302 BRYOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE WEST HIGHLANDS. 
tarns which lie in the north-east hollow below the summit, at an 
altitude of close upon 3 t., I saw nothing of the comparative 
richness of vegetation described by Messrs. Marshall and Shoolbred 
for the southern end of the mountain. That side of the mountain 
is indeed almost as barren (though of a totally different character) 
as the summit plateau of Ben Nevis! The one redeeming feature, 
from a bryologist’s standpoint, was the relative abundance of Poly- 
trichum sexangulare, which was far finer here than I saw it on Ben 
Nevi i 
ti no fi 
of this species, on the Continent as well as in the few localities 
where it is found with us. I gathered specimens five inches high, 
and as fine as any continental specimens I have seen in our 
national collections. : 
I looked in vain for any trace of Andreea nivalis, which might 
have been expected on a mountain adjoining Ben Nevis, where it 
however, close to the summit, and forming the brow of the preci- 
pitous side, where it would be most likely to occur, were mostly in- 
accessible on account of the snow. Webera Ludwigit was abundant, 
and Philonotis adpressa Ferg. occurred at the head of the streamlets 
just below the melting snow; and I gathered Dicranum molle Wils. 
Lindb., Thuidium deticatulum Mitt., Dicranum Scottianum c.ir., and 
Fissidens osmundoides with most copious fruit ; besides a form of, or 
allied to, Weisia curvirustris, to which reference will be made later. _ 
Jn the following day we drove part of the way up Glencoe, to 
explore one of the corries running up into Bidean-nam-Bian, the 
mountain forming the southern rampart of the Glen. . By those 
See ees 
