ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.\ 
Nature Notes: 
THE SRLBORNE SOCIETr'S MAGAZINE. 
No. 208. APRIL, 1907. \'oL. XVIII. 
A PEAT-MOSS IN GALLOWAY. 
By L. Copi.ANo. 
EAVING the old Border home, with its picturesque 
combination of thirteenth century battlemented tower, 
red brick Georgian house, and white-washed gable, let 
us follow for half a mile the avenue of “ cauliflower ” 
oaks, trees that might compete with any in Richmond Park, and 
must have been in their full splendour in the days when Dr. 
Johnson vowed that timl>er for a walking stick was not to be 
found in Scotland. Then, taking the road over the plain stretch- 
ing to the river, and presently crossing a field, we enter the belt 
of woodland that lies between the cornfields and the moss. The 
Scotch fir, when perched on the hillside, gnarled and twisted 
by exposure to every breath that blows, may then best please the 
artist’s eye, but there is a profound satisfaction in gazing down 
these vistas of tall “ pillared pines,” with their clean warm- 
tinted stems, each fit “ for the mast of some great ammiral.” 
Let us keep to the path, for if we left it the undergrowth 
of bracken, four, five, and even six feet high, would make our 
progress a slow one. Soon the wood becomes clearer, open 
spaces are carpeted with flowerless heath and blaeberry, white 
stemmed birches spring up between the firs, and the size of the 
trees gradually dwindles till only self-sown, tiny seedlings 
straggle after us as we emerge on the moss and begin to wade 
through the heather. The early Scotch heath with its crimson 
bells is over, and the pale bell-heather occurs only here and 
there, but the ling is in full glory. \Vhat a far-stretching glow 
of colour ! How delicious the warm honey-scented air, and 
how exquisitely varied the pearly purples and rosy-pinks of 
those flowering sprays and masses, each seeming more beautiful 
than the last. Nor is there wanting among them a plant of 
white luck-bringing blossom, not very uncommon here. But 
