Mr. Murray on the Natural History of Denholm. 8S7 



the south side of the valley these strata are well seen at the 

 Denholm. dean quarries, where both the red and white beds 

 have been long worked ; in a glen or burn on the Tower farm, 

 which forms the boundary between the cultivated ground and 

 moorland along the northern base of Ruberslaw; and at 

 Bedrule ; and on the north side of the Teviot in the glen at 

 Minto, where softer beds of the rocks are also quarried as 

 indi fferent building materials. In the neighbourhood of Minto 

 Hill the beds seem to be inclined toward that elevation ; but 

 on the flanks of Raberslaw the strata are seen to strike out 

 from the hill horizontally into mid air, affording evidence of 

 the prodigious denudation which has in the valley swept away 

 about a thousand feet of the rock. Numerous elevations of 

 trap and greenstone rise above the stratified beds all around, 

 of which Ruberslaw, Minto Crags, Minto Hill, and the ridge 

 between Denholm and Ruberslaw known as the Hillhead 

 (where this rock is quarried as road metal) are the chief. 

 Interesting points of contrast are afforded by all these trap- 

 pean masses, the rock being in Minto Crags almost basaltic, 

 and still more so on the southern summit of Ruberslaw, while 

 at Minto Hill it is more of the nature of a trap-tufa. On 

 Ruberslaw a mass of red crumbly tufa having the appearance 

 of broken tiles, fills the depression between the two summits 

 and has apparently formed the original mass of the hill, and 

 been subsequently cut through by the more compact and 

 columnar rock which forms the summits. 



Denholm offers a convenient starting-point for various 

 routes along which interesting plants may be observed. In 

 the neighbourhood of the village, in various localities, Cheli- 

 donium majus, a denizen, and Malva moschata, neither of 

 them very common in the district, are found. In Denholm 

 dean one or two rare species occur, among which Neottia 

 Nidus-avis, occurring among the mossy herbage on the left 

 side of the pathway near the scaurs on the south side, and 

 Melampyrum sylvaticum, an interesting parasite found under 

 the shade of that noble pine " The Queen of the Dean," 

 claim the chief rank. Polijgonum Bistorta, Lysimachia 

 nemorum, Pyrola media, and Campanula latifolia are found 

 in several localities. The Vei^onica montana so often mis- 

 taken for V. Chamcedrys occurs in the cart road near Peden's 



summit of Ruberslaw, however, will be examined with interest by those who are 

 engaged with the glacial phenomena of the drift period — the late Mr. Kemp of 

 Galashiels having found in its terraces some of the data on which he founded his 

 views as to the successive levels of the sea during the glacial period. 



2u 



