70 ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK GARDENS. 



Highland hills from a time so remote that in com- 

 parison with it, the antiquity recorded of time is but 

 as yesterday : have survived all the vast cosmical 

 changes which elevated them along with the hills 

 upon which they grew, to the clouds — converted the 

 bed of a mighty ocean into a fertile continent, peopled 

 it with new races of plants and animals, and prepared 

 a scene for the habitation of man ! Only a few hundred 

 individual plants of each species — ^in some instances 

 only a few tufts here and there — are to be found on the 

 different mountains ; and yet these little colonies 

 prevented by barriers of chmate and soil from spreading 

 themselves beyond their native spots, have gone on 

 season after season for thousands of ages, renewing 

 their foliage and putting forth their blossoms, 

 though beaten by the storms, scorched by the sunshine, 

 and buried by the Alpine snows, scathless and vigorous 

 while all else was changing around."* 



William Graveson. 



♦The quotations from Kerner in Part II. of this book are from his Natural 

 History of Plants, translated and edited by F. W. Oliver, M.A., D.Sc. 



Since the account of George Don was written a monument to his memory- 

 has been unveiled at Forfar ; on the occasion G. Claridge Druce, F.L.S., 

 gave an address on his hfe and work. 



