158 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



unwatched, over my boots, and crept stealthily 

 across the road, while I lay in deeper shadow still. 

 Ere I see it again, it is already beyond the dyke 

 on the opposite side; there is no more time for 

 trifling. The pace is now persistently forward, 

 though still extremely moderate, for the margin 

 of a summer day is large. 



The common lady's-mantle grows by every dusty 

 roadside down below, washes its flower racemes 

 of dull yellow in every burn that waters the plain.- 

 If it is sometimes hard to see how some plants 

 ever got their popular names, there is no difficulty 

 in this case. When held downwards by its stalk, 

 the leaf is a miniature of a green mantle just taken 

 out of its folds. 



Not less familiar, by Highland pathways and 

 stream-sides, is the alpine lady's-mantle. It is 

 often one of the first of the flowers to tell that 

 the dividing line between lowland and mountain 

 has been crossed. In many places it carpets the 

 glen. The name would seem to have been given 

 to the plain form first, and afterwards applied 

 to that of the hills. The creases or folds have 

 been divided into five little leaflets, which quite 

 take away the appearance of a mantle. The flowers 

 remain the same. In gardens or rockeries it has 



