23 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



variety, though the normal state is quite as attractive, and 

 it is only, perhaps, the comparative rarity of the change 

 of tint to white that attracts us to it. Comparisons, 

 we are told, are odious, and we may justly bear that 

 in mind, for certainly neither tint needs the depreciation 

 of the other to enhance its beauty. We remember some 

 little time ago finding a plant of the white variety and 

 gathering a few of its heads of Howers. A botanical friend 

 who saw them was anxious to look at the plant itself, a 

 matter that appeared to present no special difficulty; so 

 we sallied forth and wandered for a long afternoon in 

 every direction over the open moorland, but never found it 

 the proverbial difficulty of finding a needle in a bundle 

 of hay being about a parallel case. Our failure need 

 never have found record in these pages did it not illustrate 

 at least the comparative rarity of the white variety, for we 

 must have wandered miles altogether amongst the heath 

 clumps without finding an example. 



The cross-leaved heath bears transplantation better than 

 some of the others, and will thrive well enough in the garden 

 if taken up either in the spring or after flowering, but as 

 large a portion of soil as possible must be moved with it. 

 It will be noticed that we say that it bears transplantation 

 better, not transplantation well; the matter is, after all, 

 comparative, and although we have tried more than once, 

 we have never been able to get either the purple heath 

 or the ling to do well in our garden. The things do not 

 actually die at once, but decadence sets in, and they seem, 

 like sentient beings, to pine for the free air of the moor- 

 land. It is of course always necessary to bear in mind, if 

 we would endeavour to grow wild flowers, that we must as 

 nearly as possible assimilate the conditions of growth ; this 



