64 LOCH C RERAN. 



thistle was our national emblem, except in so far as the 

 prickles went ; but that there should be a possibility of 

 such great divergence of opinion as to the particular 

 species of carduus that properly represented " Caledonia 

 stern and wild," we never imagined. We find, however, 

 that these great thistles in cultivated gardens are not, 

 properly speaking, the true Scotch thistle, which is a 

 Cnicus, or plume thistle, and not a carduus at all ; so that 

 in future we shall remember that we are only properly 

 represented by Cnicus lanceolatus, the true Scotch thistle, 

 as it is also one of our most common species. We yet 

 believe all the same, that such a cosmopolitan race may 

 be sufficiently represented by any thistle, so long as it is 

 hard enough in the prickles and sturdy enough. 



OCTOBER, 1881. 



We are informed of a remarkable instance of the mirage 

 in Glen Creran on Sunday last about sun-down. Our 

 informant and his family all witnessed the various displays 

 of castellated towns and towers, while it was accompanied 

 by a still more unusual phenomenon in the infinite mul- 

 tiplication of the sun to the eyes of the whole party, various 

 coloured "suns" being visible on the rocks, the herbage, 

 and the persons of the party. We were along with a friend 

 on the shore of Loch Creran, about the same hour, and 

 saw nothing unusual in the sunset, so that the atmospheric 

 condition must have been peculiar to the glen itself. The 

 sun went down in a red glare, and the contracted, 

 mountain-embosomed glen may have been better supplied 

 with moisture than our wider landscape. From the 

 description the vivid appearance of the various-coloured 



