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174.

18th July 1954.

A fine day with strong N-NW wind & some slight showers, cold, little sun till late afternoon, after a dull cloudy night & forenoon.  Glass rising.

Marcus Graham & I left hotel about 10.30 AM. & set out for the Yellow Corrie:  had lunch at 1 PM. at head of the tributary to Lawers Burn where the big patch of Saussurea is, but in contradistinction to last year it was not even in bud;  then went over the col & into Yellow Corrie & found Carex microglochin just in perfect flower.  NE of col + & near it, two patches of Carex atrofusca, which I had not seen E. of the burn from the col before:  went straight to the crag & collected some Carex rupestris for Mrs. Holder & Messrs. Readett & Woolman & over top into the "annexe" to the corrie SE. of the crag where found Azalea procumbens just out of flower (very late?) & each of us actually found one blossom, & beside the Azalea on a cushion of mosses & Sphagnum I found a small patch of Cranberry in full flower - quite invisible without the flowers!:  then circled base of the crag going first N. & then W. into bed of corrie & worked back towards the col but saw no microglochin or atrofusca:  everything very late & ♂︎ Carex dioica in full flower & the ♀︎ hardly showing:  next made W. along the cliffs on NE. slope of Meall Garbh, where, as reported by Mr. Colville, the bush of Salix lanata has been nearly destroyed by the deer & is now no more than a remnant clinging to the face of the cliff (same applies to the bush of Salix lapponum hanging 


175.

18.7.54, cont.  Yellow Corrie, MP., cont.

above the waterfall of the tributary to the Lawers burn, though the other plants of this & those of S. nigricans in scarps above & below the waterfall are much the same, being inaccessible to the deer & others!):   had cup of tea at 4 P.M. near top of long cliff & then climbed the slope where I took Sagina nivalis last year, but saw no more & wind very fierce in our backs:  crossed E. shoulder of Meall Garbh, seeing Juncus biglumis, with tiny one flowered J. triglumis & Scirpus caespitosus-caespitosus in one small flush;  & dropped down to the tributory of the Lawers Burn coming off Meall Garbh, where last year I saw much Kobresia, but today, as in the Yellow Corrie I saw none & must conclude it is not yet showing flower;  I did, however find a solitary typical spike of Carex vaginata on way down this tributary, but could see no more;  Carex saxatilis descends this very steep tributary lower, I think, that I have seen it elsewhere:  from base of gully turned left past the scarp with the big old Juniper on it & then to the Lawers Burn & back to hotel at 6.50, dry for once!

[[note]] February 1955.  On receiving a suggestion from J.E. Lousley I took my dried [[Cranberry]] specimen, which had two flowers, to Miss Scannell in the herbarium of the Nat. Museum & she proved to me that it was, as Lousley had suggested, Oxycoccus microcarpus, with glabrous pedicels & deeper coloured flowers & not the common Cranberry.  I had not heard of this plant before. [[/note]]