242 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[July 18 . 
summer session to excursions in the neighbourhood of 
Edinburgh, for the purpose of enabling his students to put 
into practice in the fields the instructions received in the 
class-room. These excursions had never before been to any 
great distance from Edinburgh, a long Highland tour being 
generally undertaken at the end of the session; but on 
Saturday, 20th June last, the Professor, accompanied by 
upwards of 100 students of his class, set out on an expedition 
of a more extended kind than had ever before been under¬ 
taken in a single day by any party of botanists. Through 
the kindness of the Professor we were enabled to embrace 
this opportunity of getting a day’s peep at northern botany, 
and, accordingly, we numbered one of his party. The bota¬ 
nical army started from Edinburgh by the Northern Railway 
at five on the morning of the day mentioned, and proceeded 
northwards, passing through the counties of Fife, Perth, 
1 Forfar, and Kincardine, to the City of Aberdeen (distant 
I from Edinburgh about 135 miles), which was reached 
between 10 and 11 a.m. After breakfast in the Royal Hotel 
of Aberdeen, our party visited King’s College, to admire the 
antique relics which it contains, and being there joined by 
Dr. Dickie, Professor of Natural History in Queen’s College, 
Belfast, we proceeded some miles to the north, passing the 
picturesque bridge of Don, to the woods aud moors at Den- 
more. Here every spud was unsheathed, and the botanists, 
spreading themselves through the woods, soon replenished 
their boxes with a goodly supply of the floral rarities which 
the place produced—and these were not a few nor without 
interest. 
The first plant which attracted attention was the beautiful 
Trientalis Europcea, which was strewed through the woods in 
great profusion, in some cases giving birth to a small para¬ 
sitic fungus, named Tubercinia trientalis, which generally 
appeared on the leaves of the plant. In close companionship 
with Trientalis the interesting Pyrola minor was found, a 
plant which we are glad to observe is now beginning to be 
cultivated in collections of Alpines. The rare northern 
Orchid, Goodyera repens (named in honour of John Goodyer, 
a botanist of Gerarde's time), was also observed in consider¬ 
able profusion growing beside the plants we have mentioned; 
but it had not then produced its flowers. Towards the end 
of the present month it will well reward the researches of 
northern wanderers, for it will then be in fine condition; and 
although not found at all in the south it occurs in great 
profusion in some of the Highland woods. We likewise 
noticed the prevalence of a beautiful fungus, the Cylindro- 
spora deformans, which attacks the stem and leaves of the 
Whortleberry, sometimes transforming the latter into beau¬ 
tiful round saucers or cups of a delicate cream colour, occa¬ 
sionally tinged with pink. But the most interesting wild 
flower which was found in the woods was Lin rue a borealis, 
the “little northern plant, long overlooked, depressed, abject, 
flowering early, which Linnaeus selected to transmit his own 
name to posterity,” and which we had occasion to notice in a 
former paper published in The Cottage Gardener. It 
was out of flower, or had not flowered, at the station we 
visited; but fresh blossoms were brought to the Professor 
from another locality by an Aberdeen botanist. 
On the marshy moors the beautiful Habenaria bifolia, and 
other native Orchids, were gathered, along with Schamas 
\ nigricans, Veronica scuteUata, Sedum villosum, and several 
interesting Carices aud Gryplogamic plants. The highly 
curious Sundews, Drosera Anylica and rotundifolia, were 
sending up their racemes, but the blossoms were not fully 
developed, although they no doubt will be before the end of 
the month. Here the Mimulus lutcus was found by one of 
the party, a plant in which we have always personally felt 
considerable interest, as affording one of the most con¬ 
spicuous and best known instances of the complete naturali¬ 
zation of a foreign species in our country in the course of a 
few years. The Mimulus was originally introduced from 
the Western Continent about the year 1812, and very soon 
after that time became firmly established in some of our 
native streams, and has ever since continued increasing its 
hold on British soil, until we can now no longer look upon it 
as an occasional straggler, but as a completely naturalized, 
nay, almost a common plant. From a list of localities now 
before us it appears that the Mimulus, besides being found 
i in England, occurs at various stations in the counties of 
Forfar, Perth, Fife, Kincardine, Stirling, Dumfries, Edin¬ 
burgh, Aberdeen, and perhaps others. 
