THE GARDEN AND THE WILDS 45 



I have seen many such escapes, both swift- 

 winged and slow-footed, that are likely to make 

 good their hold and increase their distance from 

 the source, until the connection is broken. I could 

 run over many more that happened not so long 

 ago. These are now as well able to look after 

 themselves as their neighbours, and are securely 

 sandwiched in print, between two of the oldest 

 inhabitants. 



The pace would be quickened, and many another 

 surprise greet one by the way, but that a garden 

 flower in the wilds is no sooner detected than 

 uprooted, and transferred within some other en- 

 closure. I have often marked the showy fugitive, 

 and next time I came by have missed it. A 

 check on the too rapid increase of quickly- spread- 

 ing species is not altogether a disadvantage, and a 

 second check on the less ready admission of aliens 

 might be a further benefit. It seems a pity to 

 confuse, so as almost to lose sight of, our native 

 lowland flora. 



But for this acquisitiveness there is no reason 

 why " none - so - pretty," which is at once the 

 commonest garden plant, and one of the three 

 British alpines absent from Scotland, should not be 

 familiar at the roadside. Almost invariably it 



