350 Report of Meetings for 1886. By J. Hardy. 



cast taken, but the inquiry is not quite completed. In the 

 plantations at Maxton House, some of the young silver-firs were 

 dying out from the attacks of Chermes Picea, to which a stop was 

 put. Pseudococcus Fogi was detected in one spot clustered on the 

 stems of branches of a beech hedge. As it had not spread to 

 any extent, it will probably be extirpated by the application of 

 diluted paraffin, which is also the cure for the silver-fir pest. 



LAUDER, ETC. 



Several places are seldom visited by the Club, under the 

 impression that they are difficult of access ; one of these being 

 Lauder, which is the key to a considerable extent of very inter- 

 esting upland country, still to some extent lying in the state of 

 nature, and thus adapted for exploration. It was found to be 

 perfectly easy to reach, and get away from, under the arrange- 

 ments made by our local members. The only defect was the 

 too limited period that was allotted for seeing so much untrodden 

 ground, that we were obliged to leave behind unvisited. The 

 meeting was held on "Wednesday, July 28, there being 28 

 present at the gathering. The company assembled at Earlston, 

 and drove till they met their Lauder friends opposite Whitslaid 

 Tovrer. 



After some members, who had the benefit of Mr Wood's 

 explanations, had viewed the Ehymer's Tower at Earlston, the 

 party left in three carriages for Carolside. In this direction the 

 attention first of all caught the bright range of cottages arranged 

 on a height above the green haugh of Earlston Mill, and backed 

 by trees. The sides of the public road- were gay with blooming 

 wild-roses, and there had been earlier in the season, a show of 

 broom on the " Broomybrae." Yellow Toad-flax grew there 

 also, and close beside Blinkbonnie, Hypericum hirsutum was 

 gathered. There is a fine assemblage of well-grown timber 

 round Carolside, filling up the valley from side to side with 

 undulations of deep verdure, while the tenderest modifications of 

 the hue of "nature's universal robe" were reflected from the 

 sun-lit sprays, or glinted forth from the clean-looking meadows, 

 and the close sward underneath the trees that left no nook un- 

 covered. A herd of fallow deer, and a select stock of dairy cows, 

 along with sheep, enlivened the pastures. The mansion stands 

 on one of the flats by the side of the Leader, small but handsome, 



