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THE ELYANGE STACK,
Pembrokeshire, South Wales,

Habitat of the Sea Mallow (Lavatera arborea).

THE

BOTANICAL LOOKER-OUT

AMONG THE

WILD FLOWERS

OF

ENGLAND AND WALES,

AT ALL SEASONS,

AND JN THE MOST INTERESTING LOCALITIES.

BY

EDWIN LEES, ESQ., F.L.S.,

FELLOW OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, AUTHOR OF THE BOTANY

OF THE MALVERN HILLS, &C.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED,

"HtmM of relaxation so agreeably employed in Botanical Rambles, with a numerous train
of friends, then ardent and curious like myself." Sir J. E. SMITH, in " ENGLISH BOTANY."

LONDON:

HAMILTON, ADAMS, & Co.
1851.

" The only way to become Naturalists, in the most pleasing sense of the term, is to
observe the habits of the plants anil animals that we see around us, not so much with
a view of finding out what is uncommon, as of being well acquainted with that which
is of evety-day occurrence. Nor is this a task of difficulty or one of dull routine.
Every change of elevation, of exposure, is accompanied by a variation both in plants
and in animals ; and every season and week, nay almost every day, brings something
new; so that while the Book of Nature is more accessible and more easily read than
the books of the library, it is at the same time more varied. In whatever place, or at
whatever time, one may be disposed to take a walk, in the most sublime scenes or the
bleakest wastes ; on arid downs, or on the margins of rivers and lakes ; inland or by
the sea shore; in the wild or on the cultivated ground; and in all kinds ef weather
and all seasons of the year, Nature is open to our enquiry."

THE BRITISH NATURALIST.

" Oneef the greatest charms attached to the study of botany is its giving an interest
of the deepest kind to our rambles in the country. A love of plants leads to an
enthusiastic admiration of nature, as her beauty or workmanship are displayed in their
formation ; but still it is not, perhaps, more the love of the objects as such, than the
circumstance that their study leads us into every variety of the diversified scenery of
the landscape. It affords a constant attraction to the mind, of the most agreeable
description, and affords a pleasure in its pursuit that is ever permanent."

Dr. DRUMMOND.

CIRENCESTER :
Printed by Baily & Jones.

TO

JAMES BUCKMAN, ESQ., E.L.S., E.O.S.,
'PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY

IN

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

MY DEAR BUCKMAN,

I dedicated my first edition of this work to " the
Friends and Companions with whom I have enjoyed the delights
of Botanical Exploration ; " but in those friends you were then
included, and while many others have been swept away from me
and from botanical pursuits by the rough blowing of the troublous
winds of life, your path has more nearly ran parallel with my
own, and with kindred pursuits we have kept each other in
view.

The example of your untiring assiduity in scientific research,
has often stimulated me to effort when observation might have
flagged ; and ere I am snapped off by the gust of wintry time
and left behind like a withered stalk in its locality, accept this-
record of my heartfelt regard.

Believe me, yours most sincerely,

EDWIN LEES,

Henwick, Worcester,
May 1st, 1851,

PEEFACE TO THE EIEST EDITION.

I WILL admit in limine that I am not here writing to

o

instruct the professional student of Botany. Neither
do I aim to surprise my brother botanists by any new
arrangements in classification or discoveries in physi-
ology. But if I take a humbler rank than the dignity
of science may seem to warrant, and thus make no
advances in their estimation, still I hope I may be in
some degree useful in attracting the many to the
pleasures afforded by an examination of plants in their
wild localities, and thus, indirectly at least, subserve
the cause of Natural History, by enlisting recruits,
whose enthusiasm may perchance be awakened by my
incitations to observation and adventure.

In my experience as a practical collecting botanist
for some years, I have invariably found that however
my botanical friends might take fire at the exhibition
of my specimens or the mention of their habitats,
that the uninitiated in these things were unable to
comprehend the sources of my pleasure, and could not
understand on what principle I could experience
delight in making long journeys, and taking fatiguing
rambles, merely in search of plants. On the other

VI PllEl'ACE.

hand, Botany forming no part of general education,
even at the present moment, I have very often met
with ladies and gentlemen of highly cultivated under-
standings, open to all the charms which the beauties
of external nature ever exercises upon sensitive minds
-who, perhaps, fully understood the motions and
orbits of the planets, and knew their relative dis-
tances, their satellites, and their atmospheres, and
could even speculate on the constitution of their inha-
bitants, while the plants beneath their feet, on their
own earth, were unknown and almost entirely unre-
garded. Thus fully realizing the old fable of the
Grecian sages, who journeyed to the moon, and re-
turned without examining a tittle of its productions,
except the smoking viands that the hospitality of the
inhabitants had placed before them ! This neglect of
physical and mental enjoyment lying within the reach
of almost every body, appears to me to arise from a
false supposition that the toils attendant upon the
study of Botany would greatly counterbalance any
pleasure to be derived from it. In these papers, then,
I aim to show how incorrect such a conclusion is ;—
and, in monthly order, my object has been to produce
delineations which, even to the general eye of those
unfamiliar with botanical terms, shall offer charms
which may tempt the leisure of those who desire a
pleasing and instructive occupation ; while I have
introduced incident to show that the botanist during
his rambles may still look out with all the gusto of a
traveller superadded to his scientific examinations-

PREFACE. Vll

while the stores of his collecting-book will make " a
wet day at an inn" very different from "the wet day"
so graphically described by WASHINGTON IRVING.

It unfortunately happens that the majority of
botanical works contemplate instructing pupils deter-
mined to be professionally devoted to the study they
develope ; but as comparatively few non-medical per-
sons contemplate such an entire dedication of their
time as this supposes, they soon shrink from the
armed array of technicalities that they see enclosing
them around, and give up the attack in despair —
finding, as in the old editions of ^Esop's Fables, that
" the moral" is so lengthy when compared with the
tale. Other "Introductions" throw down their sugared
lumps for the mere child, forgetting that the child, if
a student of botany at all, requires not this " gilding
of refined gold," or " painting the lily," -the zest of
occupation and wandering abroad being a sufficient
stimulus for him. It is the adult, never led to think of
Botany in his youth, that requires to be tempted, and
this can be only done by pointing out the pleasure and
satisfaction resulting from a personal examination of
" Every herb that sips the morning dew."

I therefore claim to be on the recruiting service,
and with this special object in view, amid " the world
of light, and dews, and summer airs," I have brought
together from the woods, meads, and mountains, those
delicate gems that seemed best suited for the purpose
I had in view —

PREFACE.

" Beneatli the trees I sat
Among the flowers, and with the flowers I played." *

Treating the subject thus lightly, I may hope to at-
tract some whose attention would shrink from the
study of more laboured treatises — and the ardent
enquirer, if he accompanies me for excitement, will find
abundant works before the public, where the sparks
here kindled, may contribute fuel to the continuation
and duration of the scientific flame he desires to
nourish with increasing and perennial vigour. Even
the proficient in botanical study may not be displeased
with the allusions made to the habitats of some of his
favourites ; since as iron sharpeneth iron, so is enter-
prise awakened by the narration of the humblest pil-
grim to the shrine that is the object of the reverence
of his fraternity.

* WORDSWORTH.

NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Another edition of this work has been long called
for, and having received many friendly testimonies of
its utility in the path it was intended to occupy, I
have been induced to revise and enlarge it. Many
fresh scenes of rambles and additional localities for
plants have been introduced, with a view to render
the student more conversant with " the time of flow-
ers ;" and particularly noting those most likely to
meet his view at whatever period an excursion might
be taken.

Still it must be understood that this book is of the
incitative class, offering friendly aid to the neophyte
over the stepping stones of research, and conducting
to that enjoyment which, to be fully understood, re-
quires pleasing outline and suggestive colouring. To
the practical observing botanist, it may be considered
like the brandy-bottle or pocket-pistol on an excur-
sion, as offering an exciting poetical draught to the
tired spirits, waking up the mind to renewed effort
and perseverance, with moral superadded to technical

enjoyment.

E. 1^.

Cedar Terrace,
Henwick, Worcester,
May, 1851.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Pages of landscape, tree, and flower, and brook." — CLARE.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION — On the Habitats of Plants — Their partia-
lities to certain Soils and Localities — their Immigrations,
and peculiar Stations of the rarer ones 1

JANUARY.— CHAP. I.

The pleasure and advantage of looking out — Flowers in their
relations to the Human Race — First aspect of the Year—
Evergreens of the Season — Ivy and Holly contrasted — Holy
Thorn in Flower — Natural History of the Mistletoe — Its
Stations upon various Trees — Rarity on the Oak '29

CHAP. II.

Snowing-time — Trees upset by the gales — Localities of
remarkable Yew-Trees — Yew in the Oak — Groundsel,
Dead- Nettle, &c. — Stocking-Gorse — Aspect of Nature... 57

FEBRUARY.— CHAP. III.

Various Tints of Buds and Twigs in the Sunbeams — Brilliant
effects of a Frozen Shower — Dandelion, Veronica, Daisy-
Mosses in perfection of beauty — Hellebore, Periwinkle-
Sudden Snow Storm 66

CHAP. IV.

The awakening of Spring in the Country and the City —
Appearance of Gelatinous Fungi — Miseries of a Thaw-
Snowdrops 74

MARCH.— CHAP. V.

A March Morning on Malvern Hills — Crocuses, Mezereon,
Apricot, Pyrus Japonica, &c. — Flowers of the Woods and
Fields— Flowering of the Hazle, Yew, and Elm , 84

Xii CONTENTS.

CHAP. VI.

Vernal Indications — Various species of Violets — Golden Saxi-
frage, Tuberous Moschatel, White and Yellow Awlworts —
Daffodils and Sallows— Wiudflower 94

APRIL.— CHAP. VII.

An April Morning — Primroses — Dog- Violets, Anemonies, &c.
— Butterbur and Toothwort — Celandines, Orchis, Cuckoo-
Flowers — Migratory Birds of Spring — Flowers of the
Wood — Adornments of the Garden — Denizens of a rustic
one 107

CHAP. VIII.

Leafage of the Trees — Willow, Sycamore, Elm, Pear — Flow-
ering Orchards — The Cowslip — Marsh-Marigold, Bluebell,
and other Flowers — Account of the Arum — Closing Storm . 1 '2 1

MAY.— CHAP. IX.

Seasonal variations in the Flowering of British Plants — Six
Flowering Periods described in detail, the Primaveral,
Vernal, Solstitial, ,ZEstival, Autumnal, and Hibernal —
Floral Sympathies of Poets and Botanists 137

CHAP. X.

Scientific and Poetical Floral Influences — Scenes of Past
Wanderings — May Flowers on the Welch Mountains and
Cotteswold Hills — Dandelion and other Field Flowers —
Remarkable Hawthorns — Horse-Chestnut and other Forest
Trees 153

CHAP. XI.

The bonnie Broom — Flowers of the Upland Wood and its
tinkling Rills — Those of the ruined Abbey — The Bog — The
Garden — Sketch of the Lilac — May-weed — Herb Paris —
Apple Orchards in Flower — Tulip Beds and value of their
Bulbs — Mountain and Wood Flowers — Float on the Water. 165

JUNE.— CHAP. XII.

Excitement to Botanical Wandering — Habitats of Plants — •
Those of the Bog, Wood, Meadow, and River-side —

CONTENTS. Xlll

Romantic Cliffs of the Wye— Plants of the Sandy Beach
and Maritime Rocks — Description of the principal British
Ferns — Scene in Glyn Clydach with the Lady Ferns 187

CHAP. XIII.

Flowery Similes adapted to use — Adventure on the Brecon
Mountain — Ramble in Glyn Neath — The Poppy announces
the approach of the Solstitial Floralia — The Yellow Iris and
other attendant Flowers — Grasses of various kinds — Legen-
dary and Botanical account of the Rose — Its Species and
Varieties — Symbols and Sentiments connected with the
subject — Synopsis of the British Species of Rose 214

CHAP. XIV.

Flowering of Plants coincident with Festivals — Elder and
Sheep -Shearing — Seasonal retardations thus noted — The
Yew, the Birch, and the Holly in Churches — Habitats and
Selections of Plants — Influence of Lime-stone — Vegetation
of the Great Orme's Head — Local and Wandering Plants
-Pimpernel and other Meteoric Flowers 242

JULY.— CHAP. XV.

Charms of Association considered - - Druidical Oak in the
Forest of Dean — Plants immigrating from Rocks to Ruins
—A Scene on the WTye - - Stonecrops and other specious
Plants of the JEstival Flora — Solitary Musings — Thistles,
Dropworts, &c. — Cerrig Cennen Castle and Cheddar Cliffs
— Pinks on Craig Diganwy — Plants growing on Ruins-
Adventure at Oystermouth 268'

CHAP. XVI.

" Furrow- weeds " and Brambles — History and Economy of
the latter — Poppy, Campion, and other Corn-flowers —
Weeds of Waste Spots and Ballast Heaps — Orobanches,
Docks, &c. — Indications of the Decline of the 2Estival
Flora— Account, of the Nettle — Evening in a Garden 28S:

AUGUST.— CHAP. XVII.

Love of Adventure inherent in Man — His equal Devotion to
the Love of Nature — Pleasures of Botanical Hunting, with

XIV CONTENTS.

an episodical Storm at Lake Llyiisavaddon — Characteristic
Water-Plants — Notice of the White Water Lily, Lotus,
and Victoria Regia — Contrasted aspect of the Hydrocharis. 313

CHAP. XVIII.

Pilgrimage to Ty Dewi and Ramsay Island, on the Coast of
Pembroke — Fog and Perilous Passage across the Strait—
Aspect of and Prospect from " The Organ" — Littoral Plants
— Searches on the Sand-Hills — Bog-Plants — St. David's
Head — Studies for a Neophyte among the Toppling Rocks
—Windy Adventure at Aberystwith — Sunset 329

CHAP. XIX.

Advantages of an acquaintance with Botany to the Traveller
—Its asperities compared with the adorned Cliffs of the
Sea-shore — Notice of the Heath Tribe in their Mountain
Habitats — Various Bell-Flowers with their Localities —
Rushes — Flowers of declining Summer — Sunset on the
Skirrid Vawr 346

SEPTEMBER.— CHAP. XX.

New Images arising in the Mind from the pursuit of Botany
— Rare Plant at Pennard Castle, its aspect, and resulting
Reflections - - Excursion on the Black Mountain above
Llantony Abbey — Autumnal Landscape — Account of the
Monotropa — Characteristic Flora of September — Economy
of the Autumnal Crocus — The Parnassia Palustris — Even-
ing Prospect from the Little Skirrid 368

CHAP. XXI.

Flowers of the Waning Year — Pleasures of Association —
Plants by the Wizard Dee and the Lake of Bala — Excur-
sion to the Cliffs of Arran Ben Lyn — Notice of the Awlwort
and Habitat of the Water Lobelia — Botanical Look-Out
on the Berwyn Mountains — Aspect of the Mossy Turf
clothed with Squarrose Rushes and Lycopodise — Reflec-
tions engendered — Various Ferns and Rock Plants —
Autumnal Flowers of Ditches and Commons — Domestic
Plants, Vervain, Wormwood, &c. — Everlasting Flowers—

CONTENTS. XV

Splendour of the Autumnal Gorse — Ocean Sunset at
Barmoutli 389

CHAP. XXII.

Reflections awakened by a glance at the wilder tracts of
Flora's Dominion — Scene changed, and " at home " in the
Garden — Dahlias, Holly-Hocks, and Sunflowers, with their
Associations — Hydrangia, Chinese Aster, &c. — Suggestive
Thoughts from Gardening Pleasures — Adonis Autumnalis
— Smelling a Geranium — Poetical Ideas emanating from
Flowers — Withered Flowers and Lost Joys 417

OCTOBER.— CHAP. XXIII.

Autumnal Weather favourable for Exploration — Adventure at
Maentwrog, Merionethshire — Falls of Festiniog — A Break-
down— Ascent of Snowdon — Plants gathered on its lofty
Rocks — Cloudy Prospect — Rainy Outpourings — Brambles
at Caunant Mawr — A Truce to Wandering 440

CHAP. XXIV.

Excursion to the Botanic Garden of Snowdonia — Plants of
the Ravines and Rocks — Fearful Ledge above Llyn Idwal
—A contemplative day on the Sea Shore — The aspect of
Upland Heaths late in the Year — Eye-bright, Juniper,
Mountain Groundsel, Betony, &c. — Relics of Wild Love-
liness — Autumnal Maritime Plants — Sea-side Sketch -
Search on Brean Down for the White Mountain Cistus. . . . 457

CHAP. XXV.

A look out upon the Sere and Yellow Leaf — Reflections on a
Foggy Morning — Colours assumed by the Foliage of Forest
Trees - - Chemical suggestions on this Phenomenon -
Mournful aspect of Nature — Superstitions appertaining to
Groves and Trees — Fading Picture in Rural Lanes —
Coloured Berries of the Hedges — Nutting and Botanical
Structure of the Nut — Thicket Beauties and lovely aspect
of the Wood Horsetail — Bramble Hunting — Notices of the
Ivy and Arbutus 475

NOVEMBER.— CHAP. XXVI.

Cryptogamic Vegetation, and the Tribes composing it — Aspect
of the Fungi — Fairy Rings — Beauty of the Agaric and

XVI CONTENTS.

other Tribes— Office of the Fungi — Notice of the smaller
Families — Nomadic and Meteoric Phenomena — Rapid
Growth of the Mushroom, and derivable Similes — Plea-
sures in searching out the diversified Fungoid Forms 500

CHAP. XXVII.

Description of the Lichens — Their aspect on Rocks and Rums
-, — Effect of Moisture on them, and their general Economy —
Characteristic Notices of the different Families — Excursions
to the Rocks where they abound 517

DECEMBER.— CHAP. XXVIII.

Glance at the Brumal aspect of Nature — The Mosses in their
Nuptial Habiliments — Simile in relation to them — Their
Botanical Characters — Beautiful aspect in the Wane of the
Year — Polytrichum, and other Families — The Sphagna or
Bog-Mosses — Their economical History and Distribution . . 537

CHAP. XXIX.

