REPORT FOR 1913. 



379 



Ewing first realized his future love — a mountain. It was near here 

 also, not far from Coilantogle Ford — a place famed for Scott's soul- 

 stirring account of the combat between Fitz-James and Roderic Dhu 

 — that he picked up a packet of ferns and mosses lost by some tourist. 

 This was his conception as a future botanist. When 14 years of age, 

 having got enough pocket-money for the purpose, he left Kinross at 

 3 a.m. to catch the early boat at 6.30 across the Firth. He was 

 intent on finding Asplenium septentrionale on Arthur's Seat, and 

 when we once had a few hours' stoppage of the vessel at Christiansand 

 he rushed me off to shew me this well-remembered plant in abundance 

 on the rocks there. At 17 he was apprenticed as a joiner. He after- 

 wards moved to Glasgow, where he went to various evening classes in 

 order to improve his knowledge of his calling. He also went to a 

 class in Botany to improve the knowledge of his hobby. He entered 

 an architect's office as surveyor, and afterwards became surveyor to 

 the Phoenix Fire Office, where he subsequently became manager. 

 During a holiday of three days, when still an apprentice, he walked 

 70 miles in 26 hours, botanising at intervals on the way. His six 

 inches of stature beyond that of ordinary man was a valuable asset in 

 these journeys, as some of us realized who had to keep pace with him 

 in many mountain rambles. Once when fern-hunting in Inverkip 

 Glen he accidentally met a party of vasculum-berigged persons from 

 Glasgow. This incident led him to join the Glasgow Naturalists' 

 Society, of which he became one of the most valuable members. All 

 his leisure time was devoted to botanical study, and he excelled in his 

 knowledge of alpine plants and their habitats, and I have never seen 

 him happier than when tramping over the shining schists of the 

 Perthshire mountains. He was treading on what one might call a turf 

 of Sibbaldia procumbens, Gnaphalium supinum, Conostomum boreale, 

 Solorina crocea, etc., on the way to much rarer plants, such as Car ex 

 ustulata, Woodsia, and Morckia Blyttii. To attempt to show him any 

 rare alpine on the Breadalbane range was montrer le soleil avec un flam- 

 beau. He had climbed the Perthshire mountains oftener than any other : 

 they were mostly old friends to him. The summit of Ben Lawers had 

 been ascended by him between 50 and 60 times, and he had spent at 

 least a hundred days on its flanks. His old friend, Dr Stirton, with 

 whom he was often on Ben Lawers in his younger days, beat him, 

 however, in the number of times he had ascended to the summit of 

 this mountain, as he told me, when we were together in Harris, that 



