82 Scottish and Skandinavian Floras. By Dr Stuart. 



A run of 36 hours from Leith, in the good ship St. Sunniva, 

 brings the traveller to Skudesnaes in Norway, a bare rocky, 

 forbidden-looking coast. A few hours farther steaming, and the 

 anchor is let go opposite Lervig, in smooth water, where we 

 enjoy a quiet night's repose after the stormy North Sea. If the 

 ocean is ever rougher in crossing than was our experience, I 

 hope not to be present on the occasion. The roar of the storm 

 and rushing seas, with the roll of the ship are something to 

 remember when it is past, and it is extraordinary how soon it is 

 all forgotten. We were again in motion at 2 a.m. of the 12th, 

 and after a charming sail up the Hardanger fiord, of eight or ten 

 hours, we were landed at Odde, situated at the end of the Sorfiord, 

 a branch of the Hardanger, in the steam launch. The scenery 

 on both shores of the fiord was very sublime. A number of our 

 party were on deck before 5 a.m , when the air was felt to be 

 very sharp and bracing. The weather was brilliant, the sun 

 shining all day long. 



The whole surroundings of Odde are most attractive. Froude 

 describes the place, with its cherry orchards, blue lake, and 

 tumbling river, as the prettiest spot he visited in all Norway. 

 A mile's walk and the shores of the Lake Sandevan are reached. 

 There is a new road on which j r ou can drive to the lake, but 

 the old road is the more secluded, and close to the lake where this 

 old road commences, is a botanical wilderness well worthy of 

 more exploration than we had time to bestow upon it. Groves 

 of Juniper, covered with a profusion of berries, which no one 

 without seeing can have any conception of, cover many acres ; 

 while the ground is carpeted with Zinnaa borealis, Cornus 

 Suecica, Vaccinium Vitis-idcea, Vaccinium uliginosum, V. Myrtillus, 

 all covered with berries. The Cornus rarely fruits in our Scottish 

 Highlands. Here the scarlet coral-like berries coloured the 

 whole place. The Vaccinium uliginosum, the great bog Whortle- 

 berry, rarely fruits in the Highlands ; here the little bushes were 

 covered with their black berries as large as black currants, with 

 a bloom over their surface like a black Hamburgh grape. The 

 Vaccinium Vitis-idcea attains a luxuriance we never see in Scotland, 

 the leaves being very much larger and covered with its scarlet 

 berries. Many flowering plants brightened this botanical 

 wilderness — Silene rupestris and several varieties of Campanula 

 rotundifolia, with wild roses. However we dared not linger, as 

 we were bound for the Buarbrce glacier, some distance off. At 



