56 TOUR IN SCOTLAND. [Mavch, 



to be objects of as much indifference as the sounds and sights of 

 London are to the thorough-bred Londoner, who, intent on busi- 

 ness or absorbed in social or personal cares, exhibits a passive in- 

 difference to what he meets while passing through the busy bustle 

 of the crowded, noisy, shoppy thoroughfares of his native city. 

 We began to be home-sick. Our relatives, our connections, our 

 occupations, our domestic and social ties began to engross our af- 

 fections and to exercise a more stringent influence on us than all 

 the attractions of natural scenery and of natural science united. 

 In a word, we were not sorrj'^ to turn our backs on Ben Lawers 

 and all its beauties. 



The road along the lower end of Loch Tay, from Lawers to Tay- 

 mouth, is exceedingly pleasant. The character of the country im- 

 proves with the slightly more favourable temperature. The gay 

 agrarial annuals which were not even beginning to blossom about 

 Lochearn Head and at the upper end of Loch Tay, were here 

 flowering in profusion. The most showy were the Corn-flower or 

 Blawai't [Centaurea Cyanus), or Guille as it is called in Aberdeen 

 and M.oviijB\i\re^ {Chrysanthemum segetum), and the large-flowered 

 Hemp-Nettle [Galeopsis versicolor). We did not see any ex- 

 amples of the Corn Cockle {lyychnis Githago), though we passed 

 by several wheat-fields. We suspect it is not one of Scotland's 

 common plants. We remember its first appearance in our native 

 parish some time about 1812. The Poppies were not remarkably 

 plentiful : yet we saw two species at least in the fields or by the 

 waysides. But the genuine wild flowers of Scotland were plentiful 

 and lovely as flowers can be. Scotland's Bell-flower, rivalling the 

 English C. patula in size, and, in the intensity of its colour, the 

 blue of Scotland's sky, and of her far distant mountains, when 

 the evaporation is dancing in the sunbeams. 



The Geraniums, the Orchids, the Roses, the Lady's-finger, the 

 Craw's-taes, and many of less note adorned the grassy banks, 

 burn-sides, and green nooks of many a field and headland. The 

 Honeysuckle in the hedge, the Hawthorn in the copse, and the 

 stately Foxglove, gave dignity as well as brilliancy to the scene. 

 But the wavy Ferns that spread far and wide over the shaded braes 

 were the most exquisitely lovely rural sights we had ever seen. 

 The exceeding gracefulness of the plants, especially when in broad 

 masses, their elegant often pensile foliage, and the various shades 

 of green which are reflected from the leaves of the different species 



