202 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



Veronica, " but they are far too high for such 

 as we." 



One would like a word with the gentians, if one 

 only knew where to find them. They are absent 

 from the hedgerow. They do not enter the woods, 

 or lodge by the burn-side. There is not one, so far 

 as I know, within miles of where I am at the 

 present moment. So that most people have never 

 seen any of them, and only a few know them, even 

 by name. 



The most accommodating of all still likes a 

 matured piece of turf, or a firm springy river-bank, 

 such as is not to be found everywhere. One 

 appears here and there among the bents along the 

 coast. 



The handsomest of a charming family is one of 

 the few British alpines absent from Scotland 

 alpine only as the crimson catchfly is since it 

 courts the soft Atlantic winds on the mild west 

 coast of Ireland, and sets up its blue tent for a few 

 spring weeks on the lower heights of Teesdale. 

 The snow form holds the ledges of one of our four 

 mountain gardens. 



I have met these gentians in many situations, 

 and never a tame one in Shetland, in Orkney, 

 amid unbented sand-dunes and bare precipices. 



