"Everybody" has heard of Yetholm, it being the capital of that "mysterious race" the gipsies in Scotland; there they still have a queen and keep up a semblance of royalty, but as a distinct race they are fast disappearing: and also of "Cheviot's mountains blue," famed in Border song and story. The once great forest of Cheviot was the scene of " Chevy Chase," but now there are very few remnants of the forest left, and not a vestige of the roes and red-deer that found shelter in it.

The Cheviots are a range of porphyritic hills, occupying an area of about 300 square miles; Cheviot, the highest, is 2676 feet above sea-level. The view from the top of Cheviot is magnificent; to the north and north-west, the valley of the Tweed and Teviotdale lies spread out like a gigantic map, beyond which rise the Lammermoors; eastward is the sea; southward the view stretches over Northumberland and Durham to Yorkshire; while to the south-west the eye wanders over a series of rounded hills, each of which has its name and story, until lost in the distance.

On the roadside, between Kelso and Yetholm, we find Lepigonum rubrum and Cerastium arvense: this, our only ornamental Cerastium, is common hereabouts, although rare in most parts of the country. On the moor at Bowmont Forest there is plenty of that fine bog plant, Parnassia palustris, and Radiola millegrana. In the plantation on the roadside, at "Patie's o' the Muir," there is abundance of the Globe-flower, Trollius europseus, long cultivated in flower-borders, and well worthy its place there. Goody era repens grows in an adjoining plantation, which, so far as I am aware, is the most southerly station for this plant in Great Britain.

About a mile from Yetholm lies Yetholm Loch, a fine sheet of water, of about 40 acres in extent, at the north-east end of which was the original of Sir W. Scott's Castle of Avenel, now the site of Loci -tower hinds' houses. What a change between then and now! But at the time of which Scott writes, the Loch would extend for several miles - to Bowmont water on the east, and to near Linton Loch on the west; but the lochs and bogs are fast disappearing, and with them many interesting plants which grow in them. On the north side, overlooking the Loch, is Lochside, the finely-situated residence of R. Oliver, Esq. Growing in the loch, on muddy spots, is the Yellow Water - Lily, Nuphar lutea, Callitriche autumnalis, Ceratophyllum - probably demersum, Potamogeton pectinatus, etc. On the margin, Cicuta virosa, Imperatoria Ostruthium, Mentha sativa, Lycopus europreus, Scutellaria galericulata, Littorella lacustris, Alisma plantago, Scirpus lacustris, and Salix pentandra. The Bay-leaved Willow, as seen growing here, is a beautiful tree about 20 feet high, and the same in diameter of branches; the barren tree is the finest.

There is a bog at the west end of the loch, which is gay throughout the summer and autumn with a great variety of showy plants, amongst which are Ranunculus Lingua, Viola palustris, Valeriana dioica, Senecio aquaticus, Menyanthes tri-foliata, Myosotis palustris, M. repens, M. csespitosa, Orchis maculata, 0. latifolia, 0. incarnata, (?) Karthecium ossifragum, Typha latifolia, the common cotton-grass, and many species of Carex, one of which, C. paniculata, is very useful when crossing the bog, especially if it should be near any plant you wish to lift, as the large "tussacks" - many of them being 2 feet above the level - keep you from sinking.

On Lochtower fields I have found the following: Alyssum calycinum, Fedia dentata, Anthemis arvensis, Centaurea cyanus - a fine annual, once common but now becoming rare; Carduus nutans, thought by many to be the "Scotch Thistle," a title which it has a better claim to than the cotton thistle, Onopordum Acanthium, which is not indigenous to Scotland, although it is often sold by seedsmen as the true Scotch Thistle, - it is most likely that the Scotch Thistle is merely a heraldic and not a botanical species; Oalamintha Acinos, and Galeopsis versicolor.

In some of the fields in the neighbourhood of Yetholm, Ranunculus hirsutus is plentiful, and, on the hills, Viola lutea (about the time that Viola lutea was first brought into notice as a bedding plant, I observed an advertisement, advising intending purchasers to apply as soon as possible, as the stock of it was limited, and in few hands, or words to that effect - the advertiser had never been amongstthe Cheviots); Scabiosa columbaria, Hieracium pallidum, and several forms of H. murorum and H. vulgatum, of which, as Dr Johnston says, "We have specimens which, like the distanced horse, can be placed nowhere".

In the gravelly vale of Bowmont Water, above Yetholm, are the following: Teesdalia nudicaulis, Trifolium arvense, Vicia Bobartii, Antennaria margaritacea, along with two of our showiest and best-known native plants, the Viper's Bugloss, Echium vulgare, and the Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea. In the damper places there are plenty of Veronica anagallis, and iEnanthe crocata. On the roadside, farther up the water, there is abundance of Anchusa sempervirens, and straggling plants of Chicory, Cichorium intybus. About six miles farther west there is a station for Turritis glabra.

From Yetliolm to Cheviot is about seven miles. On the Curr, a hill about halfway, I have found Polemonium ca3ruleum. On arriving at the foot of Cheviot we come to the College burn, instead of crossing which it is better to follow it to its head, ascending by Henhole, the finest and rockiest glen on Cheviot, it being a succession of linns from near the summit of the hill to its base. Indeed it is the best plan for the botanist to follow each rill to its well-head, when he will find many interesting spots that will amply repay him. As an instance, when ascending by one of the burns that run down the north-west side, about half-way to the summit, I came upon the following interesting group: an ancient Rowan-tree, overhanging a small waterfall, under which, and growing luxuriantly, were the Oak and Beech Ferns, intermixed with the graceful Wood Horsetail, along with tufts of the Mountain Buckler and the elegant Lady Fern. On the left-hand side, when ascending by Henhole, the Mountain Parsley, Allosorus crispus, is abundant. At the rockiest part of the glen - near where a pair of ravens have had their nest from time immemorial - Saxifraga hypnoides, the Alpine form of Cochlearia officinalis, and Cystopteris fragilis are plentiful.

Scattered about in wet places are Sedum villosum, Saxifraga stellaris, and Epilobium alsinifolium; Rhodiola rosea, Anten-naria dioica, and the viviparous variety of the Sheep's Fescue on the drier parts. On the more level ground, near the top of the hill, Rubus charnsemorus is abundant, along with Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Lycopo-dium clavatum, L. alpinum, L. selago, and on the burn-sides L. sela-ginoides. In another fine glen, named the Bizzle, besides many of the plants already mentioned, we find Corydalis claviculata, Carduus heter-ophyllus, Melampyrum montanum (Johnston), and Asplenium viride. This ravine is also interesting to the ornithologist, for there one of our finest birds of prey, the peregrine falcon, still breeds annually. But perhaps the most interesting plant found on Cheviot is Cornus suecica; it was first discovered there by Dr Penny, some time before 1568. Ray found it there in June 1671, "and thenceforward the hill was classical ground to the botanist." A. B.

Kelso.