Last look-out upon the aspect of Vegetation — Appearance
and Economy of the Jungermannige — A December Morning
— Ivied Trees, Shrubs, and Berries — Similes appertaining
to lingering Flowers — Evergreens of the Season — Reflec-
tions connected with Botanical Investigation — Winter
Picture of Falling Snow upon the Bare Boughs of Decem-
ber, shrouding all Vegetation — Conclusion 551

''

>

11RAF

EXGKAVINGS

OF

PRIVILEGED LOCALITIES OF PLANTS,

IX THE

BOTANICAL LOOKER OUT.

The ELYANGE STACK, Pembrokeshire, South Wales, Habitat of
the Sea Mallow (Lavatera arborea). . to face the Title Page.

Limestone ledges of the Great Orme's Head, Llandudno, Caer-
narvonshire, Habitat of the Cotoncaster vulgaris, Silene
nutans, &c to face page 24

Symond's Yat, a lofty limestone rock on the banks of the Wye,
Habitat of the Pyrus A ria, T ilia par vifolia, Taxus baccata,
and numerous other trees and plants to face page 193

Rocks of White Pebble Bay, near Ilfracombe, Devonshire, Habi-
tat of Venus's Hair Fern (Adiantum Capillus-veneris)

to face page 206

Melincourt Waterfall, Glyn Neath, Glamorgansliire, Habitat of
Asplenium viride, Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, &c.

to face page 217

Cheddar Cliffs, Somersetshire, Habitat of the Cheddar Pink
(Dianthus ccesius) to face page 276

INTEODUCTION.

ON THE HABITATS OF PLANTS — THEIR PARTIALITIES TO
CERTAIN SOILS AND LOCALITIES — THEIR IMMIGRATIONS,
AND PECULIAR STATIONS OF THE RARER ONES.

" From lea to croft, from mead to arid field ;
Noting the fickle seasons of the sky,
Changes of herbage, and salubrious flowers."

DYER'S FLEECE.

To know where plants grow, and how to collect them
with the greatest facility, is the first aim of the bota-
nical neophyte. Most alluring and conspicuous when
in flower, they are best observed at the period of their
inflorescence, but, as this varies with different families
and species, the exact time of the flowering of each
becomes a matter not merely of curiosity but of im-
portance. Hence the utility of a vegetable calendar,
that shall be indicative of " the time of flowers," and
displaying each season, as it advances or declines,
proclaim to the enquirer what he is likely to find in
bloom in any month or week when he contemplates
an exploration. A plant that is not sought for, unless
it be a very common one, is not likely to be found ;
and I have myself frequently been in the vicinity of
curious productions, which escaped my observation,
from my ignorance of their being within my reach,
at the time of my sojourn near them. Much then

B

A INTBODUCTION.

is always to be gained by forehand knowledge in
this respect. As I have shown in a paper in Mr.
NEWMAN'S botanical periodical, " The Pliytologist"*
the authors of our systematic Floras have not been
especially careful to set down the flowering-time of
plants with perfect exactness, and this out-of-door
work, neglected by them, I have felt it incumbent on
me more especially to attend to. It is indeed self-
rewarding, as any one will find who takes it up, while
the instruction it affords in working out a calendar of
coincidence of the birds, insects, and other zoological
objects that seem to synchronize with the appearance
of certain flowers, is not to be neglected, but well
repays the attention. In nay floral progress through
the various months I shall dilate further upon this
point.

The botanist who, in his wanderings, attends to the
habitats of plants, and the affinities many of them
have for certain soils, or mineralogical strata, will
be certain to find a greater number than he who
roams about indifferently, leaving chance to direct his
movements. This deserves to be well considered by
the practical collector, since it often happens that
miles of country may be painfully traced to no pur-
pose, without one remarkable plant being exhibited,
while a single favourable locality may contain nume-

* See The Phytologist, for 1848, for a paper of mine on the " acceleration
of the flowering of plants and frondescence of trees," in that very forward
spring. Mr. KEYS and other observers have, like myself, noticed that
technical botanists have not been very exact, in stating distinctly the first
appearance of a plant in flower, and the length of its continuance in that
state ; but these points are surely deserving of notice, for, as Dr. UNGER
observes, " the time of flowering of each plant is important, because it
characterizes the climate, and may serve as an index to agricultural
experiments."

INTRODUCTION. 3

rous uncommon plants in the space of a few yards,
The spots, therefore, most likely to harbour plants,
should be carefully sought and diligently explored.

It has been a disputable matter whether geological
formations exercise any remarkable influence upon
vegetation, and DE CA^DOLLE was of opinion that
they did not, nor do I believe that the geological age
of any strata are indicated by its plants ; but as
Dr. F. U^GER has well remarked, in his Flora of the
Western Tyrol, " It cannot be denied that calcareous
strata possess a flora very different from that of all
others. ZUCCARLNT and SIEBER observed this fact,
on the south side of the Alps ; in the Carpathian
mountains WAHLENBERG counted forty-three plants
which belong to a calcareous soil ; and he made the
same observation in Sweden. On the new continent
MAETITTS was struck with the same facts, in the
neighbourhood of the river of San Francisco, where
the chalk begins ; he there perceived vegetation to
assume a peculiar character, remarkable for the pre-
dominance of certain forms." Limestone, then,
seems a very congenial pabulum for many plants,
which if not entirely confined to it, abound with
greater luxuriance there, and the presence of a cal-
careous soil may be inferred by the presence of such
species, while they may be looked for with great
probability, and often certainty, on the margin of
limestone quarries. Such plants are,

Clematis Vitalba Viola hirta

Draba incana Silene nutans

rnuralis

Hutchinsia petraea

Anthyllis vulneraria
Hippocrepis comosa

* UNGER, on the influence of the nature of the soil upon the distribution
of vegetables, in Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. ii., N. S., p. 77.

B 2

4 USTBODUCTTON.

Onobrychis sativa
Poterium sanguisorba
Pyrus Aria
Galium tricorne

pusillum

Viburnum Lantana
Conyza squarrosa
Helminthia echioides
Picris hieracioides
Lithospermum officinale
Gentiana amarella

Chlora perfoliata
Bartsia odontites
Linaria minor
Origanum vulgare
Juniperus communis
Orchis pyramidalis
Ophrys apifera

muscifera

Avena pubescens
Sesleria cserulea
Carex digitata.

Woods on a calcareous soil are, therefore, very-
favourable habitats for numerous plants, and almost
sure to repay the toil of a careful search ; while on
a cold clay vegetables having but a slight affinity
for alumina, very few of any interest would be met
with. How beautiful, beneath the hedges of a lime-
stone height, shines at noon the golden stars of the
glaucous-foliaged yellow-wort ; while in groves on
such a sub-stratum the beautiful Wood-vetch (Vicia
sylvatica) delights to twine its azure-lined flowers
among the trees. In such localities as at Whitecliff
Woods, near Ludlow, on Silurian strata, the purple
lEpipactis latifolia stands in tall luxuriant ranks ;
while, even in winter's denuded reign, the plumy seeds
of Clematis vitalba wreathed fantastically on high
among dark branches, seems like down fallen from
the skies, or a supernatural hoar frost, and points out
the abandoned limestone quarry from afar. But,
although so many plants thus delight in a calcareous
soil, they do not absolutely distinguish the geological
system on which they grow, most of those I have
enumerated occurring as well on the lias as the Silu-
rian limestone ; though perhaps the CeteracJi fern,
and the lichen Bquamaria crassa, rather prefer the

INTBODUCTION. 5

carboniferous strata. The Lichens of the genera
Collema and ITrceolaria, and Lecidea immersa and
rupestris, are in general very partial to calcareous
rocks, especially about old quarries ; and Collema
nigrum delights to occupy the -surface of exposed
oolite. • The Extinguisher-Moss (JEnealypta strepto-
carpa and vulgaris), also well points out calcareous
strata.

The Chalk has been celebrated in Britain for the
beautiful Orcliidice it nourishes, as 0. militaris, O.
ustulata, and the singular Man, Monkey, Drone, and
Spider orchises, scarcely met with except on chalky
soil ; hence several beautiful localities, as Box Hill, in
Surrey, are celebrated for and resorted to by botanists
for such rarities, and thus local botany, from the
peculiarities affected by plants, merits particular at-
tention. Some other rare plants, as Anemone Pulsa-
tilla, Seseli Libanotis, Pliyteuma orbiculare, Cineraria
campestris, and BarkJiausia foetida, particularly affect
chalky pastures, so that to some extent the plants of
a district will be limited by mineralogical considera-
tions. Yet the boundary line may not be very strictly
observed, and where a neighbouring formation is in
many respects similar, there the same plants will be
found on geological strata of very different ages.
Thus Anemone Pulsatilla grows on the oolite of the
Cotswold hills as well as on the chalky downs of
Cambridge and Herts ; so also Cineraria campestris is
met with on the oolite hills near Cheltenham ; while
Carex digitata, a peculiar rock plant, nourishes on the
woody precipices that decorate the banks of the Wye,
nor is less at home on the fallen oolitic blocks that
strew the Cotswoldiau woods with ruinous debris.

O INTRODUCTION.

Sandy strata present in general a suite of peculiar
plants, or those at least as luxuriate best in such a
soil, while there are very local ones, as Tillcsa muscosa,
and Veronica verna and trypliyllos, which are only
found in such situations. The following are observed

to prefer sandy commons and fields.

Turritis glabra
Teesdalia nudicaulis
Silene Otites
Silene conica
Silene Anglica
Arenaria peploides

— rubra

Radiola millegrana
Erodium cicutarium
Trifolium suffocatum

scabrum

Trifolium striatum

arvense

Jasione montana
Centunculus minimus
Lamium amplexicaule
Scleranthus annuus
Phleum arenarium
Festuca Myurus
Elymus arenarius
Carex arenaria

Many plants are common to several rocks and soils,
and therefore it is chiefly upon isolated hills and
elevated summits, where nature retains its pristine
aspect, and where cultivation has not penetrated, that
the mineralogical condition given to the formation,
exercises the most material influence in determining
the existence of particular plants. It might be con-
sequently expected that granitic and igneous rocks
would have some characteristic plants, independent of
their altitudinal character. But as secondary and ter-
tiary strata, as well as diluvial gravel, are nothing
more than modified ancient rocks, this is not so much
the case as might be imagined, and many species are
equally found upon igneous rocks and on gravel. So
several conspicuous plants often growing on granitic
or basaltic heights, occur also on calcareous rocks, as
Veronica spicata, which is abundant on the Brithen

INTBODUCTION.

mountain, in Montgomeryshire, but is as plentiful on
the carboniferous limestone of the Great Orrne's Head,
and flourishes also on the limestone of St. Vincent's
rocks, near Bristol ; it is seen also plentifully on the
metamorphic rocks at Barinouth. Yet some species
evince • an affinity not to be mistaken, for Gentiana
amarella appears always on calcareous soil, while
Digitalis purpurea shrinks carefully from the latter
position. I observed this last plant upon Craig
Diganwy, an igneous precipitous hill between Conway
and the Orme's Head, in 1849, but it disappeared
directly I trod the limestone, nor could I discover a
single specimen throughout the whole Orme's Head
promontory and adjacent calcareous rocks. The
following may be considered as more particularly
indicating igneous or primitive rock, or to be sought
there.

Corydalis claviculata
Arabis petrcea
Draba rupestris
Galium saxatile
Viola lutea
Silene acaulis
Lychnis viscaria
Lychnis alpina
Cherleria sedoides
Spergula saginoides
Moenchia erecta
Arenaria verna
Cerastium alpinurn
Cotyledon umbilicus
Rhodiola rosea
Sedum album
villosum

Saxifraga umbrosa, and

allied forms
Saxifraga oppositifolia

stellaris & hypnoides

Dryas octopetala
Alchemilla alpina
Hieracium alpinum
Veronica saxatilis
V. alpina and fruticulosa
Digitalis purpurea
Antericum serotinum
Salix herbacea
Luzula arcuata
Carex ustulata
C. atrata and pulla
C. rigida
Allosorus crispus

Some of these are not entirely confined to primitive
or volcanic formations, but they may be generally

8 INTRODUCTION.

found in such situations. Yet I think the LICHENS
to be surer indications of igneous rocks. Lecanora
glaucoma, L. ventosa, L. coccinea and tartar ea, Parme-
lia omphalodes, P. Fahlunensis, P. stygia, and P.
aquila, are good indicators of eruptive masses ; and so
also are Gyrophora proboscidea, G. erosa, and G.
cylindrica. The curious tinder-like Blistered Umbili-
caria (Z7. pustulata), is almost peculiar to granitic
rocks.

On steep hills and downs, where thyme delights to
spread its aromatic odour upon the breeze, and the
turf is kept down by the nibbling of the sheep, the
grasses, clovers, and other plants become excessively
minute, as may be witnessed on the chalk pastures of
the Isle of Wight, or the sides of the beauteous
Malvern hills. This circumstance is thus alluded to
by DYEB, in his poem of The Fleece, in intimating
the best and most favourite sheep walks.

" On spacious airy downs, and gentle hills,

With grass and thyme o'erspread, and clover wild,

The fairest flocks rejoice !

* they crowding round, with silence soft

The close wov'n carpet graze ; where nature blends

Floio'rets and herbage of minutest size,

Innoxious luxury."

The same author also pleasingly mentions some of
the plants that distinguish chalk soils, and adverts
to the wide airy downs, then all unenclosed, and
whitened over with numerous flocks. Similar excur-
sive views, though with other objects in view, are
taken by the botanical explorator. —

" All arid soils, with sand, or chalky flint,
Or shells diluvial mingled; and the turf
That mantles over rocks of brittle stone,

INTRODUCTION.

Be thy regard : aiid where low tufted broom,

Or box or berried juniper arise;

Or the tall growth of glossy-rinded beech ;

And where the hurrowing rabbit turns the dust,

And where the dappled deer delights to bound.

Such are the downs of Banstead, edg'd with woods,

And tow'ry villas ; such Dorcestrian fields,

Whose flocks innumerous whiten all the land :

Such those slow-climbing wilds, that lead the step

Insensibly to Dover's windy cliff,

Tremendous height ! and such the clover'd lawns

And sunny mounts of beauteous Xormanton,

Health's cheerful haunt ;

* * such the spacious plain

Of Sarum, spread like ocean's boundless round,

Where solitary Stonehenge, grey with moss,

Ruin of ages, nods."

Dry and exposed granitic syenitic and trappoid
heights, however, such as the Malvern hills, and even
many of the mountaiDS of "Wales, rather answer to
the description of "herlless granite," than are re-
markable for many botanical rarities. Yet serpentine,
rare in Britain, but which forms a limited tract in
the vicinity of the Lizard, in Cornwall, has been
famed in botanical record, for its nourishment of
the beautiful Cornish heath, Erica vagans, which is
almost confined to this mineralogical formation. The
Eev. C. A. JOHNS, in his account of the Lizard,
says, " The great characteristic in the botany of this
(the Lizard) district is the extreme abundance of the
Cornish or Goonhilly heath. It may be said to grow
over the whole country, from Mullion to the Black-
head, except where it has been extirpated by the
plough. Every hedge bank and road-side is full of
it, and, if we enter the cottages, twrf composed of it,

10 INTBODUCTKXN.

mixed with smaller plants, is the only fuel."* The
flowers of this heath are white, rose-coloured, or light
purple, producing a very pretty effect.

The serpentine, at least in Britain, produces several
rare plants not to be found elsewhere, one of which is
the fringed Rupture-Wort (Herniaria ylabra), hence
the Lizard district, in Cornwall, is one of the most
interesting localities that can be visited by a student
in British botany. The Red Broom-rape (Orobanclie
rubra), is another rare plant, which, though parasi-
tical on the roots of broom, furze, clover, &c., yet, by
some unaccountable affinity, is only found on basaltic
rocks. It occurs on the cliffs of Kynance, Cornwall,
on the Giant's Causeway, and at Staffa.

Gravelly commons possess several plants that occur
also upon trap-rocks, and their general productions,
such as minute Clovers (Trifolium repens, fragiferum,
minus, andjiliforme), OrnitJiopus perpusillus, Plantago
coronopus, &c., will be much the same, whether the
gravel be granitic, diluvial, or tertiary. Thus the
vegetation on the primitive gravel of the extensive
green spreads of "Welland Common, and others at
the base of the Malvern Hills, in Worcestershire, is
repeated on. Ealing Common, and other waste spots in
Middlesex, even to the Chamomile (AntJiemis noUlis),
and the rarer Bupleurum tenuissimum. Much will
depend, however, upon the presence or absence of
water, in pools or minute rills. If the former present
themselves, the species of CallitricJie, Myosotis, and
Widens, are sure to occur, and Ranunculus sceleratus
and Pulicaria vulgaris will be conspicuous plants.
Little prills and marish spots will nurse such species

* A Week at the Lizard, by the Rev. C. A. JOHNS, p. 269.

IISTTEODTJCTION. 11

as Ranunculus flammula, and liederaceus, Nasturtium
terrestre, Cardamine Jiirsuta, Montia fontana, Peplis
Portula, Epilobium palustre, Selosciadum nodiflorum,
and repens, Pedicularis sylvatica, the characteristic
Gripsey-wort (Lycopus europceus), and several of the
Mint tribe (Mentha Jiirsuta, piperita, and Pulegiwn),
as well as Polygonum minus, peculiar to such wet
gravelly spots. Besides these more obvious species,
Blysmus compressus, several of the genus Heliocliaris,
and numerous Carices may be found. If the ground
be very dry, some of the water plants will be much
diminished in size, and the vegetation, characteristic
of so many of our old village greens and dry com-
mons, will appear, where the long trailing knot-grass
(Polyyomum aviculare), a scrubby growth of dark
tufted rushes, sedges, and mat-grass (Nardus stricta),
with scurvy specimens of dissightly weeds, belonging
to the Clienopodium and Atriplex families, skulk around
the ragged broken-paled pound, and lichen-covered dis-
used stocks. Creeping lowly in such open spots, as if
to escape the parian pigs and geese that take refuge
there, several species of Cerastium, Sagina, and Filayo
herd, as if rejected from better places ; and here many
frequent, yet inconspicuous or procumbent plants
occur, as Polygala vulgaris, Hypericum hzimifusiim,
Linum catliarticum, Potentilla anserina, Potentilla
Tormentilla, Carlina vulgaris, Chrysantliemivm inodo-
rwm, and such like branded commoners.

