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



{Nereites, Crossopodia) are inclined soutliward.* The slate was 

 once quarried here. 



I went up as far as Thornielee station on the day previous to 

 the meeting ; and as the rocks about it appeared to look promis- 

 ing for ferns, I asked Mr Eobert Mathison, Innerleithen, who 

 gave me the following information. **I have several times 

 walked over this ground and the only rather uncommon ferns I 

 could pick were the Asplemum Adiantum-nigrum and the A. 

 Buta-muraria, the latter near Thornielee so abundant, that every 

 joint and fissure of the masonry (in the walls) seemed alive with 

 this little fern. Further down the river there is a fine station for 

 the A selenium Trichomanes growing upon a moist wall and pre- 

 ferring a north aspect." 



Opposite the station, Elibank Craig forms part of a craggy and 

 glitter-faced hill that juts out like a great spadeful of mountain 

 thrown in at the base of the higher range behind. On the next 

 hill the old grey tower of Elibank stands a ruin among green 

 pastures or hay fields. The bank beneath it has been originally 

 of hazel, ash, and native wood ; but it is now planted with thriv- 

 ing larches ; and it is, I believe, intended to form it into an oak 

 coppice. It is marked in Font's map as "Elybanke wood." 

 Several of the trees near the river were much shattered by last 

 winter's frost. 



The burn where Elibank copse ends divides Selkirk and Peebles 

 shires on the south side ; the Priesthope burn, in the grounds of 

 Holylee, on the other. The Plora Glen opens next. Holylee 

 house is opposite Elibank. Then Walkerburn, a modern manu- 

 facturing village which owes its prosperity to the perseverance of 

 one family, lies at the base of a bare steep concave hill side. 

 Hereabout as we pass onward the hills acquire a more imposing 

 altitude, and have their sides facing the river scooped out from 

 top to base, as if cut sheer away, and become almost perpendic- 

 idar walls. It is wonderful how green they are with such abrupt 

 slopes, and there is a singular look of cleanliness about them at 

 this season, when the grass is so closely cropped. 



"After Walkerburn," to continue Miss Eussell's notices, *' on 

 the north side, are to be seen a set of irregular and slightly slop- 

 ing terraces, said to have been made by the laird of the former 

 tower of Purveshill for his seven daughters, who could not walk 



* Murchison's Siluria, 5th Ed. p. 152., where more maybe learned about 

 the Selkirkshire and Peebles-shire Silurian rocks. 



