The romance of plant life, interesting descriptions of the strange and curious in the plant world . less stretches of barren waste, such a moss as thisseems one of the worst. It would, of course, be possible toreclaim it; probably, fertile fields and rich meadows couldbe formed over the whole valley, but it would not paynowadays. There is so much good land available in Canada,the United States, and Australia, that this great stretch ofour native country will probably remain as useless as it wasin Agricolas days. In the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands the moorlandsare almost as desolate. At a h
The romance of plant life, interesting descriptions of the strange and curious in the plant world . less stretches of barren waste, such a moss as thisseems one of the worst. It would, of course, be possible toreclaim it; probably, fertile fields and rich meadows couldbe formed over the whole valley, but it would not paynowadays. There is so much good land available in Canada,the United States, and Australia, that this great stretch ofour native country will probably remain as useless as it wasin Agricolas days. In the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands the moorlandsare almost as desolate. At a height of 1500 to 1600 feetin Southern Scotland there is nothing to be seen but theundulating lines of hills, all dark purple with heather orwith the peculiar scorched reddish green of Deers Hair anddried sedges. Perhaps on the nearer hills small streams may have cut awhole series of intersecting ravines in the black peat. Theymay be six to ten feet deep, and here and there the bleachedwhite stones which underlie them are exposed. Now andthen the kuk-kuk-kuk of an irate cock grouse, and much 354. An Arctic Alpine Plant This is Draba Alpina from Cape Tscheljuskin, and it is drawn thenatural size. The stunted, closely set leaves show the inclement characterof the climate. COTTON-GRASS too frequently the melancholy squawking of the curlew, irri-tates the pedestrian as he stumbles over clumps of heather,plunges in and out of the mossy holes, or circumvents im-possible peat-haggs. It is indeed a remarkable fact that though these islandssupport 44,000,000 of inhabitants, including at least1,000,000 paupers and unemployed, one-seventh of Irelandand many square miles in Scotland are still useless peat-bogs! The Bog of Allen alone covers 238,500 acres, emd the peatis twenty-five feet deep. In some few places the peat is still used for fuel, and thereis a theory to the effect that peat reek is necessary for thebest kinds of Scotch whisky, but neither grouse nor black-faced sheep, which li
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