204 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



at least as Scotland is concerned, to be a purely 

 Highland clan. 



This meadow haunter never ventures north so 

 as to enter the home of the Macgregors, the strong- 

 hold of the saxifrages. Did it seek to scale the 

 "promontory by one or two rapid zigzags along 

 the precipitous face of a slaty-grey rock, which 

 would otherwise have been inaccessible," it would 

 only be to find these rude places held by relatives 

 indeed, but such as might give it scant welcome. 

 The feud between Celt and Saxon has been healed, 

 but not that between Highland and Lowland 

 plants. 



Much about the same time that the white is 

 adding to the brightness of the plain, the opposite 

 leaved saxifrage is lending an early flush of purple 

 to the hills. This is the form so very popular in 

 our gardens as a rockery plant. It grows wild in 

 these early months, when few are there to see. 



One must wait a month or two after the spring 

 meadow form has faded, and the autumn holiday 

 enables him to leave the plains for the hills, before 

 he will see any more saxifrages. 



The first to greet him as he breasts the slopes, 

 just after the earliest flush of heather has crept 

 over them, is the yellow mountain saxifrage not 