The hard and dry Red Marl, that covers so large
an extent of country in the Midland Counties of
England, though unfavourable to most of the rarer
species, has yet some that if not peculiar to it, 1
have observed to grow in great plenty and luxuriance

12 INTBODUCTION.

there. The following may be particularly enume-
rated :

Nasturtium sylvestre
Isatis tinctoria
Brassica campestris
Sinapis nigra
Dianthus Armeria
Rhamnus catharticus
Lathyrus Nissolia
Pyrus torminalis
Pastinaca sativa
.ZEnanthe pimpinelloides
Sison Amomum
Petroselinum segetum

Campanula patula

— trachelium

Tanacetum vulgare
Centaurea Scabiosa
Ligustrum vulgare
Salvia verbenaca
Ballota nigra
Nepeta cataria
Galeopsis Ladanum
Thymus Calamintha
Colcbicum autumnale
Alliuin vineale

In recording the habitats of plants, as affected by
soils, the interlopers that attend upon manured arable
lands must not be lost sight of by the careful botani-
cal observer.

The corn field, when approaching to maturity, in
the height of summer, often blazes with gorgeous
stranger-plants, — agrarians as they may be called, —
that seem almost unknown anywhere, except as atten-
dant ministers upon the gifts of Ceres. Here the
courtier poppy lifts his scarlet turban, and slowly
rises from, apparent somnolency ; here, too, the bril-
liant golden Corn-marygold (Ghrysomthenvum segetuvi),
uselessly gems the field ; and the Blue-bottle (Cen-
taurea Cyanus), and Corn-cockle (Agrostemma GitJiago),
shine brilliantly indeed, but, like ornaments on the
breast of beauty, adding no intrinsic value to the spot
where they sparkle. But how came these strangers
among us, and how are they propagated ? Did the
first settlers in our island bring corn with them, or
did Phoenician vessels impart the god-like boon ? In
either case, mixed with the seed corn — " rubicuuda

INTEODTJCTION.

13

Ceres" — came these corn-plants to cast an unwonted
radiance upon our sunny slopes ; to show in their
magnificence the nullity of splendour ; and yet to
point out how ornament and utility may go hand in
hand, by emblazoning a border of coloured embroidery
upon the plain and homely frieze garment of Agricul-
ture.

Corn seems to have been carried by man into every
part of the globe where he has wandered, and, along
with the different species of corn, various plants have
been carried, now often considered indigenous. But
these have probably not all immigrated at once, some
are earlier, some later colonists, and others, like the
Trifolium incarnatim, which I have gathered by the
road-side, in Shropshire, have scarcely yet received an
act of naturalization. It may be curious to allocate
together the principal of these Agrarian Colonists.

Adonis autumnalis
Ranunculus arvensis
Papaver hybridum

Rhceas

Rcemeria hybrida
Fumaria capreolata
Erysimum cheiranthoides
Camelina sativa
Brassica Rapa
Agrostemma Githago
Liuum usitatissimum
Melilotus officinalis
Medicago sativa
Vicia sativa
Lathyrus Aphaca
Onobrychis sativa
Coriandrum sativum
Bupleurum rotundifolium

Carum Carui
Chserophyllum sativum
Myrrhis odorata
Smyrnium olusatrum
Campanula hybrida
Chrysanthemum segetum
Matricaria Chamomilla
Anthemis nobilis

arvensis

Centaurea Cyanus
Sonchus arvensis
Borago officinalis
Galeopsis versicolor
Lin aria spuria

Elatine

Polygonum lapathifolium

Fagopyrum

Phalaris canariensis

Buckwheat {Polygonum Fagopyrum) , is probably of

14 INTRODUCTION.

very late introduction, and several species of Ouscuta
have been undeniably imported with seeds from
abroad in the present day. Mr. JAMES MOTLEY dis-
covered Malva verticillata in company with _M". crispa
in corn-fields near Llanelly, Glamorgan shire, a few
years ago, both perhaps escapes from gardens ; and
Dr. BKOMFIELD has recorded, in the Pliytologist, how
Melampyrum arvense was introduced into the Isle of
Wight with seed corn from the eastern counties. All
arable ground, manured soil, or abandoned gardens,
must then be viewed with distrust, and the plants
upon them considered at best as only in a naturalized
state, or introductions of cultivation. European plants
are thus now carried by voyagers into the western
regions of the world, as of old continental plants
migrated to Britain. Indeed, as WILLDENOW observes,
" the wars in which different nations have been en-
gaged, their migrations, and crusades, the travels of
different merchants, and commerce itself, have brought
a number of plants to us, and transplanted ours to
foreign countries. Almost all our culinary plants
came from Italy or the East, as well as most species
of corn." *

* The rotation of cultivation that any piece of land undergoes, must
undoubtedly greatly affect the plants spontaneously growing upon it,
•which, in the event of a change of crop, will be unable to maintain their
position, and for a period they may altogether disappear, whilst new
•weeds will creep in with the fresh seed. On the other hand, a fallow
piece will invite the immigration of a host of intruders, who can, how-
ever, scarcely have time to mature their projects, and fly off, before the
plough dislodges them. It sometimes happens that flowers exist in a
field, which being annually mown for hay, they have not time either to
produce their blossoms, or mature their seeds, before the crop is carried
off. In this case they may remain in obscurity for many years, until
the pasture being left for grazing, they then rise up to flower, and seed
profusely, in the hussocky spots, which cattle are sure to leave at intervals,
and surprise the eye by their unexpected appearance. But when an

INTRODUCTION. 15

Next to Agrarians, we may notice those interlopers
or garden Stragglers who, coming to the land origin-
ally as entire strangers, have taken the first oppor-
tunity of escaping from their narrow bounds, and
become squatters on their own account. Some of
these, as the Wall-flower, great Periwinkle (Vinca
major), Myrrliis odorata, Eed Valerian, and Teucrium
Chamcedrys, have been so long " out on the tramp,"
as almost to seem entitled to indigenous botanical
societyship ; while with others, as in Papaver somni-
ferum, the great Snapdragon (Antirrhinum rnajus),
and Melissa officinalis, we see how the garden sends
away its outcasts. In fact we have only to notice the
manner in which many garden plants spread about
and wander from their own domiciles, to be satisfied
that this cause has operated from the earliest periods,
when man advanced his colonies upon distant islands
and shores, with the gifts of Ceres and Pomona. I
noticed long since how the common Parsley (Petrose-
linum sativum), had stolen out of the garden of my
then residence, and so passed the threshold of cultiva-
tion. Now it grows in profusion on the rocky Isle
of St. Catharine, near Tenby, Pembrokeshire, no
doubt propagated from the plants originally in the
garden of the priest who on that rock once ministered
in holy things to the believing if superstitious seamen
of his day, and there cultivated it in his little garden
of herbs.

arable field is sown with artificial grasses, or vetches, such plants as
Lolium Italicum, or Setaria viridis, will appear, and maintain a pre-
carious existence, while the ground remains in pasture, or is fallowed,
till the plough again sweeps them away, and the botanist scours round
the corners of the field and its boundary banks in vain for what he saw
and gathered a few years before.

16 INTRODUCTION.

The monks and hermits of the early ages of Chris-
tianity led many plants in their train, which have
stopped behind them, to memorialize the attention
they paid to the study of their qualities. Such pro-
bably are Helecampane (Inula Selenium), Sweet
Cicely (Scandix odor at a), and Vervain (Verbena offici-
cinalis), all generally met with in the vicinity of habi-
tations or monastic ruins. Smyrnium olusatrum,
certainly used in old times as a pot-herb, comes into
the same category. Bound, in many instances, by
their vows to live on vegetable diet, a garden was
indispensable to their purpose, while the calls of the
peasantry on their medical skill required the cultiva-
tion of such as would furnish them with decoctions
and balms for the protean forms of disease, as then
understood and encountered. But, independent of
this, amusement was required to unbend the mind
tired with the sameness of austerity ; and nothing
could surely be more innocent than the cultivation of
that love for flowers which all mankind possess, bent
as it was presumed to pious uses, by connecting the
names of the Yirgin and saints, and the recurrence of
festivals, with the appearance of the varied blossoms
of the year. In the old olatory gardens, were a host
of disease-destroying plants, which as wound-worts,
heal-alls, or loose-strifes, effected wonders in their
day, and were balms for all possible ailments, though
now abandoned and neglected. Even in later times,
certain plants have obtained celebrity for some fancied
power or property, and so been spread about. Such,
according to WILLDENOW, has been the case with the
common Thorn- Apple (Datura Stramonium), which
now scattered throughout the greater part of Europe

INTRODUCTION. 17

as a noxious weed, was brought originally to us from
the East Indies and Abyssinia, and so followed the
steps of a set of quacks, who used its seeds as an
emetic or cathartic.* Probably many plants have
been accidently earned about in this way, and
assuredly others have been purposely planted.

So Diplotaxis tenuifolia, occurring on the walls of
Tenby, in South Wales, and other old towns, may
have accompanied the Flemmings, when they settled
in this country, from the Continent, in the reigns
of Henry I. and II. From abandoned and ruined
gardens, numerous plants, once esteemed as simple,
but efficient remedies for various disorders, or nur-
tured for some real or supposed virtue, have arisen,
to spread about the vicinity, lingering like mementoes
of departed joys, as if hoping they might yet be called
upon to resume their former functions. Thus Senecio
squalidus remained a great number of years on old
walls, near Worcester cathedral, a former member
probably of the convent garden, and yet existed in
1849. The same plant grows abundantly, on walls
at Oxford, escaped from the physic garden there.
Atropa Belladonna although now naturalized among
the stony hollows of the Cottes wolds, in Grloucester-
shire, and in other neglected spots, is a lurid plant,
certainly derived from the monasteries, and it now
flourishes in such profusion, near Furness Abbey,
Lancashire, that the " Yale of Nightshade " has been
appropriately applied to the spot. AristolocTiia clema-
tilis, having a celebrity for female complaints, was
cultivated in the gardens of nunneries, where, from
its abiding roots, it is still to be met with, about

* WILLDENOW — Principles of Botany, 8vo. p. 390.

C

18 INTRODUCTION.

the ruins of such structures as Godstow nunnery,
Oxfordshire, from whence I have a specimen. Such
historical or memorial plants have a peculiar interest,
and deserve to be noted, though there can be no
necessity for insisting, as some botanists do, that
they are " certainly wild," — meaning thereby that
they had an ab origins existence in our island. There
can be no rational doubt that such flowers as Impa-
tiens fulva, and the Martagon Lily, however wild
they may now appear to be, or secluded the spots
where they grow at present, were introduced from
gardens. The Canadian shrub, Xylosteum tataricum,
Pursh, so well known by its small pink flowers, as
an adornment of plantations, now frequently, as I
have observed, gets into hedges, and spreads about
quite as wild as some other plants that are allowed
to pass muster. Species from abroad often maintain
themselves on ballast heaps for a time, as Linaria
supina, found by Mr. KEYS, at Plymouth,* and so
for the nonce, get reported as " true natives," until
again degraded, by more accurate observation, or
death, at the place of their appearance. But, not to
multiply examples that come within the experience of
every botanist, no one will dispute that DiantJms
plumarius, and D. caryopliillus, now often beautifying
the walls of castles, are garden derivatives ; while
the spread of the little Italian ivy-leaved toad- flax,
(Linaria Cymbalariaj) throughout England, and even
into remote places in Wales, is a matter of daily
observation.

A remarkable circumstance in the distribution of
plants, particularly interesting to the botanical ob-

* Phytologist, vol. ii. p. 39.

INTRODUCTION. 19

server, is the PRIVILEGED LOCALITIES certain rare
species assume, most of which must be esteemed
undoubtedly indigenous in such restricted bounds ;
and, puzzling as they are to account for, on mere
geographical principles, it would seem as if nature
had herself planted them, but circumstances had in
some way precluded their extension. I subjoin the
more remarkable of these stations, as not coming
within an every-day look out, and it is moreover con-
venient to see them at a single glance,
Arabis liispida, on the rocks of Clogwyn du yr Arddu,

Snowdon.

Arabis stricta, on St. Vincent's rocks, on the side
of the Avon, below Bristol. Other rare plants oc-
cupy this picturesque ledge of " Bristol Limestone,"
which is situated on the Gloucestershire side of
the river. The Leigh woods, and carboniferous
limestone, abounding with Pyrus Aria, Grammitis
ceteracli, &c., are on the southern or Somersetshire
bank of the river.

Draba aizoides, on the walls of Pennard Castle, Gla-
morganshire, and it is reported by Mr. DILLWYN,
also on inaccessible rocks, near the Worm's Head.
Found nowhere else in Britain.
TJilaspi alpestre, chiefly on the rocks about Matlock,

Derbyshire.

Thlaspi perfoliatum, on the Oolite of the Cottes-
wold Hills, Gloucestershire, near Naunton Seven
Springs.*
Heliantliemim poUfoliurn,, on rocks at Babbicombe,

* See Professor BUCKMAN'S Flora of Cheltenham, an interesting record
of the plants of the Cotteswolds, among which is the rare and beautiful
Melittis grandiflora growing in a wood called Puckhara Scrubbs.

c2

20 INTRODUCTION.

near Torquay, and on Brean Down, a rocky penin-
sula of the Severn Sea, near Weston-super-mare,
Somerset. Garex liumilis occurs here as well as
on St. Vincent's rocks.

Helianthemum Breweri, on Holyhead Mountain, An-
glesea, and near Amlwch, in the same island.

Diantlius ccesius, the " Cheddar Pink," found only on
the singular precipitous rocks of Cheddar, Somer-
setshire.

Cucubalus baccifems, in the Isle of Dogs, opposite
Greenwich. ]^o other English locality is known.
Discovered there by Mr. GEOEGE LUXTOED, in
1837.

Alsine stricta, on Teesdale Moors, near Widdy-bank
Pell, its only known locality in Britain, found there
by Mr. J. BACKHOUSE, jun. and party, in 1844.
Teesdale, and especially the portion of it compre-
hended by Widdy-bank Fell, Cauldron Snout, and
Falcon Glints, is a district peculiarly rich in botan-
ical rarities.* Cauldron Snout is a cataract on the
river Tees, where the stream plunges in a broken
fall of about 200ft. down a dark basaltic gorge.
Over the Snout is a narrow bridge, connecting the
counties of Durham and "Westmoreland. Falcon
Glints is a range of lofty basaltic crags, which
commence here and extend along the river a mile
and a half. The very local Woodsia ilvensis grows
in the fissures of the basalt. In the tract called
Widdy Bank various other rare plants are localized,
as Bartsia alpina, Gentiana verna, Cnicus lietero-
phyllus, Sedum villosum, Tqfieldia palustris, Saxifraga

* See BACKHOUSE'S Botanical Ramble in Yorkshire, Phytologist, Sept.,
1844.

INTRODUCTION. 21

aizoides, Poa Parnellii, Kobresia caricina, Juncus
triglumis, Carex capillaris, &c. At the Higli Force,
where the rocks are of basalt overlaying limestone,
down which the river Tees pours its stream, in
an almost unbroken fall of sixty-nine feet in height,
into a dark basin, and runs along a deep ravine
among lofty perpendicular rocks ; other rarities en-
rich this most interesting botanical district. These
are Hieracium Lapeyrousii, rigidum, and Lawsoni,
Crepis succiscefolia, Potentilla fmticosa, Arbutus
Uva-ursi, Sesleria ccerulea, Poa Parnellii, and Carex
rigida. Scarcely any tract in Britain can combine
so many of the rarer plants as this does. Saxifraga
Hirculus grows on Cotherstone Fells.
Impatiens Noli-me-tangere, Stock Grill, and Scandale

Beck, Westmoreland.

Sedum album, on the syenitic rocks of the North Hill,
Great Malvern, Worcestershire. Dubious if really
wild in any other locality in Britain, and here only
occupying the middle range of the rocks of the
hill, 600 to 800ft. in height.

Trifolium strictum, on the Serpentine of the Lizard
district, in Cornwall. The Rev. C. A. JOHNS, an
acute and observant botanist, thus mentions the
rare Clovers here met with. — " A sloping bank on
the right hand of Caerthillian valley, about a hun-
dred yards from the sea, produces, I should think,
more botanical rarities than any other spot of
equal dimensions in Great Britain. Here are
crowded together in so small a space that I actually
covered with my hat growing specimens of all to-
gether, Lotus Jiispidus, Trifolium Bocconi, T. Mo-
linerii, and T. strictum. The first of these is far

22 INTBODTJCTION.

from common ; the others grow nowhere else in
Great Britain. T. Bocconi, and T. Molinerii were
first observed about ten years ago ; the former may
be distinguished by its terminal heads of flowers,
which always grow in pairs ; it occurs also on a
hedge near Cadgwith, and on a rocky mound be-
tween that place and Poltesco. T. Molinerii occurs
at intervals between this spot and Cadgwith flag-
staff"; it is easily detected by its large star-like
heads of downy flowers, which, as the seeds begin
to ripen, assume a remarkably whitish hue. T.
strictwn I had the good fortune to discover in July,
1847, here and near the Old Lizard Head. It is
strongly marked by its erect habit, long serrated
leaflets, and globular rigid heads of flowers. It
was previously known as a native of Jersey, but
had not been noticed in Great Britain. The fact
that three species of Trefoil peculiar to the district,
should have been discovered growing together, has
been thought so singular, that some botanists have
entertained doubts whether they are really indi-
genous. I myself see no reason to doubt that their
first introduction to the Lizard district was coeval
with that of the rest of the vegetation on the cliffs.
It should be remembered that, as the Lizard is the
most southerly point of England, and its climate
uniformly mild, we have good grounds for expect-
ing to find plants properly belonging to the warmer
sea-coasts of Europe, and such is the case with
these three trefoils ; — they are all found on the
coast of the Mediterranean."* On the favoured
serpentine of the Lizard, the Cornish Heath (JErica

* A Week at the Lizard, by the Rev. C. A. JOHNS.

