SCARLET PIMPERNEL. 69 



rather cheers the traveller in his dreary 

 course over the lone heath. The tribe ex- 

 tends like a pink carpet in many parts of 

 the Leas at Willesborough, in Kent, and are 

 not unfrequent on wet heaths, in watered 

 meadows and turfy bogs. Dehghting in the 

 purest air of heaven, they are seen, likewise, 

 on the open spaces of forest-land, where 

 streams steal silently and waste themselves 

 among the grass ; and he who climbs the 

 summit of high rocks may find them there, 

 for such plants as affect damp places will 

 grow occasionally far up the rugged sides 

 of lofty mountains, at the base of which 

 lakes abound, and gathering mists keep moist 

 the places of their growth. And yet, though 

 thus delighting in free air and moisture, the 

 bog pimpernel approaches nearer than any 

 other kind of alpine plant to the vicinity 

 of London, and is seen in places where 

 the brilliant gentianella would refuse to ve- 



