328 A RAMBLE ROUND YETHOLM 



itself in pressing towards its centre : but on closer inspection, 

 and as soon as the boundary line of "bull-snouts" and 

 rush-tussocks was passed, it became clear that there was 

 a formidable amount of marsh to negotiate, and that only 

 by the exercise of caution and agility could a header be 

 avoided. As commonly happens, the prizes lay stored in the 

 middle, on account of which the problem was presented in the 

 absence of planks or waders how we were to reach them. 

 Reconnoitring, therefore, had to be resorted to ; and after a 

 careful examination of possible lines of attack, for botanists, 

 like other men, "have their exits and their entrances" 

 (as the bogs of Connemara can fully testify), the practised 

 leader made choice of what for want of a better proved a 

 serviceable means of entrance. This difficulty being sur- 

 mounted, though not without the displacement of mud and 

 a needless shipment of water, a search was begun for an 

 uncommon Sedge {Carex limosa), which delights in such a 

 region of quagmire. Being an inconspicuous plant of from 

 six to twelve inches, and bearing a head of only a few 

 drooping spikelets, it required careful and laborious scrutiny 

 of the ground, and the occupation of considerable time, 

 during which the Cranberry {Vaccinium Oxycoccus) was seen 

 in abundant flower and fruit, its delicately beautiful and 

 reflexed blossom reclining on the surface of water-holes over- 

 gi'own with Sphagnum. Varieties of Spearwort {Ranunculus 

 flammula and R. lingua) also gave brightness to the mass 

 of rush and grasses interspersed with willows amid which 

 they reared their graceful spikes, while a shy and wary 

 warbler flitted from perch to perch, giving utterance to 

 sweet melodious music. "All things come to him who 

 waits"; and waiting, which in our case meant plodding, 

 was in due time rewarded with the discovery of a patch 

 very thinly sown and by no means likely to catch the eye, 

 in which ripened plants were identified. All the more 

 gratifying was the "find" because from this Bog the species 

 had been already reported, though such a report must have 

 been subsequent to the publication of Dr Johnston's "Natural 

 History of the Eastern Borders" (1853), wherein he names, 

 as stations, only Haiden Dean, Bog below Smailholm Tower, 

 Lurgie Loch, and Learmouth Bogs; and pronounces the 



