AUGUST 181 



XLIV 



This wet, backward summer (1907) has prepared an 

 unaccustomed treat for travellers faring to Highland 

 the Highlands, who will be greeted by an wild 

 abundance of wild flowers quite unusual so Flowers 

 late in the season. The true heather has taken on no 

 tinge of rose as yet, but the bell heath (Erica cinerea) 

 is in full glow this Lammas Day (August 1). There is 

 a peculiarly fine display of this beautiful plant on the 

 cuttings of the Highland Railway between Tain and 

 Bonar Bridge. Less commonly seen in masses is the 

 more delicately tinted cross-leaved heath (E. tetralix), 

 whereof there is at present a fine sheet on the carriage 

 roadside between Kildonan and Suisgill in Helmsdale, 

 pointille, as heralds would say, with a thick sprinkling 

 of the spotted orchis in all shades from pure white to 

 crimson, and of the lovely golden spires of the bog 

 asphodel, frosted also in places with clouds of the little 

 heath crosswort (Galium saxatile). 



Among scattered birch stems between this bright 

 enamelling and the river is a wide belt of yellow iris, 

 still gay with blossom, and a tangle of wild roses, red 

 and white. All these, except the white crosswort, in 

 ordinary seasons would have hauled down their colours 

 before this date, but now they are in their prime. 



Exception may be taken to the term ' true heather ' 

 applied above to the plant known as ' ling ' in England ; 

 but in truth we Scots are just as touchy about the use of 

 the word 'heather' to indicate the heaths, as we are about 



