34 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 



passage is made, where the banks below and above can be con- 

 veniently admired. Sir William Armstrong kindly headed the 

 party, and walked round the hill, and explained everything. 

 Returning over the summit which must be 700 feet high, we 

 descended by a path or staircase in the rock, nearly behind the 

 mansion. The greenery of the plants already mentioned, with 

 many others omitted, rendered this descent, if anything, more 

 wonderful, than what we already had seen. The beds of rhodo- 

 dendron in their brightest flower, to the right in descending, 

 were admirable in every way. Kalmia latifoha an American bog 

 plant was here also very fine. The principal Rhododendrons 

 were white; — Mrs J. Crutton ; dark, Stella, &c, &c. The Coni- 

 ferse were principally P. Nordmanniana — which is a very hardy 

 one; P. Douglassi in all graceful varieties; P. amabilis ; Abiei 

 Pinus Pinsapo ; Abies Alberti; and A. Braziliensis, &c, &c. It 

 is quite impossible, in a short notice, to name all the plants, but 

 we have endeavoured to indicate the general features to be 

 observed on this wonderful hillside. In returning we inspected 

 the dean leading to the Coquet, the gardens, vineries, and fern 

 houses. All these were equally worthy of notice ; but our time 

 being limited, we could only give them an admiring look in 

 returning to Rothbury. Our walk was a long one, but in 

 admiring the beauties of nature, fatigue was for the time for- 

 gotten. Although the skies were by no means cloudless, our 

 excursion was made out in comparative comfort ; and we all owe 

 Sir William Armstrong our most grateful thanks for his courteous 

 conduct to the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club." 



A shrub used at Cragside and Jesmond dean in quantities is a 

 very spreading species of Aristolochia. There were numerous 

 yellow Azaleas but the flowers were fading ; the Ceanothus or 

 white Syringa grew in masses; Berberis Darwinii thrives; and 

 there were fine red and pink thorns. Of the lower herbaceous 

 plants Polygonum Brunonis occupied great spaces like a turf ; and 

 Antennaria dioica was equally thriving. Of the native plants of 

 the hill still surviving, the foxglove, the Corydalis clavicalata, and 

 Genista anglica, were noticeable. The soil, except where it has 

 a peaty mixture, has very little vegetable ingredients, being of 

 a yellow colour, and derived from decaying sandstones. Sections 

 of this yellow soil were obvious in all the railway cuttings ; and 

 it is said to be "growthy." 



