166 Anniversary Address. 



and in full flower ; and the beauty of those beds influenced the 

 most indifferent to sights, and elicited unbounded admiration. 

 There were beds of less extent, but of equal beauty, of the Vero- 

 nica Chamcedrys, occupying the drier ground ; and the whole 

 was intermingled and contrasted with the large blossoms of the 

 golden-yellow Marsh Marigold. Geum intermedium was likewise 

 remarkably abundant and ornamental. There were two varieties 

 of it, one in which the plant had been impregnated with the 

 pollen of G. rivale, and the other produced by G. rivale having 

 been fertilized by G. urbanum. It was very easy to distin- 

 guish these hybrids ; and the finest was that in which G. rivale 

 was the mother plant. We found also, in this plantation, 

 Allium arenarium in great abundance, Lister a ovata, and Dip- 

 sacus sylvestris, the latter sparingly. We were next conducted 

 to the site of a Roman encampment, whence there is a fine view 

 of the country around ; and thence we proceeded to Learmouth 

 bog, about the best locality for the botanist in our district. The 

 dry spring had made the surface sufficiently firm to enable us to 

 penetrate into every part of the bog, but the vegetation was not 

 far advanced. Eriophorum vaginatum showed best and farthest 

 off; and the sight of such a pure-air moor plant was very grateful 

 to such of us as are now pent up in the town's dust and smoke, 

 albeit our young days were amidst the bogs and muirs that the 

 cotton-grass whitens with its waving tresses, white and pure as 

 the new-washed sheep that graze amidst its grounds. The 

 Cranberry was abundant and partially in flower. Cardamine 

 pratensis grew here very fine ; and so did Valeriana dioica. We 

 found a few tufts of the umbellate variety of Primula vulgaris ; 

 and a Pyrola was plentiful, but not in flower. There was a 

 large quantity of Salix repens, and of Salix tenuifolia, its only 

 habitat in our district. It was when we reached the place oc- 

 cupied by these willows jointly, and with small trees of the 

 Birch, and bushes of Salix aurita, that we came upon the more 

 especial object of our search, viz. Aspidium Thelypteris. The 

 fronds were only lifting up their croziered heads, but it was 

 easily detected, and there is great plenty of it here, so that we 

 may hope that it will not be eradicated in our days. From this 

 bog we returned by a road, partially adorned and sweetened 

 with a profusion of May, to a lesser bog than the Learmouth 

 one, but of the same character, yet not possessed of the Fern. 



