On Hoivebottom, by Kev. James Farquharson, M.A. 475 



cattle, inasmuch as some portions of the ground were very wet 

 and swampy, and were in consequence drained, thus preventing 

 the growth of plants that flourish in wet and boggy places." 



"What Howebottom was before the Duke resolved to make it 

 the subject of a most interesting experiment, may be seen by a 

 glance at Fauldshope Hill, — a bare and treeless pasturage, bear- 

 ing heather, and the common hill grasses, carices, and rushes. 

 What it is, I shall endeavour to describe. 



If the experiment of the noble proprietor has failed to secure 

 the reappearance of the native Oak, it has fully accomplished his 

 other intention, that of adding to the picturesqueness of the 

 Bowhill ground. It is easier to give details, and to enumerate 

 the species of trees and plants growing in it, than to convey an 

 idea of the beauty of this wild spot. What strikes one looking 

 on it from the opposite side of the valley is its boskiness, — a cer- 

 tain richness and fulness in the outlines of the trees and bushes, 

 which have had room to grow, and which, standing singly, or 

 gathered into small groups, present most pleasing objects to the 

 eye. A landscape gardener would discover endless subjects of 

 study here, and carry away innumerable hints ; while the mere 

 lover of the picturesque will find his eye turning again and again 

 from the larger features of the scenery around, and resting with 

 delight on this charming piece of bush-country. Viewed from 

 Selkirk, in the early part of the present autumn, Howebottom 

 has been especially attractive, with its groundwork of bright 

 green bracken, its large beds of purple heather, — surely never 

 blooming more splendidly than this year, — and its rounded 

 masses of trees and brushwood, all lying in the embrace of the 

 dense woods, and backed by the flowing outlines of the hills. 



In the month of August, this year (1878), I made a tolerably 

 minute examination of the trees and plants growing in Howe- 

 bottom. With the exception of a few trees which have been 

 planted for ornament, and which will be more particularly 

 noticed afterwards, all the wood on the ground must be accounted 

 native, the berries from which it has sprung having been carried 

 by birds, or the seeds transported by the agency of the wind, 

 during the fifty years the ground has been ' hained.' The Moun- 

 tain Ash (Pyrus aucwparia), the Birch (Betula alba), and the Haw- 

 thorn ( Cratcegus Oxyacantha), are the most abundant trees, occur- 

 ring in nearly equal proportions, although unequally distributed 



