24 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



my favourite way of reckoning, at the nesting- 

 time of the song thrush ; or, to descend to plain 

 prose, somewhere between March and May. Im- 

 patient thrushes build, and early primroses blow, 

 sooner; and I have found both eggs and flowers 

 later. But the nesting and the blossoming reach 

 their height together; so that on the day one 

 gathers the largest handful of flowers, he will 

 startle most sitting birds among the bushes. 



This is the first flower to attract attention : the 

 first scented flower; and as every flower is a rose 

 to the vulgar, so this is the primrose. 



The primulas of which our primrose is one 

 range from the deepest dells to the highest 

 mountains. Strangely enough, none of the strictly 

 mountain primulas appear in Scotland, the home 

 of British alpines. Our colour is yellow in the 

 primrose of a very pale cast, indefinitely sweet, 

 like the scent of the flower; deepening in hue 

 in the cowslip. According to their wont, the 

 yellows come in spring. 



We have two lilacs later in the season. One 

 is in the north, and the other in the south. Both 

 are very local. So very slight is the hold of the 

 southern species that it can scarcely be regarded 

 as Scots. The other we shall meet again. Both 



