2fS Report of Meetings. By James Hardy. 



tical Account" of the parish (p. 47). 



*' On Dryhope Haugh there stood a large cairn called Herton's Hill, 

 in the midst of which, when the stones were removed about 30 years ago 

 [1803], to enclose the surrounding fields, some urns were found, besides a 

 coffin formed of slabs and containing ashes. There may still be seen 

 [1833], to the westward of AltriveLake, on rising knolls, five considerable 

 tumuli, probably remains of the ancient Britons. None of them 

 have been opened ; but the surface of the largest exhibits a mixture of 

 charcoal and ashes. Its top was surrounded by a circle of stones thirty 

 yards in circumference, with a small square of stones in the centre that 

 were taken away to build dykes." 



An iron spear-head under a cairn, and a looped bronze celt 

 from among cists, were the only weapons disclosed at Annan's 

 Street. They may have been contemporaneous. The sculptured 

 stone (a sandstone) described by Dr. Daniel Wilson, from a 

 drawing, with figures of spirals, may not be older than the latest 

 bronze age. 



The day after the meeting I spent with my friend Mr W. B. 

 Boyd, at Faldonside, examining the thriving alpines on his 

 rockeries, and his amply stocked garden borders. In the after- 

 noon we made a botanical investigation of the flat west of the 

 house, not far from the Tweed where there is also a pond, and I 

 noted down the following plants, which, however, are not all 

 natives : Symphytum tuherosum, S. asperrimum ; much Stellaria 

 nemorum ; Asperula taurina, Malva moschata, Circaa Lutetiana, 

 Petasites alba, Rumex viridis, Ruhus ccesius, Galeopsis versicolor, 

 Scrophularia nodosa. Campanula latifoUa, Alisma Plantago, Barlarea 

 vulgaris, and Polygonum Hydropiper. During the winter great 

 numbers of short-tailed field-mice had burrowed in the woods 

 here, far more than Mr Boyd remembered of seeing before. 

 They were more particularly noticable immediately after a snow- 

 storm, as they seemed the a to be collected in larger numbers 

 together. Mr Boyd forwarded me an example in the middle of 

 January, and I found it to be a brownish backed vole, Arvicola 

 glareola {Mus glareolus). By the side of the Eailway near Bold 

 Station, there is a very abundant showy Hypericum, I think it 

 is M. perforatum ; for although it has not many pellucid dots on 

 the leaves, it has not the net work of the pellucid veins that 

 distinguishes dulium ; moreover the sepals are erect and not 

 deflexed. It would require to be examined in a fresh condition. 



At Galashiels, Mrs Wood, shewed me an example of Gymna- 

 denia alhida, which she had gathered on a dry knoll in Gala 

 park. This is a valuable discovery. Any specimens that I have 



