7. Even Christmas Trees Are Scots
The most popular Christmas tree decking halls today is the Scots Pine. This stately evergreen with the short needles once dominated the Caledonian Forest and covered much of the Scottish Highlands. It still grows in Scotland today, but is also found in other parts of the world. North Americans, in particular, consider the Scots Pine to be the classic tree of the Yuletide season (Yule being a Scottish word for Christmas).
8. The Decimal Point is a Scot Dot
What’s the point of mentioning something so trivial? That little dot is actually a lot more significant than it seems. Scottish mathematician John Napier introduced the decimal number system in 1619 A.D. It made it easier to represent fractions in a base 10 system. While other mathematical minds also worked on this numeracy concept, Napier is credited with bringing the decimal point into common use. He was also a bit of a religious nut who predicted the end of the world. You could say he was a little dotty.
