Probably owing to the uniformity of the rocky structure, the botany of the district is likewise very uniform. Notwithstanding that the mountains rise to a considerable elevation, few alpine plants are found. The Rubus Chamcmorus is plentiful in seve ral places in the massy hollows between the higher summits, Sedum. telhephium, Saxifraga stellaris and Opposityb/ia, are met with near the limits of the country with Dumfriesshire. The more rare plants in the district are Circea alpina, in the shingle on S. E. verge of St. Mary's Loch, C. lutetiana, near Gled des-weel on Tweedside; Trollius Europeus, and Cnicus heterophyllus, in a bushy cleugh falling into Douglas burn; Drosera rotoundifolia, in Deucher hope; Thalic tram alpinum, at Newhouse lynns; Sedum villosum, Douglas burn; Ilydrocotyle vulgaris, below Oakwood; Alelampyrum sylvaticum, in Newhouse-bank and on Glen heights.
The remains of the ancient natural woods, of which, including the bosky cleughs in the uplands, there is not more than 600 or 700 acres in all, are made up of oak, ash, elm, (monlanus,) birch, alder, hagberry, (P. mlus),holly, sloethorn, hawthorn, ha zle, mountain ash, aspin (rare) ivy, honeysuckle, and four or five species of roses, and a number of willows. Sometimes a solitary mountain ash has outlived its cotemporarics, and is found overshadowing a rocky cleugh, 1500, and in one solitary instance, even near 2000 feet above sea level. Travellers who attend to such matters have often been struck with the numbers of large and ancient honks which remain along the steep and shingly faces of the hills on the north side of the Tweed, from fair to Hollylec, with here and there a hawthorn, seemingly of equal duration, where a modern hedge of either could hardly be raised in a lifetime even with great trouble and expense.
Since the draining of the bogs along the sides of the higher valleys, which were covered formerly with Juncos (tram/a/us and earices, these plants have given place to ,lira ccspitosa and some .Hgrostidx on the clay, and groves of tall Carduus Pa/us/ris on the mos sy ground. The latter is a valuable acquisition to the sheep in late springs, when they scoop out the roots even an inch or two below the surface; but the former although an evergreen, they seem to refuse on such soils as this altogether, probably because it has got up with too rank luxuriance. As a remedy, some farmers have tried burning it in spring, some mow ing in early summer for hay, and some have stopt the drains that they may rather have the Juncos and cari ces the former inhabitants.*
Little can now be said of the wild animals of Et trick Forest. It is likely that in ancient times the Urns had been common, for skulls of that animal have frequently been found in the marl mosses along with those of the stag,t and another extinct species of deer with palmated antlers, of a size which seem to indi cate the hearers to have been as large as a blood horse.I The wolf and tile wild boar had been com mon, for several places bear their names to this day. Foxes in the memory of old people were very destruc tive, but now kw of them even attack lambs. The wild cat is nearly if not altogether extinct.
Two species of mice have occasionally been met with, which as yet have been overlooked by scientific naturalists. One inhabits the of the highest mountains, is a little larger than the Mus sylvatieus. The fur has a silky softness and lustre, and as the animal is turned round it falls open by its weight in a shed along the body, being apparently attached to the skin by a filament of extraordinary fineness and elasticity. The other is of a size between this and the llltcs aquaticus, has, like them, a short tail and cars; the tail tipped with white. It has very large strong grooved semicircular teeth, and inhabits the ]ow grounds, but is extremely rare. Only three have been observed, one of which, when running, stopped at times and stood upright with its fore paws over its eyes like a weasel or squirrel. It was known and distin guished by a mole catcher, who had sometimes, al though rarely, caught it in his traps. Rabbits seem to have gradually ascended the rivers, and in the low er part of the county have increased so much as to have become a nuisance.
Birds, migratory and resident, arc similar to those of the adjoining districts. The black grouse was not uncommon seventy or eighty years ago, but from some unknown cause left this part of the country, but were again introduced as well as pheasants by the late Duke of Buccleugh, both of which have become uncommonly numerous. Partridges and hares arc plentiful, and red grouse or muirfoud remarkably so on the heathy grounds. The green and grey plover are likewise common, but not so the woodcock. The dotterel sometimes breeds on the higher mountains adjoining Peeblesshire. There is hardly such a va riety of small birds as in the neighbouring counties.