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BOTANY OF THE EASTERN BORDERS. 



By p. fox lee, 

 De-Msbiiry ; Secretary for Phanerogajnia to the Botanical Sectio7i of the Yorkshire 

 NatJiralists Union. 



The first and second weeks of last July found two members of 

 the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union — to wit, Mr. J. A. Erskine 

 Stuart, L.R.C.S.E., and myself — exploring, as fully as the time and 

 the strong claims of trout fishing would admit, the pine forests, the 

 sea cliffs, the wooded deans, and the bogs of this historic belt of 

 country. From Chirnside in Berwickshire as a centre, we lost no 

 time in searching out the botanical treasures on which our mind was 

 bent Chirnside is a small village situated on an outwork of the 

 Lammermoor range, at an elevation of some 300 ft. above sea-level, 

 the Cheviot Hills closing in the southern view at a distance of nearly 

 30 miles, and on the edge of which can be distinctly seen the battle- 

 field of Flodden. With the advantage of having as leader on several 

 of the excursions a veteran member of the Scottish-Alpine Botanical 

 Club, much was gained by the help of one who knew the ground. 

 At Mellerstane pine woods, spreading over a considerable surface, 

 Liimcea boi'ealis was in full bloom, a sight worth going a long way to 

 see, while near it we gathered Goody era ?'epe?is and Lister a cor data. 

 In the boggy pools at Gordon Moss — but a little distance from 

 Mellerstane — on a pulp of Sphagnaceae, were Sparganiiim 7iata7ts, 

 sub-sp. S. minimiun, and Utriculai'ia miiior. Scattered up and down 

 the Moss large tussocks of Carex pajiiculata, tufts of the hoary 

 Sedge, C canescens L., Stellaria palustris Ehrh., Habenaria bifolia Br., 

 Orchis latifolia., sub-sp. O. incarnata^ and Genista anglica were in 

 abundance. Several of the warblers, flitting about the low shrubby 

 Willows {Salix pentandra and S, repens varieties) and making sweet 

 music, seemed quite heedless of the intruders. Vicia angustifolia Roth, 

 was growing on the railway bank near, and on the roadside a few 

 plants of Galeopsis Tetrahit, sub-sp. G. speciosa Miller, and Carex 

 leporina. Gordon Moss is a grand piece of ' saft' ground. 



Near Chirnside, hanging in graceful wreaths of bloom over the 

 red sandstone rocks and crumbhng shales on the banks of the Whit- 

 adder, Vicia sylvatica, and the still rarer Lathyrus syivestris, grow in 

 profusion. In the bed of the river are large clumps of Mentha 

 sylvestris^ a white variety of Malva moschata, along with (Ejianthe 

 crocata, Cardnus tenuiflorus^ Scifpus sylvaticus, and on tjie surface of 

 this choice trout stream were spreading patches, with flowers white 

 as snow, of Ranunculus pluitans, as well as the more slender form, 

 with narrower petals, R. Bachii, both very distinct as seen growing, 



Naturalist 



