Scottish and Shandinavian Floras. By Dr Stuart. 85 



country very plentiful. Maianthemum bifolium a pretty lily of the 

 valley looking alpine, was in abundance with the common lily of 

 the valley, Convallaria majalis. Long trails of Lycopodium 

 annotinum rambled over the rocks, which were clothed witli the 

 highly coloured pectinated stems of Ilypnum Crista- C a strensis, 

 It. splendens, etc. We worked among the boulders, getting many 

 specimens of other alpines and ferns, of which the above men- 

 tioned form only a fraction, and reluctantly left a rock garden, 

 the perfection of which I shall never forget. In passing to the 

 birch wood, a glimpse of a bank of Cornus Suecica was obtained, 

 to which I was determined to give a closer inspection. The Cornus 

 was in the finest fruiting condition, many of the little plants 

 carrying as many as nine scarlet coral-like berries on their 

 summit. The profusion of the plants was extraordinary, extend- 

 ing for many acres over the hill-side. Vaccinium Vitis-idcea 

 was associated with it, trailing over the ground, covered with 

 clusters of its bright scarlet berries. These gave a colour to the 

 hill-side, which, without any exaggeration, I can liken to nothing 

 but nature's carpet bedding. No one could pass such a scene 

 without feelings of intense admiration ; and I only regretted, 

 when the time came, for leaving such a feast of beauty. I would 

 willingly have come all the way to Norway to have seen this 

 Cornus bank, and the rock garden in the adjacent wood. The 

 blue lake and river, with the finely wooded rocks on the opposite 

 side, rising thousands of feet high, formed a picture which is 

 vividly impressed on my mind. With feelings of regret, Eide 

 was left in the afternuon, and we reached Vik situated on the 

 Oifiord, about 10 p.m., where our rooms being previously secured, 

 we were all comfortably accommodated at the brother Naesham's 

 hotel. Eain was falling and the night was very dark. 



After a good night's rest I sallied out for a turn before break- 

 fast. The situation of Vik is grandly picturesque, surrounded 

 as it is on all sides by almost perpendicular mountains, composed 

 principally of gneiss ; their rocky sides, scarred with the glacier 

 striation, visible at a mile's distance. In winter the sun can 

 scarcely reach the place at all. Notwithstanding this, the cherry 

 flourishes on low standards, covered with fruit, and the straw- 

 berry is as fine as in Scotland. A salmon river enters the head 

 of the Oifiord close to the hotel, which has its origin in a lake, 

 almost two miles off, into which another river falls. This seems 

 the general arrangement in Norway. Some of our party on the~ 



