86 Scottish and Skandinavian Floras. By I)r Stuart. 



15th enjoyed good sport on the river, killing 28lb of salmon- 

 trout, one of which weighed 7f lbs ; with the rain the river rose, 

 allowing a free run for the fish on the Sunday when the nets are 

 withdrawn from the fiord. It was easily seen that we were in a 

 much wilder region than we had yet visited. Close to the hotel 

 door the Arabis petrcea, a rare alpine in Scotland, grew in the 

 gravelly debris washed down from the mountain by the winter 

 floods, with many other strictly alpine plants. There is a fine 

 old Lutheran church, dating back to the 12th century, at Vik, 

 but there was no service on the Sunday when we were there. 

 Silene rupestris grew in quantity on the gravel of the river bank, 

 and a quantity of seed was obtained, from which I have succeeded 

 in raising plants. Mr Lindsay, curator of the Edinburgh 

 Botanical Gardens, considers it to be upon th>3 whole, the best 

 alpine we got in Norway. Of elegant dwarf habit, its slender 

 stems and pretty white flowers are very attractive. Impatiens 

 noli-me-tangere was growing in sheltered rocky hollows, while 

 Saxifraga Cotyledon studded the moss-grown slabs, with hundreds 

 of its neat rosettes, but sparingly in flower Above the hotel, 

 about 1000 ft. however, near a water-fall, its white plumes were 

 splendid. Among the moss-grown rocks fallen from above, 

 Woodsia Ilvensis was finer than I had yet seen it, the fronds 

 attaining considerable size ; while in its company among the 

 moss, I succeeded in finding four patches of Asplenium septen- 

 trionale, which still grows ou Samson's Bibs, Arthur's Seat, 

 Edinburgh. This fern was only sparingly collected, but I have 

 succeeded in growing it here on the rock border from Vik. The 

 Woodsia was in rare luxuriance, and one could hardly pass the 

 grand fronds without wishing to carry away the plant. 



On Monday the loth, we made our excursion to the Vcerein 

 foss, which entailed an early start in the morning. The Norway 

 Tourist Club are making a road in the rock, by the side of the 

 lake, to enable the traveller to visit the foss by land, and 150 

 men are at present employed by the shore of the lake, blasting 

 the rock with dynamite for this purpose. The loud reports of 

 the blasts, reverberating from hill to hill resemble thunder when 

 first heard, huge masses of rock falling into the water. So on 

 reaching the lake, we got into a good-sized boat, and hoisting a 

 sail, by the aid of a strong west wind we speedily reached Maabe, 

 a farm and hamlet at the head of the lake, and quickly getting 

 into marching order, started by the Vorein pass for the foss. The 