INTRODUCTION. 23

vagans,) flourishes over continuous miles of ground,
growing low and stunted when it encounters the
sea-breeze, but in sheltered situations attaining a
large size. It does not flower until August, and
early in September its lovely snowy and pink
blossoms cover acres upon acres of barren moor.
Within this same formation and district other rare
or peculiar plants appear, as Corrigiola littoralis,
Elatine Jiexandra, Herniaria glabra, ^Exacwm fili-
forme, and Illecebrum verticillativm. Kynance Cove
is a deservedly celebrated botanical station, where,
among other plants, may be noticed Allium ScJicsno-
prasum, Genista pilosa, and Scilla verna. Mr. JOHNS
states that the asparagus (A. officinalis), grows wild,
" in great abundance, in the clefts of the rocks, under
the rill, on the island at Kynance, to which it gives
name, and in a ravine a few hundred yards north-
east of Cadwith Cove. It is, in all respects, like the
Asparagus of our gardens, and at the last mentioned
place is treated as a culinary vegetable. Though
always remarkable for its elegant mode of growth,
in autumn it is particularly ornamental, owing to
the contrast to the vegetation around it, afforded
by its brilliant yellow foliage and scarlet berries."
Cornish Money Wort (Sibtlwrpia Europcea), a curi-
ous little plant, is also one of the Lizard rarities.

Spircea salicifolia. In the vicinity of Bala, North
Wales, on the banks of the river Trueryn, which
falls into the Dee near that place, this shrub forms
a pretty and characteristic vegetation. Except in
the moist boggy parts of the principality, it is
scarcely indigenous to Britain.

Potentilla rupestris, only found in Britain on the

24 INTRODUCTION.

middle part of Craig Brithen, a lofty trappoid hill
in Montgomeryshire, on the borders of Shropshire,
but in considerable plenty there. Great quantities
of Veronica spicata and Tiybrida grow on the same
mountain. Also the singular tall- stalked variety of
Mouse-ear Hawkweed, termed peleterianum.

Coioneaster vulgaris, on the ledges of some limestone
rocks on the Great Orme's Head, Caernarvonshire,
looking inland, above a farm-house, called Tan y
Coed. This is about 600ft. high, and seems as if
anciently it had been much frequented by birds.

Pyrus domestic®, one tree only in a very decrepid
state, in Wyre Forest, "Worcestershire. Wyre, or
Bewdley as it is now called, is the relic of a British
aboriginal forest, and Pyrola minor as well as Epi-
pactis ensifolia grow near the old Sorb-tree, which
was first noticed in the time of RAT.

JBunium Bulbocastanum, confined entirely to the chalk
marl of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Cambridge.
Discovered by the Rev. W. H. COLEHAN, in 1835.

Libanotis montana, peculiar to the chalky pastures of
Cambridgeshire .

PTiysospermwni Cornubiense, only found in bushy fields
about Bodmin, in Cornwall, and on the borders of
Devonshire.

Cornus suecica, on the Cheviot hills, Northumberland.

Cnicus tuberosus, only observed in thickets on the
Great Ridge, "Wiltshire Downs.

Calamintlia sylvatica, peculiar to woods in the Isle of
"Wight, where it was discovered by Dr. BEOMFIELD,
who has admirably elucidated the flora of that
beautiful and favoured spot, in the pages of Mr.
NEWMAN'S monthly publication, The Phytologist.

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INTEODUCTIO1S'. 25

Buxus sempervirens, on Box Hill, Surrey, where this
beautiful evergreen truly adorns the chalky heights.
If indigenous any where in Britain it is here.
Various Orchidice are found in the vicinity.

Teucrium Hotrys also grows at Box Hill.

Scheuchzeria palustris, only in England, at Bomere
Pool, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire ; and Lakeby
Car, near Boroughbridge, Yorkshire. The former is
a beautiful little lake, with abundance of Sphagnum,
amid which the SclieucJizeria grows.

Orchis hircina, only known in the vicinity of Dartford,
in Kent, but not recently gathered. A corres-
pondent of the Phytologist (Mr. "W. PEETE) says,
respecting its station here, that " in consequence of
the rapacity of collectors, it is now nearly, if not
entirely, eradicated. It was to be found to a
certainty near Puddledock and Stanhill, in "Wil-
mington parish, about twenty or thirty years ago,
in hedgerows ; also at Truling Down, in the road
to Grreenstreet Green." Here Mr. PEETE says he
has gathered it, and considers it may still be met
with. This statement was made in 1843. O.fusca
is another beautiful Kentish plant, more easily
found; and the Spider and Drone Orchises, 0.
aranifera, 0. fucifera, and 0. arachnites, are also
natives of the chalky pastures of Kent, chiefly near
Deal.

Cypripedium Calceolus, in Castle Eden Dene, Durham,
almost the only place in England where the Lady's
Slipper can now be found.

Allium Ampeloprasum, on the Steep Holmes Isle, in
the Severn Estuary. Not to be found elsewhere in
England. Pceonia corallina grows upon the same

26 INTRODUCTION.

picturesque rocky islet, but is every year becoming
less abundant.

Anthericwn serotinum. The Spiderwort is now I
believe only to be found on the Grlyder mountain,
in "Wales, on scarcely accessible rocks, at Twlldu,
above Llyn Idwall. The direful chasm here formed
by a mountain stream from Llyn-y-cwn, is commonly
called " The Devil's Kitchen," and is the centre of
the botanic garden of Snowdonia ; I shall in due
course mention it in detail.

Isolepis Holosclioenus, on a wet part of the sandy

expanse of Braunton Burrows, Devonshire. This

is a remarkable locality, fronting the sea, with wild

sand hills and marshy spots, spreading far around,

well deserving a visit. Teucriimt Scordimi here

grows, in immense profusion, in the wet hollows.

Doubtless other " privileged localities" will present

themselves to the memory of the exploring botanist,

and I could have increased the list, but I wished to

note those that remain with their plants so fixedly,

that they are likely to continue as above indicated for

many years to come. To such hallowed spots it is

the delight of the botanist to ramble, and the object

he has in view gives an exhilirating impetus to his

movements, which they only can understand who have

sought plants themselves, or made one of a botanical

party. The scenery and the thoughts called up, are

not the less imbibed because plants are the objects in

view. I once, in a ramble in "Wales, accidentally got

into company with a tourist quite unacquainted with

botany, but, putting himself under my command, I

led him into such queer places, and took him such

a pilgrimage, that he soon entered into the spirit of a

INTEODTJCTION. 27

hearty communion with nature, and said he should
never forget that day.

The influences of altitude, exposure, aspect, shade,
temperature, and moisture, in governing the distribu-
tion of plants, I shall fully enter upon seriatim in the
following chapters, tracing the flowers as they appear
in succession through the different months, and ap-
propriating them to each, yet not neglecting their
combinations on rock, rivulet, morass, wood, heath,
sequestered lane, sunny bank, or sea-coast.

The variety in the localities affected by plants is
a source of interminable enjoyment to the exploring
botanist who rambles in search of them, and who is
thus led to perpetually changing scenes of landscape
beauty ; and is not obliged, like the angler, to dodge
about, or dose by the root of an old willow, for a
dozen consecutive hours, and be at last obliged to
confess, as a "Waltonian once did to me, that he might
just as well have been lashing a bucket ! There is
almost always some new idea, or the hope of some new
acquisition, to tempt the fancy of the botanical rambler.
Instigated first by the love of novelty common to all
mankind, he may " range fresh fields and pastures
new," or hurry to gather " new flowers," with all the
ardour of a neophyte. There is happiness even in
this impression — for, as DETDEN says,

" 'Tis not for nothing that we life pursue,
It pays our hopes with something still that's new."

But the love of knowledge follows upon the excitement
of novelty, and the looker-out returns home with an
anxiety to understand what he has discovered, and
to trace the chain of its affinities through all their
divarications.

28 INTRODUCTION.

On the vegetable changes, by which plants are lost
from their former localities, and the efforts constantly
making by nature to colonize and renew, as well as
other curious circumstances in the appearance of
plants, and their wanderings about, I shall have
occasion to revert hereafter.

The geographical distribution of British plants,
though very interesting to the botanist, does not
come within the scope of my present design ; it is,
of course, suggestive in its application to the floras
of adjacent countries, and the original dispersion of
plants. Those who wish to study this subject in
detail can refer to the works of Mr. H. C. WATSON?
who has written largely upon it.

WILD FLOWEES OF JANUAEY.

CHAP. I.

THE PLEASURE AND ADVANTAGE OF LOOKING OUT —
FLOWERS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO THE HUMAN RACE
— FIRST ASPECT OF THE YEAR — EVERGREENS OF THE
SEASON — IVY AND HOLLY CONTRASTED — HOLY THORN IN
FLOWER — NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MISTLETOE — ITS
STATIONS UPON VARIOUS TREES — RARITY ON THE OAK.

' Winter is here — all the flowers are dead,

No nosegay is gracing the room ;
But coral and pearls of rare lustre are spread
In the Holly and Mistletoe bloom."

ELIZA COOK.

OBSERVATION is the parent of thought and simile,
and without it the mind must remain ignorant of
external objects. Hence to look out for ourselves is
the only way to compare description with fact, to test
the records of others, and to exercise our own powers
of discrimination. Thus the eye not only learns to
look on, and at, but into things, and interesting objects
that, to an unpractised sight, would be unnoticed, or
passed over, are revealed by that euphrasy with which
constant attention clears the eye, as the juice of the
eye-bright cleared the visual organ in olden times.
The botanist is more especially incited to observe, for
with untiring steps he must progress at every oppor-

30 WILD FLOWEBS OF

tunity to gather the specimens his herbarium requires ;
and, local as many plants are, the sight of a rare one
only the more inspires him to gather it for himself, in
its native place of growth. With every excursion
additional knowledge is gained, and new stores are
opened to the thoughtful observer, while the idea of

" fresh fields and pastures new,"
is a constant stimulant to effort and research.

Nor are botanical facts, relative to the appearance
and flowering of plants, and their peculiar beauties
and localities, alone gathered and treasured up by the
looker-out. Nature in her various aspects — the gloomy
dingle — the rocky wild — the broken ravine — the
expanded lake — the precipitous rock — the foaming
waterfall — all these mantled in misty sublimity, —
lovely in the mild tranquil morning, or gorgeous with
the reflected light of sunset, — present a series of
poetical pictures, whose transcript ever remains im-
pressed upon the memory, to rise up and delight the
fancy in after hours of solitary quietude, inciting and
resuscitating thought. Thus the brooding mind stores
up its gathered images and recalls them to view, as
the teeming moisture in the spring and autumn,
breathing upon dead sticks and fallen leaves, invests
them with a fungous growth of beauty and rich colour
almost marvellous to behold ; — with none more curious
perhaps than the little sanguine Sphceria on blackened
hawthorn stems.

The botanist in quest of plants sees many a wild
that escapes even the lover of picturesque landscape
scenery, he has always an object in his walks, and
hence his rambles are not made in vain, at any period
of the year, though the previous knowledge of what is

JANUAEY. 31

likely to lefowid is important, and to this, our labour
of love, we now address ourselves.

G-BOVES, G-AEDENS, AND WILD FLOWEES — on these
blissful concomitants of the country we purpose to
dilate, through the varying phases of the changeful
months. We shall trace the opening buds disclosed
by each week in succession, whether on the mountain,
the plain, or the surgy margin of ocean ; we shall
pierce the intricacies of the solemn twilight grove,
whether decked with the ermine ruff of winter, or
robed in the umbrageous multitude of leaves that
sprightly summer presents to view ; and we shall gaze
upon the gems of the garden as in turn they glow
before the solar rays, with all the ardour of poetical
excitement. Thus the floral wreath we present,
will, we trust, have charms for all gazers, since we
propose to render it of general interest by the variety
of its tints and shades ; and if our course be some-
times erraticj we still hope to tempt the lovers of
nature to join us in our pilgrimage, while our indica-
tions will, at all times be useful to the practical
botanist, in whatever part of the year our pages may
be consulted.

FLOWEES are almost the first objects that delight the
infant sight, and permanently impress the memory — •
" We but begin to live from that fine point
Which Memory dwells on with the morning star,
The earliest note we heard the Cuckoo sing,
Or the first Daisy that we ever pluck? d;
When thoughts themselves were stars, and birds, and
flowers ! "*

Aye from the toddling infant, who from his first
sit-down among the grass, instinctively " plucks the

• James Montgomery.

32 WILD FLOWERS OF

king-cup in the yellow mead," to the distinguished
amateur, who fills his borders with incomparable
tulips, or his conservatories and green-houses with
choice exotics, we all admit the charm of flowers
upon the fancy ; but in sequestered scenes of nature's
own planting especially are they poetical and sug-
gestive. The pages of almost every traveller exhibits
some trait of this kind — a spontaneous tribute of
floral admiration, though technical botany itself may
not be understood or appreciated. VAILLAISTT, the
French traveller, states that when wandering amidst
the majestic solitudes of Southern Africa, he felt his
heart exult within him at the sight of a magnificent
lily, " the sole queen of the desert," which, growing
on the brink of a river, filled the air around with a
delicious fragrance ; and, as he poetically observes,
" had been respected by all the animals of the district,
and seemed defended by its beauty." Pictures of
this kind, reminiscences of past communications with
nature, and vegetable contemplations, are always
soothing and delightful ; they charm at the time, and,
when care slumbers, the vision smiles again radiant in
the memory as an iris on a dark cloud.

I once, in the course of my rambles, met with a
rustic, driving a cart, in a deep lane, in a secluded
part of the country, who had several not very common
wild flowers in his hand, which he seemed to regard
with interest. " What, my friend, are you a botanist ?"
I asked. " "Why," replied the man, " I do'nt know
the curious names you gentlemen give to these things,
but when I see them smiling under the hedges, they
seem to speak to me ; and when I have plucked them,
and look at them, they so sweeten my thoughts, that

JANFAEY. 33

I find them a pleasure to me all day as I go along."
There nature spoke out in the voice of the humble
rustic, and no one who has ever wandered with the
zest of the naturalist, but admits the appeal, and
assents to the idea that the floral colloquist has
something to communicate to the mind worthy of
treasuring up in the memory.

In every stage of life we have sympathies in
connection with plants and flowers. Else how is it
that even in the gloomiest alleys of our blackest
towns we so often notice the broken tea-pot or
battered tin can, where some hapless dingy plant
that never has flowered, and never will flower, almost
vainly strives to keep up a half life in the sooty
mould that environs it. Ah ! the poor inmates whom
stern necessity has here ingulfed, thus solace them-
selves, and with their dusty stems and withering
leaves try to recall to their minds the image of
that country whose breathing sweets they can only
glance at but not enjoy. It would be easy to depict
floral images characteristic of every period of life —

" Some flowers o' spring, that might
Become your time of day ;"*

and our own poets would supply abundant exquisite
illustrative passages — but to these preserved par-
terres I must refer the reader for special enjoyment
in private contemplations. Suffice it to remark that
we may trace flowers, as adorning every path and
incident of human joy or woe, in all ages of the
world — on the brow of the meek smiling blushing
bride — in the path of the haughty conqueror — in the
last sad grasp of the withered senior — blooming

• Shakspeare.
D

34 WILD FLOWERS OF

reflective on the deserted grave — and brought of
old, as an emblematical offering to the altars of
the gods. —

" Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis sevi."*

So to the genius of the changing hours,

Mindful of life's short date, they offered wine and flowers.

But the more particular aspect of ihe first month of
tlie year now claims to be examined and recorded.
January, indeed, presents but little to attract the
botanical observer, even if the weather permits an
exploration, for deep snow, or constant rain, too often
renders the country impenetrable, or if a hard frost
binds the ponds and rivers, all vegetation quails
before it.

" No mark of vegetative life is seen,
No bird to bird repeats the tuneful call,"

says the poet, and yet a looker out may seize a
bright moment, catch a profitable glimpse, or book a
meditative idea, rising out of the denuded aspect
of the landscape around. I find the following sketch,
in one of my natural history journals, under January,
which may illustrate this remark.

" Took a walk along the Martley road, turning off
at the field by Laughern brook side, beyond the mill,
and down the stony lane, till, again making my way
to the brook, I followed its sinuosities to the wood
near Martley, which I entered, and wandered about
some time. It was pleasing to pause under the leaf-
less trees, looking up at the bright blue sky overhead,
and watching the white clouds majestically sweep
along, one after another, as if instinct with enter-
prize — the stainless swans of the aerial seas. All

* Horace, Epist. lib. ii. I. 14*.

JANUAEY. 35

silent and secluded around, for the breeze was above
the tree tops, only a solitary jay, flitting on the edge
of the wood, screaming at iny intrusion ; but the eye,
dropping its gaze below, was relieved, by the masses
of cushion-like verdant goldilocks moss, beauteous
amidst . brown leaves and dead sticks that covered
the soil, and reminded, by the grey-green lichens
on the bark of the trees, that life was still there,
though resting, for a season, on the breast of mother
earth, but soon to spring up again, with renewed
lustre."

Notwithstanding such breaks of beauty — caught,
it might almost seem by stealth, like a coloured
feather from a bird's wing — an uninitiated enquirer
might be tempted to ask — What, by any possibility,
can the botanical explorator observe, or remark upon,
in the month of January? All the dull, gloomy,
and horrific epithets language can furnish may be
justifiably heaped upon this dreary portion of the
year: to look on a cheerless, leafless, lifeless, damp,
and foggy landscape — even from between one's draw-
ing-room curtains — is bad enough ; but to go out into
it, is unendurable. Surely this look-out may be fairly
postponed for a month or two, or, at all events, its
glories may be summed up in this one expressive line
of the poet of " The Seasons :" —

" How dead the Vegetable Kingdom lies.''
Dead indeed ! and, unless my eyes deceive me, buried
too ; for I see something uncommonly like snow upon
the meadows, or, if it be not there now, I may safely
prophecy (without a weather prophet's aid) that it
will be there before the month has reached its termi-
nation. But surely something may even now be

D2

36 WILD FLOWERS OF

looked at ; and most certainly, if evergreens are ever
beautiful, it must beat this denuded season, when
their aid in the shrubbery and the landscape is the
only redeeming feature that presents itself. Hence
the EVERGREENS now so prominently visible in gar-
dens and plantations, have been thus allegorically
distributed in the following lines of a poem conse-
crated to this early portion of the reign of two-faced
Janus-

" O'er the lover

I'll shake the berry'd mistletoe, that he

May long remember Christmas : to the son

Of boasting war, I'll give the holly-leaf,

And its red berries', such he'll find its meed,

A little show of pomp, and many thorns.

