42 Our Visit to Holy Island in 1854, by Dr. Johnston. 



parasites, but I had not before seen one so completely over- 

 grown with them, and singularly deformed. 



Took in the evening our favourite walk to the Castle, 

 and found that the scene around had lost none of its attrac- 

 tions. Saw the life-boat kept here by Lord Crewe's trustees. 

 And the bait-gatherers, so busy at their work on a sort of 

 island formed by the receding tide, and on the bleak shore, 

 form interesting groups, for they seem very happy in their 

 employment. The hoarse laugh-like cry of the large gulls 

 breaks upon the ear with such abrupt harshness, that the 

 imagination is apt to paint the scene around as savage and 

 solitary, as much as the howl of the hysena brings the desert 

 before us, albeit we are in the narrow bounds of the mena- 

 gerie. The rosaceous fashion in which all the plants on the 

 roadway grow again attracted our attention, and the rosettes 

 are very neat and regular. They are exhibited in great per- 

 fection in Senebiera coronopus, in which the white flowers 

 sit in a cluster in the centre of the rosette, and form an eye 

 there contrasted with the green leafy rays. Plantago 

 coronopus, Geranium molle,Er odium eicutarium, Trifolium 

 minus, &c, assume the same rosaceous form. We meet with 

 frequently on the island some incongruous mixtures of 

 plants : such as the scurvy-grass growing intermingled with 

 the chickweed, and the sea-campion with the wall-flower. 



26th. My walk was to-day without my companion, and I 

 sauntered along a cart-road which led into cultivated fields, 

 and ultimately conducted me to the Lough. One object was 

 to gather such wayside plants and weeds as I had not yet 

 registered. On one part of the road there were abundance 

 of what appeared to be three species of docks ; for although 

 not in flower, they were readily distinguishable by their 

 habit, the different tint of green in their foliage, and by the 

 shape and texture of the leaves. The docks were Rumex 

 obtusifolius, R. crispus, and R.pratensis; and what I saw 

 was much in favour of Professor Arnott's opinion, that the 

 latter is a hybrid between the two others. I examined the 

 trees that had been planted about the Lough, and which 

 were all in a sickly and sorry condition. If any could be 

 said to be thriving, it was the plane (Acer pseudoplatanus). 

 The plantation consisted besides, of the alder, the elder, the 

 elm, the birch, the broom, the whin, the black poplar, the 

 mountain ash, and the privet. A few years will witness the 

 failure of this not very judicious attempt to cover the bank 



