8o WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



marguerites. Each open flower turns to the 

 central figure as to a sun. 



That it was simply naturalised here, seems 

 probable. In a sense, this is true of very many 

 of our wild flowers ; only some date further back 

 than others. When the marguerite crossed the 

 Channel, it were hard to fix. It has the colonist's 

 liking for the nearness of houses; and, taking 

 into account the unlimited powers of scattering in 

 the order to which it belongs, is seldom found far 

 astray. It is not a woodland plant; it seldom 

 climbs very high ; it abandons the wastes to the 

 shabbier-looking scentless mayweed. 



We ask- of a true native, that it belong to 

 mountain, forest, swamp, sea-coast, or some modi- 

 fication of the four ; for of these, ancient Scotland, 

 in the main, was made up. Now, the marguerite 

 likes dry and sunny places, of which in rude 

 times there were few. Since the soil is drier where 

 the ground inclines, it seeks out sloping banks. 



The slopes it mainly haunts are those of very 

 recent formation. Nothing it likes better than a 

 railway embankment, probably because of the 

 greater dryness caused by the looseness of the 

 soil, and the very sharpness of the double incline. 



Scarcely are the navvies out of sight, than it 



