224 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



covers the floor of some of the woods lower 

 down. Neither is to be regarded as strictly low- 

 land ; and the alpine form may only be the other, 

 modified by changed conditions. Both have in 

 their fantastic flowers a certain weird suggestive- 

 ness of their name, especially when growing in the 

 shade. 



Somewhere around, a friend, who had his home 

 by the Tweed-side, once made an experiment. He 

 was a rare man, such as one meets among the 

 common herd only twice or thrice in a lifetime. 

 Dearly he loved these alpine fairy plants ; and 

 he had a strong wish to get others to care for them 

 as well, and to take a pleasure in climbing the hills 

 to look at them. 



Out of very unpromising elements he formed an 

 Alpine Club, which exists to this day, although its 

 pure and noble guide is gone. There are those 

 who reserve such words as unpractical for such 

 schemes as these ; but this one, happily, for those 

 who became a part of it, took shape. Some who 

 ran the ordinary risks of becoming sordid, feel all 

 the better for a day on the hills which overlook 

 their homes and dwarf their everyday lives. 



My friend) naturally, wished to see his favourites 

 as often as possible, But it was a long way to 



