86 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



they grow together. . The red mingles with the 

 white in nature's own unstudied way, which 

 never errs on the side of bad taste. Sometimes 

 poppy and marguerite divide the space between 

 them, and even choose different embankments, as if 

 each wished its own share of admiration ; so that 

 one train may speed through poppy- land and 

 another through marguerite-land. Not only does 

 the poppy appear before the marguerite, but it 

 lingers after ; and then we get a reign of pure 

 white, and another of pure red. 



Poppies do not mass like marguerites. However 

 many and often they may be gathered in dozens 

 without moving from the spot they are scattered 

 among, and separated by the grasses. 



The wanderer in the summer twilight they do 

 not lure from the same distance. They cannot 

 send a signal so far. One must cross the paling 

 before he knows that they are there, and then the 

 charm begins to work. One must kneel among 

 them to catch the dusky glow, and the shadows 

 lurking within the crimson lids. They are no 

 longer pale but dark - eyed beauties, with a 

 witchery more subtle and all their own. They are 

 said to lull mortals to sleep. Many at least have 

 been known to go to sleep while they watched I 



