A RAMBLE ROUND YETHOLM 829 



plant to be rare. It is interesting to know that since then, 

 C. limosa has been found in large quantity all along the 

 edges of the Gattonside Moss, near Melrose. 



The object of our quest having been secured, we regained 

 the road, and ascending to its junction with another, which 

 connects Primside with Lochside, proceeded in a Northerly 

 direction towards Yetholm Loch, an extensive sheet of water 

 of one and a half miles circumference, abounding in perch 

 and pike. Two field-breadths separated the road from its 

 Southern extremity, so that to avoid needless trespassing we 

 walked towards the farm-cottages on the roadside, opposite 

 which a sown turnip-field presented an easier means of 

 approach. Passing down the drills we noticed the frequent 

 occurrence of Veronica Buxbaumii. The Loch is bordered 

 with a strong growth of flags, rushes, and bur-weeds, and 

 only at points where the swans have trampled them down 

 could easy access to the water be obtained. The marshy 

 undergrowth all round, however, supplied a productive hunting- 

 ground, and for a couple of hours a careful scrutiny of 

 plants was prosecuted with gratifying results. Very hand- 

 some, though none the less deadly, appeared Cicuta virosa, 

 rooted in the muddy margin. Plentiful too was Gipsy-wort 

 (Lycopus Europ(eus), though not so vigorous and branched 

 as when seen by the dykeside of a crofter's garden near 

 Eoundstone, Co. Galway. On the grassy banks Galeopsis 

 versicolor expanded its variegated whorls, and nestling amidst 

 a thicket of Reed-mace (Typha latifolia) and Club-rush 

 (Scirpus lacustris), the delicate blue Skull-cap (Scutellaria 

 galericulata) and the pale rose Water Plantain {Alisma 

 Plantago) relieved the sombre hue of their towering neigh- 

 bours. A particular search for sedges was rewarded with 

 the identification of Carex teretiuscula ; C. disticha (in 

 remarkably ripened fruit); C. hirta ; and C. paludosa, which 

 at the Southern extremity of the Loch assumed such a poor 

 and attenuate form as to lead to the entertainment of doubt 

 regarding its classification. Characteristic specimens, how- 

 ever, which have been submitted to the Curator of the 

 Herbarium, Eoyal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, have been 

 pronounced to be true to type. An overflowing vasculum 

 of plants of more frequent occurrence could easily have been 

 QQ 