I'll give the poet ivy ; for, like it,

Around the ruin'd pile he ever clings,

Adorns the loneliest spot with fancy's charms,

And props the tott'ring column in his rhymes.

I'll give the scholar fir -, for he must be

Like it for ever green, erect, and firm,

And with his needles of philosophy

Contemn the snows of life. Here's darkling yew,

The mourner must have that, who seeks the shade,

And hides his melancholy head in caves,

Or by the sandy beach, utt'ring aloud

His dull soliloquies, unseen, unknown.

Here's laurel for the school-boy."*

How beautiful now the various firs, cypresses, and
cedars ; — how imposing the lonely though sepulchral
yew in its frondal magnificence ; — how reviving the
laurel, laurustinus, bay, holly, ivy, and even mistletoe,
high nestled up among the trees with its milk-white
berries. The latter, to young and frolic notions not
incompatible with the season, requires experimental

• Christmas ; a Masque for the Fire Side.

JAiniAEY. 37

illustration, in the loving spirit of a first botanical
lesson, which should be well impressed upon the
recollection ; and so will we again recur to it as a
standing dish in the rustic hall, or dark timbered
kitchen.

But let me say a word about IYT, for the present is
the only fair chance to mention it — at least with full
justice — when, as now, it is in its acme of beauty and
luxuriance. Notwithstanding its green aspect about
trees and buildings at a season when every leaf is an
acquisition, modern associations are not so brilliant
with regard to ivy as ancient ones were, when, at the
sight of its coronals, man, woman, and child grew
mad with delight, and shouted " lo BACCHUS !"

" Oh ! how could fancy crown with thee,

In ancient times the God of Wine,
And bid thee at the banquet be

Companion of the vine ?"

Our ideas revert involuntary to the desolate ruin
where the ivy encompasses the tempest-riven towers
with its hundred Briarean arms, or waves darkly and
mournfully about the broken tracery of the windows
of many a crumbling abbey and priory. In such
places as at Caerphilly and Pembroke Castles, in
South Wales, the bole becomes by age of a tree-like
size. A vast ivy-tree enshrouds a portion of the ruins
of Maxstoke Priory, "Warwickshire. Thus embowered,
such abandoned ruins become

— " a place of ivy, darkly green,
Where laughter's light is o'er."

Good wine in the present day needs no ivy-bush to
announce it as in days of yore, and the very hotels
that formerly bore the sign, now retain the bwk only,

38 WILD FLOWERS OF

and drop the neglected ivy : it " dies and makes no
sign" So that in good sooth ivy must be contented
with the fate assigned to it in the old carol cited by
BRAND, where it is put in contrast with the glorious
old English Christmas-inspiring red-berried holly :-

" 3§oUj) antl Ijys merry men tfiep tfansnn arttJ tfiet) sung,
Bro antf i;ur JHanTjenns tfjep toepnn antf tfjen tornng."

But really, this is becoming a dissertation of so
sombre a character, that we almost fancy ourselves
giving out that celebrated couplet from STERNHOLD
and HOPKINS —

" Like to an owl in ivy-bush,
That self same thing am I ;"

we must, therefore, look out for a brighter object.
It may not, however, be amiss to state, that ivy, if
planted in pots, and properly watered, may in any
balcony or parlour be taught to trail upon trelliswork
in a very elegant and ornamental manner, with little
trouble, and thus agreeably diversify a drawing-room
with a feature of the picturesque.

Authors state ivy to be considered symbolical of
friendship, from the closeness of its adherence to the
tree on which it has once fixed itself; we, however, ra-
ther feel inclined to say to this too fraternal hugger—
" Paws off!" — for though its " marriageable arms '
are poetically assumed to be very agreeable, and orna-
mental to the trees embraced, yet, where too thick,
they get the upper hand of their arboreal spouse,
and, as they cannot be shaken off, he becomes almost
smothered, little better than a peg whereon to hang
the habiliments of the deceiver who has robed the
captive in her verdant bonds. It is said by herbalists
that a decoction of the leaves or berries of the ivy

JANUARY.

39

applied to the forehead gives ease iii the head-ache,
and hence the propriety of its appropriation to wreath
the brows of bacchanals, who are charitably supposed
to require such a bandage ; but in modern practice
the "fronde coronat ' is superseded by a glass of
soda-water.

Amid the dearth of other flowers, at a time when
in days of yore we were wont to find ourselves

" In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice,,"
the history of a stranger plant, now green and con-
spicuous among the branches of the denuded trees,
offers itself to our notice not inappropriately.

At this season of the year perhaps a more interest-
ing or exciting object can scarcely come under the
sphere of our observation, than the long familiar
Mistletoe. It is one of those plants of general in-
terest that are alike noticed by the clown and the
philosopher ; and attracts the attention of the medita-
tive man of science in the open fields of observation,
as well as the unscientific votaries of fun and frolic,
that in these bronzen utilitarian days still dot the
scene here and there, as a counterpoise to their graver
and more studious brethren. I shall, therefore, in
the brief sketch I am about to give of the plant,
admit a sportive vein that few other subjects would
allow in philosophical discussion, remembering that
mirth and joy have ever nestled among the white
berries of our festive plant ; for as Walter Scott says-

" Forth to the woods did merry men go
To gather in the Mistletoe."

It seems, however, remarkable, that while ivitldn
doors this mystic plant has ever been connected with
mirthful ideas, that poets generally have regarded

40 WILD FLOWERS OF

it distastefully. SHAKSPEARE has branded it as
"baleful,' and DRTDEN thus associates it with
melancholy abstraction. —

" I lean my head upon the mossy bark,
And look just of a piece as I grew from it ;
My uncomb'd locks, matted like Mistletoe,
Hang o'er my hoary face."

The decorative effect of our domestic hearths* gar-
landed with holly, ivy, and mistletoe, during the festival
of Christmas, cannot fail to be exciting, derived as the
custom is from time-honoured antiquity, and recalling
cherished, though perhaps forgotten, feelings of holi-
days and happiness. The original idea appears to
have been to decorate houses and temples at the winter
season with every kind of evergreen* and mistletoe
among the rest ; that the sylvan spirits, supposed to
be devoted to the woods, should be tempted to reside
for a period in the abodes of men, and so protect them
from evil. "Why mistletoe became so particularly
regarded, appears to have arisen from a superstition
extending back as far as druidical times, when the
young bride wore a branch of mistletoe suspended
from her neck, which was supposed (as it was consi-
dered a remedy against barrenness,!) to ensure an
offspring, numerous as the spotless berries produced
by the plant itself. So that formerly it seems to have
been the exact converse of the dreaded willow ; for

* It must be remembered that while our houses may be garlanded with
anythi?ig green, the Mistletoe is properly excluded from sacred adornment.
Purity of thought requires this in a structure dedicated to divine worship.
The holly, bay, laurustinus, and ivy, have no associations incompatible
with prayerful thoughts ; but the Mistletoe has other remembrances, and
has always been considered a profane plant, from having been dedicated
to the Scandinavian Venus, and so wrapt up in mythological fable,

+ Matth. Comm. in Dioscorides.

JANUARY. 41

while those that had lost their loves were conducted
to that hopeless barren tree, or at least recommended
to sojourn beneath its shade; those damsels who were
not in such an unfortunate predicament, were either
merrily or stratagetically escorted to the Mistletoe,
whose berries being pure white, of course could not
fail to' intimate the bridal wreath, and white satin
ribband.

Archdeacon NARES, who has written very learnedly
on this subject, and seems to be a great friend to the
mvstic rites of the Mistletoe, deprecates any un-
seasonable resistance on the part of ladies taken to
or caught under the sacred plant ; as he states that a
non-performance of the usual ceremonial brings in its
train all the evils of old-maidenisui. It appears that
the berries of the plant alone constituted its privilege ;
one was to be plucked at every salute, and various
authorities insist that when the last berry is plucked
from the bush, its potential and venerated character
ceases. —

u One single berry yet remains,
Untouch'd by rude and vulgar swains ;
By all unpluck'd, it seems to say
Whate'er has pass'd is Christmas play ;
But now, ere comes the vernal breeze,
The last chance fortune offers — seize !"

The most remarkable circumstance, however, in the
history of the Mistletoe, is its mode of growth. It is
invariably found nourishing upon and imbibing its
support from the juices of some tree ; it has never
been met with attached to earth, nor can any treat-
ment induce it to grow there. It is, therefore, termed
by analogy a parasite ; but a vegetable parasite is>

42 WILD FLOWEHS OF

somewhat different from a human one. Dr. JOHNSON
defines a parasite to be " one that frequents rich
men's tables, and earns his welcome by flattery;"
and SHAKSPEAHE denominates parasites as

" Most smiling smooth detested parasites •
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears."

But our vegetable parasites, when they have once
taken up their post, have no need to be " affable
wolves," as they cannot be got rid of by any process ;
but rather tyrants than parasites, prey upon the tree
they have taken possession of, and retain their old till
death. Epiphytes are very common among vegetables,
the greater number of the Lichen tribe being so,
as well as many of the fungi ; but it is rather
uncommon to find a true parasite, the epiphytes
only living upon other plants as a nidus, and not
deriving subsistence from them, as is the case with
the Mistletoe.

Some have considered the ivy to be a parasite, but
in fact it takes a tree as a fulcrum or prop only, and
merely exemplifies the conduct of those good-natured
friends who will kill you with their officiousness,
sooner than deprive themselves of the pleasure of
your company. The Qrobcmclieos and the Lathrcea
sgruamaria are parasitical upon roots, while the Listera
nidus-avis and Monotropa liypopitys^ probably partially
parasitical, or apparently in connection with diseased
growth, yet may chiefly shelter themselves among the
roots of trees as a secure asylum, their very nature
demanding shade and obscurity. It is different with
the Mistletoe, and apparently also with a little local
phenogamous plant, called Dodder (Cuscutd), which
are, perhaps, the only true stem-parasites among

JANUARY. 43

flowering plants known in Britain. The Boleti,
Polypori, and various other fungi, are doubtless really
parasitical, not only living upon, but often destroying
the miserable victims exposed to their invasion.

The mistletoe (viscum album, Linn), is a dioecious
plant, of which the females seem to be by far the
most numerous, producing from their tetrandrous
corolla and inferior ovary, a white globular viscid
berry of one cell, containing one seed. The embryo
is dicotyledonous, but the coriaceous leaves with
parallel veins, have certainly a very peculiar aspect,
and both sides have the same uniform yellowish green
colour, which distinguishes the smooth, jointed, round
stem. When the embryo germinates, it generally
produces two or more radicles, whose shape has been
compared to that of a French horn, which curiously
enough do not progress downwards, as is common to
the generality of plants, but, contrary to the law of
gravitation, often push directly upwards, as is the
case when one of the glutinous seeds is deposited on
the under side of a branch ; and in other cases the
direction of the radicle is always perpendicular to
the axis of the branch. The provision of nature for
the increase and continuation of her offspring, is
shown as much in the mistletoe as in any other plant.
Although its nature is dioecious, and consequently
a plant standing alone might not produce any fruit,
it is found that a single seed often nourishes two
embryoes, a brother and sister ; and the gluten which
envelopes the seed furnishes nutriment to the young
plants till they have penetrated with their sucker-like
radicles, which are devoid of fibrils, into the sap-wood
of the tree. As the mistletoe derives no nutriment

44 WILD FLOWEBS OF

from the earth, and has, therefore, no necessity to
fall to the ground, its dissemination is wisely en-
trusted to birds, who are tempted to feed on its white
berries when other supplies fail, and in cleansing
their bills upon the rind of various trees frequented
by them, are sure to leave behind a few of the
clammy seeds to perpetuate the continuance of the
parasite. It is not improbable also that the seeds
pass through the bodies of birds uninjured, as stated
by old writers, and even benefited by the forward
tendency thus given them to earlier germination.

Birds of the thrush family chiefly delight in the
mistletoe berries, especially the fieldfares and red-
ivings ; and as these generally fly in flocks, keeping
in one line of direction, it is not unusual to see a
corresponding line of mistletoe bushes ranging across
the country for a long distance. I have followed
such a line till its continuity was broken by a river,
when I have almost invariably found that its course
was again continued from the nearest tree that pre-
sented itself on the opposite side of the water. I
remember once observing a long line of hedge over-
topped by straggling hawthorns and scrubby maples,
every one of both of which were hung with mistletoe ;
but curiously enough an oak in the centre of the
hedge was passed over, though the parasite was
luxuriant on a hawthorn close under the umbrage of
the oak.* The large rotund bushy mass that the
mistletoe forms is often very striking, especially if it

* Perhaps where the mistletoe is scarce, or not at all met with in apple
orchards, as stated by Dr. DAVIES, of Presteign, of those of Radnorshire,
the localities may not be frequented by the winter migratory birds
belonging to the thrush family. See Analyst, vol. i. where there are
remarks on the mistletoe, by Drs. DAVIES and STREETEN.

JANTJABY. 45

be pendent; and it is remarkable that there is no
disposition in the plant to destroy the tree where
it grows, as, except at the point from which it develops
itself, the radicles penetrate no farther than the sap-
wood. The mistletoe, therefore, seems only to act
the part of a pseudo-bud upon the tree, no doubt
extracting from it nourishment that would have de-
veloped a large branch, but not doing material mis-
chief, except existing in excess, or so far surrounding
any branch as to cut off the supplies of nutriment
from proceeding farther, except into its own reservoirs.
It seems always full of moisture, and being, therefore,
extremely brittle, it is corded tightly together by lateral
ligatures, that, extending along each dichotornization
beneath the epidermis, preserve it from the effects of
common accidents ; while the base of each branch is
firmly socketed into a swelling nob that surmounts
the inferior one — thus a regular dichotomous series of
branches is formed, all firmly articulated in an ossiform
manner into each other, and yet each branch may be
considered an independent plant, with leaves, flowers,
and fruit.

It seems curious that though the mistletoe flowers
earlier in the year than the apple trees on which it
flourishes, yet it does not ripen its small white berries
till December, long after most others, and thus is
called by Virgil " frigore mscum" * — the wintry
mistletoe. This may not improbably arise from its
being unable to steal sufficient nutriment from its
nurse till the latter has got rid of her own legitimate
offspring, and lost her foliage too. But at any rate
this fact is opposed to the commonly received notion

« Virg. JEn. lib. vi. 205.

46 WILD FLOWERS OF

of the descent of the sap in trees before winter, and its
dormant state in that season ; for, if it were so, how
could the parasitical mistletoe, which derives its sub-
sistence entirely from the imbibition of the juices of
the tree on which it is found, nourish as it does in
winter, if in reality there were no supplies of sap for
it to have access to ; for it very soon dies when
separated from the foster-parent on which it feeds.
It certainly contrives to establish a fund of its own
in the hard yet juicy tubercles at its exsertion in the
stem; but still its root, which is aualagous to a
sucker, and devoid of obvious radicle fibrils, plunged
in the sap-wood of the tree, seems always employed in
pumping up a supply of provision for its many -headed
branches, equally in winter as in summer.*

It is familiar to almost every educated person that
the mistletoe was honoured by the Druids of Gaul
and Britain as an heaven-descended plant, which
they denominated pren-awyr, the celestial, or tree
of the firmament ; and also oll-yacli, all-lieal^ and dis-
tributed at certain times with remarkable solemnities
as a precious gift. " When the end of the year
approached, the Druids marched with great solemnity
to gather the mistletoe, in order to present it to God,
inviting all the world to assist at the ceremony in

* I made the experiment not long since of re-committing to the ground
the large arms of an apple-tree, on which was a mistletoe-bush, but the
plant soon died after the amputation had taken place, quickly withering
in its unnatural position, and proving that it depended for support from
the circulation of sap from the main bole of the tree from which it was
taken.

t PLINY, lib. xvi. cap. 44, says " omnia-sanaratem appellantes suo
vocabulo," &c., and TOLAND, in his History of the Druids, says that the
identical word " in the Armoricon dialect, is oll-yach, in the Welsh oil-
hiach, and in the Irish utl-iceach."

JANUARY. 47

these words : — Tlie new year is at hand, gather the
mistletoe I The sacrifices being ready, the priest
ascended the oak, and with a golden hook cut the
mistletoe, which was received in a white garment
spread for that purpose. Two white bulls that had
never been yoked were then brought forth and ofiered
to the- Deity, with prayers that he would prosper
those to whom, he had given so precious a boon."*

It was, however, only the mistletoe of the oak that
received this idolatrous veneration ; and hence, as in
the present day, the mistletoe appears most commonly
upon the apple-tree, and hardly ever upon the oak, a
suspicion has arisen that there must be some mistake
in the matter. A gentleman, who has published
several ingenious theories, once proposed the hypo-
thesis to me that in. the lapse of years a misnomer
had arisen, and that in fact our apple-tree was the oak
of the Druids ! I believe he was at last fairly laughed
out of the position he had proposed to take up ; but
if he had not been, the matter is put to rest by
DAYIES, who, in the " Celtic Researches" says that the
apple-tree was considered by the Druids the next
sacred tree to the oak, and that orchards of it were
planted by them in the vicinity of their groves of oak.
This by-the-bye was a sly trick on their parts, as they
thus, no doubt, made a nursery for the mistletoes
among the apple-trees, and thus offered a very fair
chance of getting it easily transplanted to their sacred
oaks. Professor BTJE^ET says, that the curious basket
of garlands with which " Jack-in-the- Green ' is oc-

* JONES'S Bardic Relics. The new year of the Druids did not, however,
correspond with ours. TOLAND says that the druidical new year's day
was the 10th of March, " which was the day of seeking, cutting, and
consecrating the wonder-working all-heal."— TOLAND, Hist. Druids, 108,

48 WILD FLOWERS OF

casionally even now invested on May-Day, is a relic of
a similar garb assumed by the druidical assistants,
when about to hunt for the mistletoe, which, when they
had found, they danced round the oak, to the tune of
" Hey derry down, down down derry" which literally
signified — In a circle move we round tlie oak. "Whether
the Druids really capered about to the tune of " Derry
down" as stated by the learned Professor,* I shall
leave to Cambro-Britons and bards interested in the
matter to decide at their leisure. There are certainly
oak woods in Monmouthshire still called " tlie Derry;"
and OVID, at any rate, affirms that the Druids used
to sing to the mistletoe, —

" Ad viscum Druidse can tare solebant.''
FOSBKOOKE thus details the ceremony, perhaps,
however, amplifying from PLINY, who merely states
that a priest, clothed in a white robe, ascended the
tree and cut off the mistletoe with a golden sickle.f
" The bards walked first, singing canticles and hymns ;
afterwards came a herald, the caduceus in his hand,
followed by three Druids, who walked in front, carry-
ing the things necessary for the sacrifice ; afterwards
appeared the prince of the Druids, accompanied by
all the people. He mounted upon the oak and cut
the mistletoe with a golden sickle. The other Druids
received it with respect, and upon the first day of the
year distributed it to the people as a holy thing." J The
Druids, it is affirmed, had an extraordinary venera-
tion for the number three, and as the berries of the

• Amsenitas Quernise.

t Sacerdos, canaida veste cultus, arborem scandit : falce aurea demetit. —
PUN. Hist. Nat. Lib. xvi. cap. 44.

j FOSBROKE'S Ency. of Antiquities, 4to, vol. ii. p. 745.