It is highly interesting to observe the changes which take 
place in the flora of a country. As we have elsewhere re¬ 
marked, there was a time when the soil of Britain was not 
touched by spade or plough, and when its flora was in a state 
of natural purity, unaffected and unchanged by the commerce 
or operations of mankind. When cultivation began, how¬ 
ever, and was gradually extended, and the nature of the soil 
changed, then in like proportion would the character of the 
flora change. Many of the aboriginal inhabitants of our 
primeval forests would decrease in numbers, and some of 
the rarer species that were confined to a small area might 
be exterminated altogether. In the place of these, other 
plants, to which the changed conditions of the soil were 
suitable, would spring up from the seeds carried there by 
mankind and other active causes, and thus would take place 
a change in our country’s flora of a real, because of a per¬ 
manent land. Perhaps there are not many (if there indeed 
be any) of the common annual weeds of cultivated grounds 
but have had their origin as British plants in this manner. 
Of late years various plants of exotic origin have been re¬ 
ported as accessions to our British flora, some of them 
belonging to the class of annuals before referred to, which 
would be ready again to quit the flora in the event of a 
cessation of cultivation; and others of a more permanent 
caste, which have likewise been introduced by the agency 
of mankind, but which have established themselves amongst 
the real indigenous vegetation of the land, and, as has been 
remarked, now bid defiance to all efforts at extermination. 
To the latter class does the Mimulus luteus belong. 
But we have wandered into a bye-way, and must return to 
our botanical party at Aberdeen. After culling the treasures 
we have mentioned, and many more for which we have no 
room in the limited space allotted to us in these pages, our 
botanical army remounted the vehicles and returned to the 
sandy Links of Aberdeen, where a number of maritime 
species were added to our stores. Here the Carex incurva 
and C. arenaria were both in fine condition. It is these, 
chiefly the latter, assisted by Ammophila arenaria and other 
sea-side plants, which bind the sandy downs with their ex¬ 
tensively creeping roots, and thus prevent the sand being 
disturbed by the wind or the ocean waves. In districts 
where similar tracts of sand are cultivated, it is the practice 
to preserve as much as possible of the Ammophila and other 
species in order to give firmness to the land; and in some 
instances where these plants have been thoughtlessly eradi¬ 
cated, the result has been a sterile waste, unfit for all pur¬ 
poses of Agriculture. Among the more interesting plants 
collected on the Links we may mention, in addition to the 
above, Cerastium atrovirens (Bab.), a form peculiar to such 
situations, Triticum junccum, Thalictrum minus, and Pota- 
moyeton peclinatus. 
Returning from the Links, we visited the Granite Polish¬ 
ing Works, the Marisclial College, the Medical Buildings, 
and the new Market-place—the formidable appearance of 
the hundred botanists, with their noisy tin boxes, and other 
botanical appurtenances, creating quite a sensation in the 
northern city. After dinner in the Royal, we entered the 
return-train at 6 r.M. for Edinburgh, which was reached at 
a late hour. The weather being delightful, the excursion 
was altogether an exceedingly pleasant one; for although 
270 miles were gone over by rail, any uneasiness from the 
long ride was prevented by the interesting character of the 
country through which the line lay,—embracing the fertile 
vale of Strathmore and other districts of agricultural cele¬ 
brity, with here and there a neat little village, a range of 
heath-clad hills, or a placid lake with its white swans and 
water lilies floating on the unruffled surface. There was a 
profusion of showy flowers on the railway banks, stick as the 
Viper's 'Bugloss ( Ecliium vulgare), various trefoils and cru¬ 
ciferous plants, wild wall-flower, wild mignonette, etc.; and 
towards the north end of the line the banks were in some 
places whitened by the beautiful Galium saxatile, and at 
others they were of a warmer hue, from a profusion of 
heather bells. The editor of the North British Journal of 
Horticulture (who was one of our party) mentions in his 
paper of the 4tli instant the profuse occurrence of Lychnis 
vespertina all the way between the stations of Stanley and 
