Account of a botanical excursion to the Mull of Cantyre, and the island of Islay, in August, 1844 / by J.H. Balfour.

  • Balfour, John Hutton, 1808-1884.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a botanical excursion to the Mull of Cantyre, and the island of Islay, in August, 1844 / by J.H. Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    on the Clyde, but I have not been able to see it in that locality. I have gathered the plant abundantly near Oxford and in other parts of England, but I never before picked it in Scotland. The shore on the south side of Loch Gruinart is partly gravelly and partly sandy. The sand occurs near the Nave, and on the west shore exposed to the Atlantic. The dunes of sand in this quarter attain a great elevation, and are as usual kept together by grasses and sedges. In lint fields near Gruinart, Camelina sativa was ob- served, and on the sandy shores Draba incana, Gentiana campestris and Amarella, and Arabis hirsuta. Scutellaria galericulata grew profusely among the pebbles on the shore, Papaver Argemone and dubium, in sandy fields, and Juncus maritimus in salt marshes; in moist places near the loch, Callitriche verna and pedunculata, Po- tamogetou pusillus and crispus, Helosciadium inundatum, Myriophyl- lum spicatum, and Scirpus glaucus. Loch Gruinart has a sandy bottom, and it is nearly emptied when the tide is low. Sand-banks exist in many places, and on these we saw numerous seals sporting in the sun. The tide flows here with great rapidity. A bar of sand extends across the mouth of the loch, and at its head there is an alluvial plain. The shores to the south- west of the point of the Nave are rocky and inhospitable, and exhibit reefs of various extent. The cliffs become more elevated as we pro- ceed south, and caves occur in many places. The interior of the island in the neighbourhood of Loch Gruinart is composed of boggy and peaty soil, furnishing such plants as Droseras, Rhynchospora alba, and Utricularia minor. On Nave island Crambe maritima is said to grow. In this part of the island there are the ruins of the old church of Kilnave. It is a building of considerable antiquity, and seems to have had only two windows, the arches of which are very peculiar. In the churchyard there is an old stone cross, which differs in the curvature of the cross portion from those which are seen at Campbel- ton and in Iona. August 2\st.—Early this morning I started for Ballytarson, and gathered Anthemis nobilis in abundance. This plant is by no means common in Scotland. In Islay it occurs in several places, and always associated with limestone rock. After breakfast wo prepared for a visit to the south-eastern district of the island, but the stormy nature of the weather caused no small alarm to some of the party, and the number of zealous botanists willing to encounter a long and and wet walk was found to be very small. One of the party preferred botanizing near Ealabus, within sound of the dinner-bell. Undis- mayed by the desertion of friends, our little band proceeded in one of Mr. Chiene’s conveyances as far as Kintra, at the southern extremity of Laggan sands, and thence walked towards the Oe. On the sands the chief plants were Convolvulus Soldanella, Poa pratensis var.