FLOWERS OF THE FAR NORTH 145 



" You have missed another Orkney flower, 

 which, but for the dryness of the season, would 

 have been here yet. It is not so easily seen, but 

 worth searching for, and when found worth look- 

 ing at. You have no lilac primroses where you 

 are ? " 



" No. There is said to be one somewhere ; but I 

 never saw it, or met a person who had done. At 

 most, there can only be a few plants." 



" Not our primrose ? " 



"No, it is taller. Yours positively refuses to 

 grow on our hills, although we can't tell why ; has 

 not been found on our sheltered lowlands, and 

 probably would be choked if it tried. It seems to 

 belong to such exposed sea-breezy places as this. 

 It strikes me as the Shetland pony among plants 

 so minute is it, so much at home in its own 

 domain, so sensitive to change, and so perversely 

 determined not to oblige those who would grow it 

 elsewhere, however kind they may be." 



" Long may it keep in that mind." 



" I am of opinion that it owes its minuteness to 

 the hard living; and, even if it could be coaxed 

 into settling farther south, it would after a while 

 begin to grow bigger. But the chances are that it 



would die before that came about." 

 10 