JANUARY. 49

mistletoe may be often found clustered in threes, this
may probably have enhanced their esteem for the
"celestial plant."

Having been myself a frequent mistletoe hunter,
though certainly not robed in the mystic habiliments
of " Jack-in-the-green," or as a white-robed Arch-
Druid, -I shall now just state the various trees that I
have actually seen studded with the hallowed mirth-
inspiring mistletoe.

THE APPLE — extremely abundant ; and why it is
so I think arises from the disposition in
that tree to form knots, a disease produced
from an excess of sap, or an inertness in it
which the mistletoe offers a relief to some-
what analagous to cupping — the redundant
juices being carried off as nutriment to the
parasite.

PEAR — rare.

LIME — rather common, and often plentiful,

investing the trees to the summit.
HAWTHORN — frequent, and in extending

lines.

MAPLE — not unfrequent.
SYCAMORE — at Lansdown, Cheltenham,

pointed out to me by my friend Professor

BUCKMAN.

MOUNTAIN ASH — very uncommon. In the
vicinity of Ledbury, and about the Malvern
hilis.

WHITE BEAM (Pyrus Aria) , unfrequent, but
on the rocks near the western portal of

E

50 WILD FLOWERS OF

Chepstow Castle, is a fine tree with much
Mistletoe upon it.

HAZLE — of very rare occurrence, and es-
teemed by the Druids next to that on the
Oak.

ELM — in one locality only, near Bushley Park

Farm, in the vicinity of Tewkesbury.

BoBiETA-PsEiJD- ACACIA - - local, though in

shrubberies in Worcestershire I have seve-
ral times seen it there, as at Thorngrove
and Stanford.

WILLOW — occasionally. In a field north of

Great Malvern.

ASH — sometimes very profusely.

MEDLAR — met with once only, at Forthamp-

ton, Gloucestershire.

ASPEN — very rarely. An instance occurs on

the borders of Longdon Marsh, Worces-
tershire.

. , BLACK POPLAR — so excessively abundant in

almost all recent plantations in Worces-
tershire, as literally to bend some of the
trees towards the ground; yet on old pop-
lars I have never seen a single plant.

A few other trees have been^mentioned on which I
have not seen the mistletoe, and I therefore pass on to
notice its occurrence on the oak, which is now un-
doubtedly a very great rarity; and I consider this to
arise partly from the Romans having destroyed all the
druidical mistletoe, for it is most remarkable that
though so many old oaks are recorded as existing in

JANUARY. 51

this country, perhaps upwards of 1000 years old, not
one has mistletoe upon them. Even the Rev. "W.
Davies, in his Flora of Anglesey once the head quar-
ters of druidism, is unable to mention a single locality
where the mistletoe now grows there.* Some years
ago I had a long ramble in Surrey after the Mistletoe
of the Oak. Being in London, an enthusiastic friend
came to me one day, and said, exultingly, that he had
just heard that the mistletoe had been seen on an oak
at Bookhain Common, and that in the woods of Surrey
it was not uncommon. The next morning we started
over bush, brake, and scaur; — but deluged with rain,
after many efforts, drew only a blank day: and we
learned afterwards to our great mortification, that my
friend's informant had meant ivy, when he said
mistletoe !

I have several times lieard of mistletoe being taken
from the oak both in Kent and Monmouthshire, but
was never fortunate enough to behold it myself till in
1837 I saw an oak perhaps about seventy or eighty
years old, with four fine bushes of mistletoe upon it,
growing in the park of Earl Somers, at Eastuor, near
Ledbury, Herefordshire. The tree stands a short dis-
tance from the path near the second Lodge gate, by
the side of an old British road passing along the
western base of the Malvern Hills, called " the Ridg-
way;" -but on the strictest enquiry and examination,
among natural oak woods there of more than three

• The island of Anglesea is taken to be one of their (the Druids) chiefest
seats in Britain, because it was a solitary island full of wood, and not in-
habited of any but themselves ; and then the isle of Mono,, which is called
Anglesea, was called yr Inys Dowyll, that is the Dark Island. And after
that the Druidion were supprest, the huge groves which they favoured
and kept a-foot, were rooted up, and that ground tilled. — TOLAND, Hist.
Druids, 222.

E2

52 AVTLT) FLOWERS OF

hundred acres in extent, this was the only oak with
mistletoe upon it, and is the only one I have ever seen.
Mr. J. F. Dovaston has, however, mentioned in Lou-
don's Magazine of Natural History (vol. 5, p. 203),
that he once saw the mistletoe growing well upon the
oak, " and what is more singular, hanging almost over
a very grand druidical cromlech," in the Marquis of
Anglesea's Park at Plas Newydd, in the island of
Anglesea. My friend, Professor BTTCKMA^T, of the
Cireucester Agricultural College, has also informed
me of an oak with mistletoe upon it, which he has
himself seen at Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire,
within half a mile of the river. The tree he considers
to be more than a century old, and the branch on
which the mistletoe grew about fifty years old. Seve-
ral oak trees here occur in the hedgerows of the

O

meadows (1849).

The mistletoe is rather a local plant, though often
occurring where it does grow, in immense quantities,
as in the orchards of Herefordshire, Worcestershire,
and Gloucestershire. It is rare in Wales, being quite
unknown in some districts, becomes still rarer in the
north, and is only found in one spot in Scotland. On
the continent it is as uncommon upon the oak as with
us; and De Candolle, from having never seen it there,
was induced to think that the Lorantlms Europeans
was the real druidical plant, which is an untenable
opinion — the Loranthus, though commou on the con-
tinent, having never been seen wild in Britain in the
present day.

No author that I have met with, gives any satisfac-
tory solution as to how the term mistletoe has arisen,
though German and Danish have been brought forward

JANUAHY. 53

for the purpose.* But I think I can give the etymo-
logy without going so far. Now there is an obsolete
old English word called mistion, which is employed
even in the writings of BOYLE; and this is defined in
Dr. JOHNSON'S original folio edition of his Dictionary,
as " the state of being mingled." Now this is truly the
condition of our plant, which is intermingled with the
foliage of various trees, and mixes up their juices with
its own; and is now indeed in rural places still simply
called mistle. If to this we add the old English tod or
toe, signifying bush, we have at once the derivation — •
meaning the mingled or mixed up bush, confounded
amidst and growing among leaves dissimilar to its own.
Anciently, on traditional faith, the mistletoe was
considered to be a remedy for ALL diseases. The older
medical writers, however, regarded it as ministering
chiefly to fertility and parturition; thus, in fact, con-
tinuing in part the old superstition; and it is also said
to have been worn as an amulet against poisons. HAY
mentions it as a specific in epilepsy,f and as useful in
apoplexy and giddiness; and Sir JOHN COLEATCH
published a " Dissertation concerning the Mistletoe,
a most wonderful specifick remedy for the cure of
convulsive distempers." This brochure of Sir JOHN'S
seems to have been almost the last serious effort of
consequence made in behalf of the medical virtues of
our mystic plant, at least in this country; and as it is
admitted by all parties that the mistletoe employed
must be the viscus quernus, while it seems reasonable
to suppose that if the plant had any powers, the place

* See WITHERIXG'S Bot* An-, in loc., and LOUDON'S elaborate Arbore-
tum Britannicum.

t Raii Sun. 464.

54 WILD FLOWERS OF

of its growth would be of little consequence, incredu-
lity has taken possession of the minds of the great
majority of physicians on the subject; and Sir JAMES
SMITH rather sarcastically intimates that " a plant of
viscum gathered from an oak is preferred by those who
rely on virtues, which perhaps never existed in any
mistletoe whatever."* At all events, as stated by
Dr. "WOODYILLE in the Medical Botany, "whatever
may be yet argued in its favour, the colleges of
London and Edinburgh have, perhaps not without
reason, expunged it from their catalogues of the
materia medica."

The mistletoe, seems still, however, to maintain a
precarious place in rustic empirical practice. I once
asked a farmer who lived in the neighbourhood of my
residence, what he knew on the subject ? — and he said,
that the mistletoe of the oak, when it could be met
with, was a capital thing for a sick cow \ — but espe-
cially after calving. — Shades of the Druids ! that " all-
heal," once gathered by a white-robed Arch-Druid,
with a golden hook, and received upon a stainless
cloth, as the mystic gift of heaven — shorn of all its
glories, and divested of all its sanatory powers as
respects the human race, now only figures in the
traditions of rural practitioners as an aperient for an
ailing cow ! It is probable that an elastic gum might
be prepared from, the mistletoe somewhat similar to
Indian rubber, for its sap is viscid as well as the ber-
ries, which were formerly used to make bird-lime,
whence the latin name viscum.

I shall now close this account which I have treated
in the diversified manner suitable to the subject, with

* English Flora, vol. iv. p. 237.

JANUARY. 55

the following lines addressed to that identical mistle-
toe-adorned oak, which I before mentioned as having
observed in Eastnor Park in 1837, and where I am
happy to say it still exists, and will I hope long remain
for the admiration of the botanist and lover of sylvan
scenery.

TO AN OAK WITH MISTLETOE GROWING ON IT.*

Hail, King of the Forest ! at last I behold
The mystical plant on thy branches unroll'd ;
It mounts to the summit, the leaves flagging down,
And thou standest a seer with thy magical crown.

But tell me, what hand, in the silence of night,
Array'd thy tall stern for the mystical rite ;
And how long, a meet subject for legend or story,
King of all thy compeers, thou hast stood hi thy glory ?

'Midst the wreck of oblivion, a seer of the past,
Thou wavest in vain the proud wreath to the blast ;
Though the hills frown around thee as ever they frown'd,
No worshipper now for thy plant can be found.

Too late thou uprearest its " all-healing" powers,
For no Druids now bend o'er the dark Vervain flowers ;
No priestly array shall thy honours proclaim,
No chieftains surround thee with joyous acclaim.

* In the summer of 1840 I had again the felicity of looking up with
Druidical feelings at this phytological curiosity, in company with a fellow
wanderer of " auld long syne," enthusiastic on such subjects as myself.
A relic must needs be taken by him of the " golden branch ;" but as we
were deficient of VIRGIL'S falchion, and the " aureus ramus" flamed far
up in the tree, we were compelled, rather ingloriously, to attain our object
with turfy and cloddy missiles; and in the encounter, accident, or the
wounded Dryad of the tree, stove in the crown of my friend's hat with a
recoiling clod! Even botanical rambles have their exciting or even
jocular incidents.

56 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUAET.

A blaze of proud honour might once have been thine —
Arch-Druids proclaiming thy nurseling divine,
Advancing their celts to the God-belov'd tree,
Proclaiming thy lineage, and honouring thee.

And now thou art nothing! — the clouds from the hill
Roll o'er thee and leave thee regardlessly still ;
And the deep mound above thee* no longer displays
To the blue-painted Briton the beacon's red blaze.

Remembrance may hallow the thought of thy pride,
And a dream of the past round thy branches may glide,
As the armour hung up in the dusty old hall,
A thought of the tumults of old may recall.

But a still deeper feeling arises from thee,
As I gaze, forest king, on thy charm-cover'd tree ;
If Caractacus's offspring now linger'd before
Thy trunk, upward gazing, I could not feel more !

His glories are past ! — the same fatal decree

Leaves now undistingnish'd thy once divine tree :

A spirit hurries o'er us — and ancestry yields

To the blast that must scatter its crests and its shields !

What boots it the name that our ancestor bore ?
His spirit alone gain'd the wreath that he tore ;
And all bye-gone honours with time cease to be; —
As futile as Mistletoe on the Oak tree !

• The fortress on the Herefordshire Beacon, Malvern Hills, which is
supposed by the late Dr. CARD, Vicar of Great Malvern, in a learned
treatise on this camp hill, to have been once occupied by Caractacus.

WILD FLOWERS OP JANUABY.
(CONTINUED.)

y-V^xy"i-'^XVX%^V>-v^s^-i^vrN^>

CHAP. II.

SNOWING-TIME. — TREES UPSET BY THE GALES. — LOCALI-
TIES OF REMARKABLE YEW-TREES. — YEW IN THE OAK.
— GROUNDSEL, DEAD-NETTLE, &C. — STOCKING-GORSE. —
ASPECT OF NATURE.

" When winter winds are piercing chill,

And through the hawthorn blows the gale,
With solemn feet I tread the hill,
That overbrows the lonely vale.

For still wild music is abroad,

Pale desert woods, within your crowd ;
And gathering winds in hoarse accord,

Amid the vocal reeds pipe loud.

Chill airs and wintry winds ! my ear

Has grown familiar with your song ;
I hear it in the opening year, —

I listen, and it cheers me long "

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

CHEISTMAS sports and Christmas holidays, like all
other pleasant things, glide swift away, and the holly
and mistletoe begin to look dingy, among the huge
dark beams of the old farm-house kitchen. Even the
botanist almost fears to look out upon the frosty
lawn and withered garden, but when dawn slowly
stalks upon the wintry scene, feels inclined between

58 WILD FLOWERS OF

warm sheets to hug himself in fancied security, and,
as he hears the stormy blast without, and just catches
a shivering glimpse of the frosty finger-marks of stern
Winter upon the window-panes, contents himself with
the idea that there is nothing worthy of inspection
out of doors. Tet Nature has something to exhibit
even now, and above or under the frosty chrystalliza-
tion of the earth, some vegetative action is progressing
even at this dull period, called in the " Calendariutn
Naturale" NIVALIS, or the " SNOWING-TIME," when,
says FOKSTER, " the weather is on an average of years
cold, and the snow often falling or lying on the ground."
No doubt about it, and if not cold from keen frost or
pityless snow, blustering winds will probably sweep
along, and pour their wild music through the woods.

Of late years fearful gales have occurred in January,
overturning multitudes of trees, and sadly upsetting
the calculations of the farmer as to the drink-offerings
he expected from the coming season, by the destruc-
tion of sundry apple and pear trees in his homestead.
Almost every orchard shows two or three trees which
some former gale has thrown down upon their knees,
and they invariably point eastward, thus showing that
the gale has blown from the opposite quarter. It is
remarkable that when a fruit tree has been thus
placed apparently liors de coinbat, if it survives the
shock, it becomes more luxuriant and nourishing, and
is more stable for the future than those of its brethren
that have retained their erect position. Apple and
pear-trees often revive after being blown down, but
not so the rigid church-yard Tew, which once fallen,
can rise no more. There it is, laid prone in the dust
by the midnight hurricane, after a warfare with the

JANUARY. 59

tempests of more than a thousand years. Ah ! it will
be missed by many who have sat within its solemn
shadow while the bells have chimed their " church-
going ' cadence on the sabbath morning, ere the
parish priest has presented himself to view ; or from a
distance been reminded by its solemn plumes of once-
loved friends resting in abandonment within its dark
dominion. In a wild state it is generally found grow-
ing solitary, although a dioecious tree, and in winter
and early spring its funereal boughs appear in moody
state very conspicuous amidst its deciduous brethren
in the forest. Sometimes the Tew is met with in
greater quantity than usual, as in the wood on the
basaltic hill of Areley, Staffordshire, where its sombre
branches overshadow a bubbling brook in many places
with a strangely gloomy effect. I also remember to
have seen many old grotesque individuals in the woods
that mantle about the base of the Wrekin, under one
of which I once spent a sadly meditative day — and
yet in retrospection that day under the yew, tearful as
it then was, now seems full of delicious recollections.
Forgetful of the feelings of blighted hope that then
enthralled me, I now only seem to see the bright May
landscape that gleamed in its loveliness before me,
the distant Berwyn mountains above which many
mottled clouds curled in a sky of clearest blue, and
the fore-shortened Wrekin with its rocky crown seen
above its green shoulders, boldly rising before me,
while insect murmurs and the sounds of spring wan-
dered with soothing influence about my sylvan cell.
Many of the Welch and Monmouthshire church-yards
are black with a multiplicity of yew-trees, for instance
that of Mahmilade, between Abergavenny and Ponty-

CO WILD TLOWEKS OF

pool, which has twelve or thirteen, several most luxu-
riantly cinctured with ivy, and one whose monstrous
bole is thirty feet seven inches in circumference.
The Llaufoist Yew, in the same county, is a noble
tree, and in the church-yard of Mallwyd, near Dinas
Mowddy, Merionethshire, are several remarkable
time-honoured individuals, with excessively distended
branches, spreading forty feet from the bole on every
side, in singularly gloomy grandeur. One of the
islands iu the lake of Loch Lomond is stated to bear
a wood of several thousand Yews, a circumstance
perhaps unparalleled in Europe. A singular aspect
is also presented in the church-yard of Painswick,
Gloucestershire, from the great number of Yew-trees
growing there, though of small size.

