Cash : Wilson's Tours in Scotland and Ireland. 45 



party ; so will Mr. Arnott and some others, whom you will like to 

 see, but who, like myself, reckon upon the excursion as a relief from 

 our studies at home, and as a relaxation that will the better fit us for 

 them afterwards. I calculate on setting off on the 23rd of June. 

 Come as much sooner as may be convenient to you, and you will find 

 a bed, and a hearty welcome prepared for you. * * All here desire 

 to be most kindly remembered to you." 



Mr. Wilson left home on the 19th of June, and did not return to 

 Warrington until the 31st of March following — the intervening period 

 being spent in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales in the health-inspiring 

 pursuit to which he had devoted himself. From his journal of the 

 voyage north we learn that on the 19th of June he sailed from Liver- 

 pool to Glasgow (paying cabin fare, 25s.), and reached his destination 

 on the evening of the following day. On the 23rd of June he set out 

 with Dr. Hooker and party for Killin, travelling via Dumbarton and 

 Loch Lomond. Next day they botanised upon Craig Cailleach, and 

 on the 25th upon Ben Lawers. Mr. Wilson did not leave Killin until 

 July 4th ; on that day he travelled via Stirling to Glasgow, and spent 

 a week in the society of Prof. Hooker and other naturalists, one of 

 whom was Dr. Walker-Arnott, who during Mr. Wilson's stay returned 

 from a botanical tour in Skye, bringing with him specimens of 

 Eriocaulon. 



On the 15th of July Mr. Wilson quitted Glasgow for Dublin, 

 reaching the Irish capital on the following evening. " I v/ent," he 

 says, " to a filthy tavern, which I soon quitted." Six days later he 

 sailed for Cork. Very soon after his arrival there v/e find him at work, 

 and his first search — happily successful — was for Hooker ia loete-virens. 

 The entry in his journal under date Thursday, 23rd July, is as 

 follows: — "Went to Dunscombe's Wood for Hooknna Icete-vlrem^ 

 which I at length found in a shady wet part of the rivulet, immediately 

 above the watering place, overgrown with brambles." 



Here I pause for a moment to say something about this beautiful 

 moss ; and I am glad to have the opportunity which this entry afi'ords 

 me — even if there were no other evidence on the point — of correcting 

 an error into which the editor of Professor Harvey's Memoir has, no 

 doubt, unwittingly fallen. The editor says [Mem. p. 20,] that in the 

 summer of 1831, Harvey, visiting Killarney, with his friend Mr. 

 Fennell, found EooJceria loete-virens, " a moss heretofore unnoticed as 

 an Irish plant," that by means of this discovery he introduced himself 

 to Sir William, then Dr. Hooker, curator of the Botanic Gardens at 

 Glasgow ; and that thus began an acquaintance which quickly ripened 

 into a warm and lasting friendship. 



