80 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
Comrie, and thence extending east as far as the Ochtertyre 
hollow. The great gravel-masses of the latter locality 
consist of the moraines of these two glaciers, and of 
the washed debris distributed by the torrents escaping 
from the melting ice. The perched blocks brought down 
on the top of the Loch Earn glacier are dotted along the 
hill-slopes overlooking the wide carse. After the ice had 
melted away, that wide carse-land was the site of a large 
lake, which covered all the low ground as far west as 
Comrie. This lake, however, was eventually silted up and 
drained : the silting being due principally to the action of 
the Biver Lednock and the "Water of Euchill. The Earn 
itself also contributed its quota of gravel, sand, and learn, 
but most of its sediment was required to fill up the hollows 
in its own valley that formerly existed between Comrie 
and St Eillans. The draining of the ancient lake appears 
to have been completed by the deepening of the outlet of 
the Earn near Strowan House. 
In Glenartney the party had excellent opportunities 
of studying the Old Red Sandstone rocks which are 
seen standing on end. The ■ high angle assumed by 
them is doubtless due to the great dislocation which 
hereabouts brings them down against the slate-rocks of 
the Aberuchill Hills. This large fault, as it is termed, 
has been followed in a north-east direction from the 
shores of Loch Lomond to the sea-coast at Stonehaven. 
It does not, however, always form the boundary line be¬ 
tween the Silurian strata of the Highlands and the Old 
Red Sandstone. It crosses Glenartney, and enters the 
latter formation, through which it passes to north-east. 
The Knock of Crieff and Milquhanzie Hill, in the Crieff 
district, both of which are formed of conglomerate, lie on 
the north-west side of the fault. In Glenartney, marks of 
the old glacial period were observed everywhere. Thick 
accumulations of boulder-clay, with striated stones, cum¬ 
bered the slopes of the valley, and now and again rock- 
striations,—the work of the great body of ice which 
formerly flowed down Glenartney were detected. The 
striae pointed north-east or down the valley. The finely 
smoothed and rounded outline of many of the mountains 
within view also attracted attention, — the slopes of 
Crappech Hill above Comrie being considered a fine 
example of glacial abrasion. 
The earthquake phenomena of Comrie are probably 
connected in some way with the great N.E. and S.W. dis¬ 
location which traverses the country, and which doubtless 
indicates a line of weakness, along which roek-fissuring 
may be taking place at a considerable depth from the 
surface,—the motion and sound being propagated through 
the superincumbent rock-masses to the surface. 
In the department of zoology nothing of interest pre¬ 
sented itself. Vertebrate animals were few in number, 
and all the insects seen were species of universal distribu¬ 
tion. Amongst flowering plants, however, more than one 
species of considerable interest was observed. Amongst 
those may be noticed:—The Dane-wort or dwarf elder 
(Sambucus ebulus), a plant much resembling the common 
elder or bour-tree, but whose stems, instead of being wcody, 
are herbaceous, and die down every year. Its name of 
Dane-wort is said to be derived from its having been used 
to poison wine sent as a present to certain Danish in¬ 
vaders, but whether the plant derived its name from this, 
or whether the story was invented to fit the name, we 
know not. Another interesting plant was a form of the 
common knapweed ( Centaurea nigra), in which the flower- 
heads were two or three times larger than usual, the in¬ 
dividual florets being larger and more spreading. This 
form, which is what is termed radiant, is not uncommon 
on the seacoast, but very rarely found inland. The great 
prize of the day was, however, the discovery of Agrimonia 
odorata, a species closely allied to the common agrimony, 
but only once previously recorded as a Perthshire plant. 
On that occasion it was found at St Eillans, and some 
doubt was expressed as to whether it was indigenous there. 
Another rare plant was the Wall Lettuce ( Lactuca mur¬ 
al is), which has not before been recorded for Perthshire. 
Though native in England, it seems only to be naturalised 
(and that rarely) in Scotland, and, though probably not 
wild in this locality, yet its occurrence is very interesting. 
It is a graceful plant, with a much-branched but slender 
panicle of small yellow flowers, more or less tinged with 
red. Amongst other but more common plants found dur¬ 
ing the day, the following, out of upwards of 200 species 
observed, may be enumerated:— Viola lutea, an entirely 
purple-flowered form; the Musk-mallow ( Malta moschata); 
Trifolium medium; the Orpine (Sedum telephium); Sedum 
anglicum; Sedumvillosum; Galium boreale; G. uliginosum; 
Campanula latifolia; Myosotis repens; It/umex aquaticus; 
Polygonum viviparum, &c., &c. 
September 2nd. 
4. To the Lochs near Blairgowrie. 
On September 2nd, the fourth and final excursion for 
the season took place. The weather in the morning was 
very wet, but notwithstanding there was a good attend- 