The Yew occasionally presents itself in very curious
positions, from its berries having been carried off and
dropt or hidden by birds. I have more than once
seen it as an epiphyte upon the willow, and one of
considerable bulk was a few years since growing
witliin an oak, near Ribbesford, Worcestershire, and,
from its size and the wrenching power it had exerted
upon the broken trunk of its sustain er, had evidently
grown there for a period exceeding a century. The
intertwining of the contrasting foliage of the two
trees had a most remarkable effect. The Ordnance
Surveyors have even recorded the circumstance, and
"the Yew-in-the-Oak," appears marked in their
maps; unfortunately a violent storm in 1846 upset
the oak.

But we have been blown into a digression by the
force of the wind, and must resume the point in hand.
Four wild flowers at least may always be found in

JANUARY. 61

bloom at this season of the year. The first is the
Groundsel :

" Though storms may rage and skies may lower,
We are sure to see the Groundsel in flower."

The .flower of the Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), like
all those of the Linnrean class Syngenesia to which
it belongs, consists in fact of an assemblage of
small florets harmoniously enclosed within a common
envelope botanically named a receptacle. This may
be seen very beautifully with a common lens before
the blossom is fully developed, for when it is, all that
in fact meets the eye is the assemblage of yellow
bifid stigmas that are uplifted above the quinquifid
florets and their five stamens. At the base of each
floret is a germen, which, after the stamens and
pistils have faded, becomes a pericarp or seed-vessel,
surrounded with a downy fringe or pappus, ready to
waft the seeds far away on airy wing, which is finally
done, and the withered base of the reflex receptacle
perforated with the holes which received and held the
bases of the pericarp, then puts on an appearance
very similar to the top of a pepper-box. The grey
aspect of the metamorphosed flowers when arrayed
with their down-invested seeds has suggested the
name of Senecio for the genus of the plant, from
the latin Senex, an old man, whose " hoary hairs '
it may be thought to represent. Though the humble
Groundsel is now little thought of, except by those
who keep goldfinches or canaries, yet in the hands
of the old " simplers," it held considerable rank as a
herb of power. Culpepper says it is " a gallant and
universal medicine;" — " lay by your learned receipts,"
he exclaims, " this lierb alone, preserved in a syrup,

02 WILD ELOWEB8 OE

in a distilled water, or in an ointment, shall do
the deed for you in all hot diseases; and shall do
it— I. Safely. II. Speedily."

The second flower that now meets the eye in shel-
tered spots about the hedges, is the Red Dead Nettle
(Lamium purpurewii) , which, with its roseate corolla
concealing the brilliant scarlet anthers under its pro-
tecting hood, well deserves a close examination. Then
there is the Daisy, timorously peeping here and there
on the grass-plot, as if reminding us that bad as
things in general look, Iwpe is not quite extinct. And
last of all, somewhere or other, the Prickly Furze
(TTlex Europceus), with its bright yellow clusters
often glazed with the hoar frost, and daring a touch
from any intruding finger, marks with one remanet
of beauty the else desolate and cheerless waste.

" It is bristled with thorns, I confess,

But so is the much flattered Hose ; —
Is the sweetbriar lauded the less

Because among prickles it grows ?
'Twere to cut off an epigram's point,

Or disfurnish a knight of his spurs,
If we foolishly wish'd to disjoint

Its arms from the lance-bearing Furze."

Such is the dictum of Horace Smith, and we hope
therefore that no person will wish the Furze or G-orse
a thorn less, except stern Destiny insert one in his
fingers or toes. "We well remember a rougli gym-
nastic game among boys which used to be called
" Stocking Gorse" and consisted in placing the un-
fortunate personification of the stocker upon his back,
when his legs were twirled over his head and forcibly
struck upon the ground, till — " hold, enough !" was
the cry. As in the present day the Gorse has suffered

JANUABY. 63

considerable diminution from enclosures in all direc-
tions, we conclude there is less necessity for the
stocking process, and it has probably ceased ; but the
name of " Stockings ' frequently occurs in county
maps, and we may, therefore, here observe that it has
nothing to do with a pair of those useful articles, as
many usually siippose, but refers to the original and
actual stockings of gorse that took place when the
land was first enclosed from the waste. But we have
stocked up enough for the present month, though we
frankly confess that the stock of flowers here displayed
is not likely to fetch much in the market: all that
we can say is, that we must " look out " for brighter
days.

Three remarkable aspects of nature may be pre-
sented to the notice of a Student of Nature in
January. Should the weather be settled frost, the
crisp fields will tempt his vagrant steps to thread the
meanders of the whimpering brook, overhung with
grotesque gnarled oaks, its sides glittering with glassy
ice, marking the late height of the stream among the
bushes, while crackling fragments keep perpetually
falling, and from the unfrozen water perchance he
rouses the sapphire-winged Kingfisher. If the frost
retreats, all is cairn and brilliant as summer, and the
Missel Thrush keeps ceaselessly singing; — or, in sterner
mood, blasts bellow among the hollows of the moun-
tains, clouds scud before the western gale, vapours
majestically stalk like phantoms over the distant hills,
and though wandering beams burnish, with unwonted
brightness, many a wood or rocky ridge in the wide
landscape, the transient brilliance only augurs the
furious rush of the on-coming stormy commotion.

EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE JANTJAEY.

The practical Botanist need not be idle in fine
weather even at this seemingly ungenial season ; for
Cryptogamic vegetation is now in its highest per-
fection among several tribes. Rocks, and gloomy
pattering spots among trees, should now be examined
for the minute but exquisitely beautiful and curious
Jtuifjcrmannics, many of whose matured tlieca may
now be perceived in perfection. These if collected in
a semi-expanded state, may by the application of
water be made to burst under the eye ; or if placed
in a damp spot the over night will be found expanded
in the morning, like a cruciform flower at the end
of a long white transparent petiole, while a heap
of brown dust, the reproductive sporules of the plant
lies at its feet. Among this dust the microscope will
show a number of cliain-like processes, the use of
which has not been determined. I, however, conceive
them to be intended to scatter the sporules from the
theca3 by their violent contraction and dilatation at
the time it Unfolds, which may be thus exempli-
fied. The Jungermannia is excessively susceptible
to moisture, shrivelling up quickly without it, and
remaining in a state of abeyance, but some portion of
heat is required to expand the theca? ; — the moment
this is applied its valves burst open, exposing their
delicate contents, and the irritation thus occasioned
by the light appears to cause a violent contraction

JANUARY. 65

and dilatation of the chains interspersed among the
sporules, which continues till the whole of them, are
violently expelled from their nidus. This is evident by
placing an unexpanded theca on the ledge of a pane
of glass in the sun, when a lens will exhibit the most
singular commotion within the theca as soon as its
valves open, as if an immense number of minute
serpents were writhing in the most dreadful agonies,
and combating each other with unmitigable fury till
not one was left alive upon the field.

The Lichens are now in glorious perfection on rock
and tree, tempting the foot to the broken rocks of
alpine solitudes, or the dark and devious recesses of
the grove and forest. It is but lost time attempting
to dislodge lichens from the rocks in summer — when
skinning flints is really hard work ; but at this time,
expecting no visitants, they are taken by surprise,
and easily secured, as the frost either scales off the
rock with the lichens upon it, or the moisture swells
the lichen above the surface to which it is so closely
attached in the burning heats of summer. Thus
captured, the vital principle becomes suspended in
the crustaceous lichen, to be again renewed, however,
at whatever distance of time, when exposed to the
external atmosphere.

WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY.

CHAP. III.

VARIOUS TINTS OF BUDS AND TWIGS IN THE SUNBEAMS —
BRILLIANT EFFECTS OF A FROZEN SHOWER — DANDELION,
VERONICA, DAISY — MOSSES IN PERFECTION OF BEAUTY —
HELLEBORE, PERIWINKLE — SUDDEN SNOW STORM.

" And now comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come,
To call the Squirrel and the Bee from out their winter home."

BRYANT.

"Post nulila Phoebus" — sunshine after bluster-
is not unfrequently the case in February ; it will be
well however not to hallo before we are out of the
wood, but yet enjoy a fine bright day when it conies.
The budding of deciduous trees never appears to better
perfection than in this month, and the various divari-
cations their branches present, when in relief against
a clear blue sky, offers a pleasing and interesting
spectacle. The general idea of a leafless tree is that
of a cold denuded surface, on which no tint of beauty
reposes ; but how false the supposition. As the sun
in his retreat westward now breaks forth in effulgence
from an amber cloud, and his horizontal beams light
up the groves and trees, what vivid tints rise as by
enchantment at the heads and extremities of the

FEBETJABY. 67

branches of a hundred scattered veterans of the forest,
whose glazed buds, already preparing for the spring
campaign, were not before apparent. The Elm tops
display a crowded assemblage of light brown slender
twigs ; ' a golden ray now glancing on the Willows
shows the vinous hue of their long-extending rods ;
the Sycamore displays its buds of pale green ; the
still paler catkins of the Birch are seen amidst its
quivering branches and silver stems ; in dark array
the digitated polished buds of the Wych Hazel
appear ; while wherever the sun lights up an avenue
of Limes, coral and crimson tints beautify in brilliant
but evanescent displays its shadowy arcades.

Occasionally a charming spectacle is presented to
the admiring eye amidst the recesses of the hills,
when a shower of rain has frozen as it fell upon
the woods and coppices, encasing their buds with an
envelope of the most brilliant chrystal. In the
vagrant beams of the morning, the trees sparkle
with their icy load, as if robed by enchantment, and,
as the breeze plays among their topmost branches,
a shower of crackling spiculaB falls about on all sides,
scaring the chattering Fieldfares and Redwings as
they attempt a descent, and swarm about their old
accustomed perches; while the frightened Squirrel,
leaping madly from bough to bough, increases the
noise and the shower in his career; and the blue-
winged Jays, ever jealous of an intrusion on their
retired haunts, raise their reiterated screams with
tenfold pertinacity. Well, we have at last reached a
sheltered glade in the wood, a retired nook where
" folly is shut out," and yet where the warm sun-
beams penetrate to and cheer us after a long per-

(is WILD FLOWERS OF

ambulaiion along the hill side, over crisp brown
brakes arid pallid withered moss. All is dark and
shadowy out of the direct course of the solar beams,
but here and there amidst the wood a ragged lichen-
ized rock juts forth, like some hoary bard of ancient
days, to diversify the gloom ; but over head the deep
blue sky is calm and serene as a May- day, the lark
is carolling his matin hymn there, and amidst the
alders and holly bushes that girdle round the faint
glimmering pool and swamps below, the sable bird
" with orange-tawny bill," is whistling his cadences
to hasten on spring from amongst the yet imexpanded
primroses ; while slowly journeying, high in air, a
whole tribe of cawing rooks are hastening to their
nest-trees.

How pleasant it is now to come unexpectedly upon
some warm sunny bank that surly winter seems to
have forgotten to have visited in his wrath, and where
all is mild, genial, and invigorating. There the
Dandelion shows his golden mimic sun, the pale blue-
eyed Veronica (either polita or liederifolla) languidly
opens her azure blossom, and a baud of laughing
Daisies,

— " Ever alike fair and fresh of hewe,
As well in winter as in summer newe,"

as Father CHAUCER wordeth it, revel in the bright
but transient beams of the halcyon noon of February.
The little " crimson tipped ' Daisy, so characteristic
of the pastures of temperate climes, but unknown in
the cast and unfitted for the heat of the tropics, has
been much noticed by DRTDEN, and many other
English bards, and being among the earliest of Mora's
primeval train, to spangle the meadows, ever meets the

FEBRUARY. 09

eye with pleasant reminiscences. However early in the
year it is seen, still its starry petals are tinged with
sunset hues — " purple with the north wind ' -as if
reddened with the glow of health and exposure, as
MARY HOWITT poetically expresses it ; and we note
star after star whitening the pastures, as we see stars
glow one after another on the robe of evening, until,
as a silver cloud spread upon the scene, the multiplied
Daisies in combination pillow the lap of earth, and
proclaim the advance of matured spring. AVhether
the Daisy really derived its name as being the " eie of
the daye," and open only to the call of the sun, or
not, we are all familiar with its closing up at niglit-
the signal to children in the country that, as the
Daisy was gone to sleep, it was time for them to go to
bed. The double red Daisy is a familiar denizen of
rustic gardens, often lining their borders, and well-
associated with the old timber-ribbed thatched cottage,
so pleasantly combining with trees and village churches,
but now dying away before incursive railroads and
thundering locomotives. The singular proliferous
variety called the Hen and Chickens Daisy, because
the disc of the flowers is surrounded by numerous
subsidiary smaller ones, was we remember a favourite,
cherished in our little boyish garden, when our mind,
like it, was all made up of fancies and flowery conceits —
both being, in the lapse of years, trodden down, aban-
doned, and obscured by the rank weeds that form the
realities of life. Yet the old Hen and Chicken Daisy,
now so seldom seen, links my mind to the cherished
thoughts of the past — and revives emotions that had
slumbered, and hopes that might almost urge the
tired spirits to further efforts. Not in vain are such

70 WILD FLOWEES OF

refreshing Hewers of memory contemplated, for they
recall

" Some steady love, some brief delight,
Some memory that had taken flight,
Some chime of fancy, wrong or right,
Or stray invention."*

Thoughts, actions, poetry, may thus arise in the mind,
from what might seem to many an object of indifference,
but thus observation works even from sympathy with
common things and the every day operations of
nature.

It is hardly worth while to look at the Garden yet,
though, if snow and frost do not entirely erininize
the scene with their pale habiliments, it is evident
that something is stirring in the ground; and here
and there verdant patches are appearing, which we
must have patience to wait a week or two ere we
behold their results. Plants, like thoughts and ideas,
require time to come up and develop themselves.

The Mosses are now in their perfection of verdure,
beautifying, with their soft close robe, many a rock,
damp wall, thatched roof, or old prostrated trunk.
They bear no flowers, but their elevated urns, covered
with a warm hairy cap, as in the Polytriclii, veiled
from the rude blast as in many genera, or fringed
curiously about their orifices as in the majority of
species, all discover the same care for the protection
of the sporules from which the young Mosses are to
spring, as in the plants whose more specious aspect,
and more highly-developed organs, seem to have
stronger claims upon our notice. The Mosses are
Nature's coverlid, which she casts lightly over every

* WORDSWORTH'S lines to the Daisy.

FEBETTABY.

deformity. The dank stagnant marsh is hidden and
overspread with the pale green, roseate, or silvery
Sphagni, or Bog-mosses; the underwood assumes a
golden hue from the bright piliated caps of the Poly-
tricJii ; every fallen trunk is quickly covered with the
velvet Hypni ; and wherever trees are burned in the
woods, or fires lighted there, the black spots are
quickly overgrown with dense masses of the Funaria
Jiygrometica. And what roof or old wall is without
its colony of green, grey, silvery, or purple-stemmed
Mosses ?

" 'Tis Nature's livery round the globe,

Where'er her wonders range :
The fresh embroidery of her robe,

Through ev'ry season's change.
Through ev'ry clime, on ev'ry shore,

It clings, or creeps, or twines —
Where bleak Norwegian winters roar ;

Where tropic summer shines
With it the Squirrel builds its nest ;

In it the dormouse sleeps ;
It warm's e'en Philomela's breast j

Through it the Lizard creeps."

In the height of summer, to tread or recline upon
the soft velvet Moss within the shady shrubbery, or
upon the mountain side, as the sounds of evening
rise upon the vales below, while the sun goes down
to his mountain-bed in gorgeous splendour, and the
scents of a host of odoriferous plants rise upon the
gale and soothe the mind to meditative tranquillity,
is one of the luxuries which a true lover of nature
treasures up in his thoughts to enjoy over again in an
afternoon nap at such a time as this. In Lapland
eurious portable bedding is made of the Grolden-hair

72 AVILD TLOWEES OF

Moss, and mattresses and door-mats in the North of
England. The Bog-mosses (Sphagna) form the best
possible packing for young trees, to send abroad.
Minute as the vegetation of Mosses may at first sight
appear, in the northern regions of the earth they
now form nearly a fourth-part of the vegetation, and
almost a thousand distinct species have been enume-
rated. They especially adorn and diversify alpine
scenery, and variegate the horrid sublimity of cliffs
that would otherwise frown only in horror, without
a gleam of beauty to charm and interest the wan-
derer.—

" It was a barren scene, and wild,
Where naked cliffs were rudely piled ;
But ever and anon between
Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green.

SCOTT.

In wild waste spots, or even occasionally in the
vicinity of towns, whence it may have escaped from
the nursing of cultivation, a flower of rank growth,
grave aspect, and dull colouring, sometimes attracts
the eye of the botanical observer, flourishing luxuri-
antly even at this cheerless period of the year, as
if it were sensible it would be utterly passed over,
as unworthy of notice at any other time. This is
the Fetid Bearsfoot (Helleborus fcetidus) , conspicuous
where it does grow amidst the rubbish that environs
it, by its dark digitated leaves and dirty green in-
volute petals edged with deep purple. The following
characteristic lines well describe the aspect of the
plant just referred to :-

" Within the moist and shady glade,
What plant in suit of green array'd,

FEBRUARY. 73

All heedless of the wintry cold
Inhabits ? — Foremost to unfold,
Tho' half conceal'd its bloom globose,
Whose petals green, o'erlapp'd and close,
Present each arch'd converging lip
Embroider'd with a purple tip ;
And green its floral leaves expand
With fingers like a mermaid's hand."*

It may be worth while, on one of the few sunny after-
noons that even February affords, to linger in some
little bosky copse open to the west, and rising high
above the Severn, whose red brimfull stream proudly
breasts the meadows below till it disappears in a
broad crescent, gleaming like a scimitar in the sun-
beams. The coppice is abundantly overspread with
the evergreen leaves of the lesser Periwinkle (Vinca
minor}, entangling itself in every direction, and form-
ing a grateful object for the eye to rest upon at this
leafless time, while here and there the genial warmth
has tempted a few of its bright blue flowers to expand,
above which Boinbylius medius poises as if fixed in
air — again to vanish with the vagrant sunbeam. It is
gone ! — a cloud involves the setting sun, and in a
moment shrouds him from view — blasts sweep pity-
lessly from the north, and bear along a volleyed cloud
of snow flakes through the realms of air — mountain,
wood, valley, and river, alike disappear amidst the
blinding storm, and in the succeeding stillness of
advanced night, the pale moon faintly shining in a
circlet of white cloud, exhibits fields, woods, and
hills, again invested with the soft, pure, and dazzling
ermined robe of winter.

