448 Report of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy. 



risin.^ almost perpendicularly from tlie water. Clinging -wicli 

 wonderful tenacity to every cleft where roots could be inserted 

 were hazel, and mountain ash, and birch bushes, which judging 

 by the vigour of their growth, seemed to thrive on their rocky 

 home. [This deep winding fissure is called the Black Craig. 

 Fresh-water flounders are said to have been caught in one of the 

 deep pools of the burn here. At one time a fiock of goats was 

 grazed in the woods, and their night-fold, still known as the 

 Goat Fold, is still traceable on the west side of the ravine. It 

 was also the haunt of illicit distillers]. 



After walking along Aikieside ' Banks ' past the woodman's 

 cottage, through what was once an ' Apple haugh,' or orchard, 

 the Pease Bridge was reached, a stone and lime structure span- 

 ning a tremendous gully, which had been hollowed out by the 

 stream in the course of ages. From the parapet of the bridge 

 the spectator looks down upon an almost unbroken .expanse of 

 leafy verdure, so magnificent was the foliage. Away far beneath, 

 stray glimpses may be had of the stream, and in the north-east 

 at the foot of the burn is the sea, calm and unruffled, and bear- 

 ing on its placid bosom several ships, both under sail and 

 steam. The scenery in the glen is most romantic, and the botan- 

 ists were kept busy. Perhaps the best fern seen during the walk 

 was Polystichum angulare, which thrives exceedingly in this 

 locality. A splendid lot of plants of Equisetum maximum was 

 picked up. One or two were over two feet high, and correspond- 

 ingly large in the fronds. 



On the way to the coast we pass the prettily situated old mill 

 with its undershot wheel. Near the foot of the burn, and among 

 a scrub of alders, willows, and an undergrowth of butter-bur were 

 seen the Argynnis Aglaia, the common blue butterfly, (Polyom- 

 matus Alexis), and Polyommatus Artaxerxes, while flitting over 

 the newly-mown hay were several of a commoner sort. [Plants 

 of the white horehound sometimes grow here, and abundance of 

 Mentha viridis]. When the sea-side was reached the weary limbs 

 were stretched on a grassy slope, where there was a beautiful 

 view of the high red cliffs and the wide expanse of sea. But the 

 botanists were indefatigable, and while part of the company en- 

 joyed the sea breeze and the fragrant weed, the diligent plant- 

 gatherers pursued their vocation at the burn mouth. They 

 brought back a very fine specimen of the horned poppy ( Glau- 

 cium luteum) ; also the sea-rocket, (Cakile maritima), the sea 



