Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 05 



destination. At Choieelea a fine view of the Merse and Northum- 

 berland was obtained — the woods and detached trees wearing the 

 dark mantle of the closing summer — the fields the intermingling 

 hues of green and yellow that betoken the approach of harvest — 

 the dark wall of distant hills framing the rich and varied land- 

 scape, so full of the memories of stirring events in the bygone 

 periods of history. 



The well-sheltered classic hamlet of Polwarth-on-the-Green, 

 on the margin of the Marchmont woods, was passed within view 

 on the left, as the route by the renovated road to Westruther, 

 7^- miles distant, was taken between two sheltering more or less 

 continuous fir plantations. The shooting moors of Sir H. H. 

 Campbell, only sparingly in bloom this year, lay to the left on a 

 ridge from the Kyle Hill to the Dogden Moss. This is rather 

 destitute of interesting plants ; Genista anglica grows on the skirts 

 of the Kyle Hill ; Listera cordata among the long heath ; and the 

 club-mosses, Lycopodium clavatum and L. alpinum creep over the 

 nearly grown up old track-ways. Listera is also preserved in the 

 plantations beside the public road. Some of the firs planted 

 here have been choked by the long heath, and are covered with 

 grey lichen, which even attaches itself to the heather. Lichens 

 also fringe the palings in great luxuriance, and bespeck the 

 boulder stones and walls in great patches, shewing how conducive 

 the damp moorland atmosphere is to their rapid growth. Some 

 chance tufts of Alectoria jtcbata, suspended like old men's grey 

 beards, plucked from beech trees on Kyle hill, measure nine 

 inches in length. 



The Dirringtons now appear in front, the Greater hill bold, 

 steep, and bare, and streaked with barren " glitters;" the Lesser 

 empurpled with blooming heather, and speckled with clumps of 

 brackens ; a lower spur in front shewing the twisted ridges of 

 bygone cultivation, still partly green, and radiating from a bare 

 summit as from the apex of a dome. There is a great heathy 

 and partly boggy space rising into a low rounded heathy ridge 

 connecting the two Dirringtons, and bounding a flattish heathy 

 moor that extends towards Langton Edge. This heathy flat is a 

 continuation of the green swamps of the Dogden Moss, which is 

 here traversed, in the form of a miniature mountain ridge, by 

 the curiously zig-zag mounds of sand and gravel that constitute 

 the Bedshiel Kaims. These are chiefly composed of fine red 

 sand at the east end nearest to the Dirringtons, as if they had 

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