52 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



growing in the open, may point to a more sus- 

 picious origin. 



It might be too much to say that the cowslip is 

 not native to Scotland. But, wherever it grows in 

 such abundance, in company with a profusion of 

 common flowers of the sweeter kinds, the hand of 

 man has probably had something to do with it. 

 And the only hands, vanished all of them, that could 

 have so enriched these Balmerino banks, and so 

 added to the charm of the scene and the happiness 

 of the lives to corne after, belonged to the monks 

 of the adjacent monastery. 



Where primroses and cowslips have grown so 

 long together in sweet fellowship, one may pretty 

 confidently start on the pleasant hunt for oxlips. 

 If Oberon knows a bank whereon the oxlip grows, 

 depend upon it, the cowslip is in the meadow, and 

 the primrose in the wood hard by. This form is 

 easily picked out, even at a distance, by the larger 

 flower of the primrose on the common stalk of 

 the cowslip. 



Hybrids between closely-related species, in plants 

 as well as animals, are doubtless commoner than 

 we are aware of. All that is needful, in many 

 cases, is that the parent forms mingle freely on the 

 same scene. But this is not always so easy to 



