross Fell. 
On the 13th, the wet still continuing, 
I returned to Penrith, without having ac- 
complished my object in the ascent of 
Cross Fell, and on the 14th, on a dull and 
threatening, but not absolutely wet day, 
proceeded to Keswick. Mr. Wright con- 
ucted me to a station where we found 
Pyrola media and secunda at the upper 
part of the woods, but below the precipi- 
tous part of Wallow Crag. On the 15th 
the morning was wet, but I afterwards went 
with the same guide to look after some 
plants of the neighbourhood, viz. Atha- 
manta Meum, which we did not find; but 
of which I have a specimen gathered by 
Mr. Otley, in the meadows behind the vi- 
carage. A Campanula, not yet in flower, 
but which appears to be C. rapunculoides, 
a Rosa, imagined to be cinnamonea, but 
which is, I think, R. Pennsylvanica, of 
which there are two or three bushes in a 
hedge dividing two meadows in the flat 
und on the borders of the Derwent, a 
Lysimachia, supposed to be L. punctata, 
but which is certainly only ZL. vulgaris, 
Darlington, 
once found a single plant. 
