u8 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



the flower above the sand. Everything goes to 

 colour. 



It were hard to tell which flower forms the 

 largest patches. The light purple or pink of the 

 thyme seems to be everywhere. Not a bank on 

 which it does not grow. What a wild natural 

 smell it has ! Not a namby-pamby garden smell- 

 not a sweet sentimental odour. 



There are none such, if we except the faint 

 cocoa-nut of the whin by the seaside no perfume 

 proper. Such would be out of place ; the scene is 

 too rude. It would be like scent on a ship captain's 

 handkerchief. It smells of the breeze. Imagine 

 the salt breeze scented of the open of the bank. 

 Wilder still, only slightly harsher, is the scent of 

 the pink restharrow. 



The lotus children call it crowfoot, or craw's 

 taes comes next. Not tall as under the hedge, or 

 medium - sized as by the roadside, but with its 

 crimson buds and yellow flowers hugging the 

 ground. 



Near the lotus, and almost as common, is its 

 purple cousin, with the same butterfly - shaped 

 flowers, the milk vetch. Whereas the lotus is 

 found everywhere, this is one of the forms which, 

 after leaving the coast, we shall not meet again 



