Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 81 



The space between this glen and the next is a " Steel." 



The fourth glen is called Bladdering Cleugh. The north side 

 is fringed with birches and dwarf- sallows, but the south aspect 

 is bare and steep like a wall. The stunted trees are patched 

 with grey Usnea, Ramalina and Evernia and Parmelia phi/sodes and 

 P. saxattlis, and tangled tufts of dirty Alectoria. There were 

 still green grasshoppers alive here in October. Veils of Vicia 

 sy'vutica on the trees were either withered away or else mildewed. 

 Coming to a gap in the glen where a sheep track crosses, there 

 was a dry bank with much natural Trifolivm pratense and Tri- 

 foUum repens ; and the dry rock near it produced Encalypta 

 streptocarpa. In a shady fissure beneath this that only allowed 

 the burn to dash down tumultuously, among much dripping 

 moss, some very long, beautiful, and much darker-green coloured 

 than is usual, being here constantly in the shade, Jungeimnnnia 

 Tomentella grew, mixed with luxuriant J. asplenioides. There 

 were now trees on both sides. 'Polystichum acu eatum took posses- 

 sion of the undersides of the rocks, and continued as progress 

 was made upwards. Mountain ashes still full green, and others 

 in their autumnal livery grew together. The plants noticed were 

 Ilieracium sylvaticum, Stachys sylvatica, Teucrium scorodonia, Geum 

 rivale, Lychnis Flos- Cuculi, Spireea Ulmaria, Scabiosa succisa, 

 Geranium sylvaticum, Valeriana officinalis, etc. The foliage of this 

 intermixture of herbage was almost as varied in its tints in 

 October as the autumnal hues of the forest trees. 



A slab of mica-schist nearly approaching to gneiss, 1£ feet long 

 by 1 wide, lies here in an opening, above small fallen trees. I 

 took it from the burn many years ago, and it still lies undisturbed. 

 In the bank above, foxglove was still in blossom. There were 

 some dog-roses (canina) among the woodland, and very fine Poly- 

 podium Dryopteris or Oak-fern. The rock-bramble had got rooted 

 in a damp shady soil here, and was still flourishing and verdant, 

 a curious contrast with the examples on the exposed rocks, 

 reddened and browned by drought and incipient frosts. This 

 dean is fairly passable all through, except below the sheep 

 track, where the burn is almost strangled. The stones in the 

 burns of these two deans were beaded with rounded soft black 

 objects, apparently fresh- water Algae. I had not time afterwards 

 to examine what I collected. 



To revert once more to the main ravine before it forks into (4) 

 Bladdering Cleugh, and (5) Burnup. Hypnum dendroides grows 