* MANT'S British Months.

WILD FLOWERS OF FEBBUABY,

(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. IV.

THE AWAKENING OF SPRING IN THE COUNTRY AND THE
CITY. — APPEARANCE OF GELATINOUS FUNGI. — MISERIES
OF A THAW. — SNOWDROPS.

" Already now the snowdrop dares appear,
The first pale blossom of the unripened year."

MRS. BARBAULD.

METHINKS I hear a rustling among the withered
brown leaves that have lain so long matted together
in frozen silence within the deep glades of the sombre
wood. Is it the hare starting from her form to revel
in the mild radiance of a February sun ? Is it the
speckled snake slowly uncurling from its long repose
to glide to the nearest warm slope, couched beneath
the shelter of the prickly but golden gorse ? No ! —
Softly ! — Spring herself is awakening !

Look to the sunny side of that still leafless grove —
green oases begin to appear in the withered expanse ;
-the shining leaves of the pilewort are springing up,
chickweed reviving as quickly as hope resumes a living
aspect, and horehound and other herbs show the green
leaf that proclaims peace from wintry storms. The
Spurge Laurel (Daphne JLaureola), with its shining
deep green leaves, is now about to expand its pale

FEBRUARY. 75

green flowers, that would be scarcely noticed at any
other time, and which LINN^US says are " sad in
colour, ungrateful in scent, and blossoming in a
gloomy season ;" — but LINN.&TJS must have been in a
melancholy humour when he wrote this, for in my
view the shining dark green leaves and bright light
green flowers of the plant, appear in the leafless woods
with a pleasing effect. Indeed Spurge Laurel looks
grateful to the eye upon the verge of the thicket at
any time. The leaves only of the Arum are now
pleasingly dotting the banks ; and here and there an
occasional fair Primrose, like one or two specks of
blue sky in a stormy day, embellishes the present and
tells hopefully for the future scene. But we must be
patient — Spring is only awakening !

In the garden hosts of green leaves are bursting
the sombre mould, gladdening the exploring eye ; and
the Snowdrops, those " fair maids of February," pale
and pensive as the demurest nun, and white and
spotless as the snowflake itself, are " coming out" for
the season. The little sprightly Aconite (Erantliis
liy emails), too, is now seen flaunting in green and gold
beside the border :

• (t Winter Aconite,

Its butter-cup-like flowers that shut at night,
With green leaf furling round its cup of gold ;*

rather too gay to be quite in keeping with the aspect
of things around ; and that beautiful evergreen the
Laurustinus (Viburnum tinus), is displaying full joy-
ously its profuse clusters of white flowers. Even in
the garden — SPRING is AWAKENING !

In the country the naturalist now hears dulcet

* CLARE.

7(> WILD FLOWERS OF

sounds mingling with his morning meditations. The
blue Nuthatch briskly taps upon the bough, shakes
off a load of encrusting lichens, and as he snaps up
the insects beneath, loudly chirps his delight. The
great Tit, instead of his usual harsh grate, now at-
icmpts a brisk but imperfect madrigal. Its four or
five notes rapidly repeated sounds like a shrill bell.
The Blackbird commences his musical intonations
morning and evening, and the Woodlark sings soft
and sweet. This is the prelude to the concert that
must soon arise, for — SPRING is AWAKENING !

As a gleam of sunshine breaks in upon the dusty
room (for the sanctum of a student or virtuoso is sure
to be dusty), out pops a blue-bottle fly, weakly buz-
zing as he inspects the state of affairs ; retiring again
with the withdrawn vagrant ray of light back to his
dark snuggery behind unopened books ; while a stern
Sir Forceps, who has marked him from a sly corner,
tightens his strings, mends his nets, and begins to
prepare for the active hostilities of a new campaign.
The student, with some surprize, now begins to see
how the dust has gathered about him — for Spring is
awakening even here !

Slower, from amidst the smoke and blackened
steeples of the city, where dark blinds and dingy cur-
tains shut out the stranger sun, and grimy soot invests
the leaves of hapless plants confined there, signs of
saddened light, sluggard but awakening, appear at
last. For in the boudoir fair ladies now smile to see
that their Hyacinths (all varieties of the oriental
Hyacinth, H. orientaUs)* are giving evident signs of

' The Dutch florists, who are great cultivators of the Hyacinth, and
raise them extensively from the bulb for the market, now enumerate more
than two thousand varieties. Some of the rare double ones are highly
esteemed, and bear as hig-h a price as <£'10.

FEBRUARY.

77

speedily, or even now, exhibiting a show of rich fra-
grant flowers in their white, or green, or purple glasses,
and "Ma" is surprised to see the sun, and "Pa"
throws up the window for a moment, and young heads
and- hearts begin to fidget, and flutter, and beat ! In
short all the "gloomy weather" of almanack makers is
at once forgotten, and while the sun shines, nothing but
walks and rides, and visits, and balls, and last, " not
least," new dresses to replace the dowdy ones of
winter, can be talked or thought of; and thus it must
and ever will be so when spring gives signs of its
awakening. Another short slumber, and the winds of
March will shake it wide awake !

It frequently happens at this season of the year, if
wefc weather prevail, (for on the average of years the
month will not bely its name of " February fill-dike,")
that various coloured gelatinous substances present
themselves on sticks, posts, rotten branches of trees,
&c., as if jellies had been sportively thrown about, or
had dropt from the sky. Various opinions formerly
prevailed as to their origin ; and it was vulgarly sup-
posed they were relics of fallen stars ! It is now well
understood that these curious substances belong to
that division of the vegetable kingdom denominated
fungi., and have sporidia immersed in their mass, from
whence fresh plants are produced, although unable to
luxuriate except in an atmosphere saturated with
moisture. Hence, under the influence of the sun
they dry up and entirely disappear. Some of these
vegetable jellies have very rich colours, and trembling
as they lie swelled out with moisture, have taken the
name of tremellini. The tremella deliqiiescens, fre-
quently seen on old posts and decayed stems of annual

7S WILD FLOWEES OF

plants, has been called St. Gudula's lamp, from its
brilliant yellow colour, apparent and sparkling at a
considerable distance. Others are white like paste,
and some are bespattered about like the brains of
animals. All present singular aspects, and probably
nourish peculiar minute aniinalculse.

In reference to the wet weather that often occurs
at this season, FOKSTER quaintly observes — that it is
" frequently showery, and then the ditches are full
and streaming."* Such a state of things HOWITT
depicts in the following language, which it must be
confessed is a miserable "look out" indeed: — It will
be, therefore, perhaps better to keep within doors at
present, unless the doctor be wanted. " All things
are dripping with wet : it hangs upon the walls like a
heavy dew ; it penetrates into the drawers and ward-
robes of your warmest chambers ; and you are sur-
prised at the unusual dampness of your clothes, linen,
books, and papers ; and in short almost every thing
you have occasion to examine. Brick and stone floors
are now dangerous things for delicate and thinly-shod
people to stand upon. To this source, and in fact to
the damps of this month operating in various ways,
may be attributed not a few of the colds, coughs, and
consumptions, so prevalent in England. Pavements
are now frequently so much elevated by the expansion
of the moisture beneath, as to obstruct the opening
and shutting of doors and gates ; and your gravel
walks resemble saturated sponges. Abroad the streets
are flooded with muddy water, and slippery with
patches of half-thawed ice and snow, which strike
through your shoes in a moment. The houses and

* Perennial Calendar.

FEBBUABY.

79

all objects have a dirty and disconsolate aspect. In
the country the roads are full of mire, and you have
naked hedges, pastures half submersed in water, with
dirty patches and loosened stones."*

It must, indeed, be admitted, that about the close
of February a continued thaw brings about all the
unpleasantnesses just depicted, the mountains are
wreathed with mist, clouds involve the sky, obscure
the woods and meads, and every brook is

" Foaming brown with double speed," t
while the garden or grove dripping with the falling
torrents, presents only mournful objects for the eye
to repose upon. But this humidity is the process
that Nature requires, by which sufficient moisture
may be stored up in her secret repositories, to form a
fund to nourish the numerous flowers that she even
now contemplates in embryo, and which she will in
due time awaken and produce. Therefore, at present,
we will not proceed beyond our tether, but take the
seasonable weather that the season itself demands — for
" Now old Aquarius from his rainie urne,
Pours out the streams, and fills both loch and burne ;
While Februa, with waterie load opprest,
Cracks the crimp ice on Winter's frozen breast ;
Then seated on some sunnie brae, she strowes
About her feet the Snowdrop and Primrose."
And so have we seen them adorning many a "sunny
brae" about this time, nor is it easy to depict the
beautiful aspect of the Snowdrop, when in a truly
wild state, as in some glens of the Malvern hills,
where hundreds of its stainless bells droop to earth
as if dashed at random by the hand of Flora wide
over mead, and bank, and wood.

* HOWITT'S " Book of the Seasons." f W. SCOTT.

M» WILD FLOWEES OF

It has been doubted by some botanists whether the
Snowdrop be really indigenous to Britain, and it is
supposed that the monks of old, who had dedicated
its '• pendent flakes of vegetating snow" to the Virgin,
might have introduced it from Italy. PHILLIPS, in
his " Flora Historical mentions that in a Dutch
work on bulbous flowers, published in 1614, it was
then stated to be very seldom found excepting in the
gardens of the curious, and remarks that no allusions
are made to it by our early poets. In the spot above
indicated, at the northern base of the Herefordshire
Beacon, or Camp hill, it has every appearance of
being genuinely wild, and this spot is nearly a mile
from Little Malvern Priory. Here it was noticed by
WITHERING more than half a century ago. Many
other English localities have been given for the Snow-
drop, but its increase from the parent bulb, when
once thrown out of a garden, may well account for its
naturalization in so many places.

February has generally a few oases of brightness,
kindly intended by Providence for the plants that
flower at this early time ; they take advantage of the
sunny gleam, birds sing, the sky is calm and blue,
and Winter seems gone. But the tyrant returns in
haste, and quickly represses the transient smile,
gloomily involving all things in cold and sadness once
again. Then at the close of the month dreary is the
external aspect of nature to the exploring eye, weary
of the monotony of the house, and anxious to look out
somewhere. Leaden clouds involve all things, and
vapours from the south dash continuously over the
reeking landscape. Dimly amidst the fogs the distant
mountains, robed in snow and half hidden in clouds,

FEBETJAKY. 81

sternly appear in the distance like frowning friends,
keeping far off while the mists of adversity are about
us — cold as the snow upon their sides. And yet
when summer smiles upon us, and we shall have
earned the flowers we bear, these distant friends will
then "approach to pluck and seize the product of our
toil — they will scent us out tlien ! Cold comfort must
be now our lot, for such is even floral life ; but in a
stormy sky not the less beautiful are the little but
distant inlets of deep blue sky, that tell of tranquillity
beyond the clouds, and of sweet enjoyment when the
lowering vapours have passed away.

EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOE PEBKUAftY.

The JungermannicB should still be attended to on
the hills and among the woods, and lichenizing will
also employ the cryptogamic botanist advantageously.
The Crabs-eye and Tartareous Lichens appear in full
fructification on rocks and precipices, and sometimes
a wall of sandstone will exhibit a wide and beautiful
array of the singular Beomyces rufus, like a host of
petrified brown nails ; while the trunks of trees in-
habited by the Spiloma gregarium are splendidly deco-
rated with patches of crimson sporules. Many an old
barn door too is painted with green, white, or golden
yellow, by the Lepraria flava and other Lichens. On
old oaks, rugged with furrowed bark, as well on
decayed paling, crops of several species of Calicium
appear like crowded black sprigs stuck into the wood.

Various genera of MOSSES now decorate " the
solitary place," lovely in their urn or cup-like fructi-
fication, especially the Grimmice and Gymnostomi,
while the very minute Pliascum almost eludes the eye
to find it. Yet the Phascum cuspldatum with its
brown polished theca without fringe or opening, may
be now found, if sought for, in almost any shrubbery.
In similar spots the Dicranum taxifoliuin is distin-
guishable by its broad sharp-cut leaves, and the Hypni
and Tortuloe, the latter with their singular twisted
peristomes, are abundant every where. In woods the

EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR FEBRUARY. 83

PolytricJium communis exhibits its stiff green leaves,
like groves of fairy palms.

At this damp time, the Fungi offer an abundant
source for examination and research, especially the
smaller kinds of Trichice, Pezizce, &c. and the curious
Tremtllini. It may be easily noticed how the nabel-
liform masses of the latter all arise from simple
spheroids, the primordial form of this fungus, pressed
and crowded by amalgamating together in their rapid
growth, as on damp old pales, hundreds of the common
yellow Tremella may be often seen scattered about,
and almost all perfectly globular. The bright blue
Auricularia (A. phosphorea) } and others of the same
family, are now in full perfection, and on old decaying
stumps the purple Plilebia mesenterica often appears
very conspicuous, as well as the intricately lobed
varieties of Thelephorce, and the hairy fingers of
Clavarice. In woods the labyrinthal Dcedalea Quercina
has a curious aspect at the roots of trees.

WILD FLOWEES OF MARCH.

CHAP. V.

A MARCH MORNING ON MALVERN HILLS. — CROCUSES, MEZE-

REON, APRICOT, PYRUS .TAPONICA, &C. FLOWERS OF THE

WOODS AND FIELDS. — FLOWERING OF THE HAZLE, YEW,
AND ELM.

" Mild-breathing Zephyr, father of the Spring,
Who in the verdant meads doth reign sole king,
Who, shelter'd here, shrunk from the wintry day,
And careless slept the stormy hours away,
Hath rous'd himself, and shook his feathers wet
With purple-swelling odours, and hath let
The sweet and fruitful dew fall on this ground,
To force out all the flowers that might be found."

BEN JONSON.

We are all familiar with March winds, and nobody
doubts but that they will blow ; but the particular
days on which such ^lustrations are to take effect, this
deponent saith not. Let any one, however, who is
unfamiliar with these " blustering railers," only pay a
visit to the iced mountain top, or even to such hills
as Malvern or the Cotteswolds, and he will be fully
awakened to the excitations of the freshening gale.
Once in the early part of this very month, we remem-
ber scaling the ridge of Malvern with a companion in
adventure, many years ago, and the scene was strongly

WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH.

impressed upon our memory. So furious was the
rush of the wind over the summit, that we were un-
able to stand against it, and clung prostrate to the
rock for security, while its vehement thunder ren-
dered it impossible for us to hear each other speak.
But the scene to the eye, looking towards the Cam-
brian mountains, was peculiarly impressive, for covered
with snow, their indented chains belted the wide
horizon in bold relief against a cloudless azure sky,
ridge beyond ridge, to the extremest bound of vision,
in majestic perspective, effacing for the moment the
keen perception of the bitter cold of the blast, and its
tremendous power.

With regard to plants and flowers, our more legi-
timate province, we only undertake to strike the
averages of the seasons, premising that any flowers
we mention may be met with in bloom, in England or
"Wales, in some portion of the month under which
our observations appear. The garden now begins to
" look up," and rows of glowing yellow Crocuses give
an evanescent splendour to its borders, especially if
the sun shines ; for otherwise, though unable to
" droop the languid lid," they sulkily refuse to open
their coloured petals at all. The vernal Crocus might
indeed have been mentioned in February, but it is
now, when the different species or varieties are seen
in unison — the yellow, the cloth of gold, the pale lilac,
the striped, and the blue — that the most beautiful
picture is brought before the eye. All the Crocuses
continue blowing throughout March, and more than
thirty varieties are cultivated in the Horticultural
Society's Garden, at Chiswick. " Early in Lent,"
says Mr. FOESTEE, " we frequently see Crocuses

86 WILD FLOWERS OF

flowering in abundance in pots in windows in London;
and for these situations sand alone, or sand mixed
with a little dirt, is the best soil." It is a pity, so
beautiful as the Crocus is, —

-" the flower of Hope, whose hue
Is bright with coming joy :"— -

that its duration, like most joys of earth, should be so
short as scarcely to repay the trouble of planting it
in pots or boxes for the drawing-room windows. If,
however, about two dozen sets of boxes were kept, to
appear in succession as the season advanced, a very
pleasing effect might be produced, far preferable to
keeping merely one dingy long box, which, though
sometimes fragrant with a patch of Migniouette, too
often scarcely seems to contain vegetable life within
its creaky boundaries.

The spring Crocus (C. vernus), is a native of Italy,
Spain, and central Europe, but can hardly be con-
sidered as truly wild in Britain, though naturalized in
various places, and at present found plentifully in
meadows about Nottingham. GERARD appears to
have first had it in England in the reign of ELIZABETH,
and records it as " that pleasant plant that bringeth
forth yellow flowers, was sent unto me from BOBINUS,
of Paris."

Just now the Mezereon (Daphne Mezereon}, makes
a beautiful appearance — all flowers — let the weather
be ever so severe, and its empurpled dyes and per-
fumed fragrance render it an universal favourite at a
season like this, when floral joys are scanty. Its
transcient purpose answered, it meets with the " com-
mon lot," and as Summer comes brightly on, the
Mezereon is entirely forgotten, till, amidst denuded

MAECH. 87

foliage and dearth of sweets, its humble aspect, " thick
beset with blushing wreaths," forces itself upon the
admiring observation. Not intending often to moralize,
the Mezereon tempts one to observe briefly at this
moment, that it offers an illustration of the homely
proverb — "Begin as you can holdout" The Mezereon
flashes for a brief day all splendour, and no compeer
can rival it ; but in a month it is sought for in vain —
stunted in its growth, and no fruit following its bright
flowers deserving of any attention, it is absolutely
lost and confounded amidst the loftier and more en-
during shrubs that environ it, and no one unacquainted
with its history would suppose that, insignificant as
it then appears, it ever made any pretensions to be
considered the gem of the garden. A darker analogy
might in fact be drawn, for the small red berries that
finally appear on the Mezereon, are a powerful poison.
The Daplme Mezereon is a rare denizen of English
woods, and is seldom met with by the exploring
botanist. It grows wild in the woods near Stanford,
"Worcestershire, and is said to be not uncommon in
the beech woods of Buckinghamshire.

Another curious early-flowering plant may now be
noticed, in Epping and other southern English forests
— the evergreen Butcher's Broom (JRuscus aculeatus).
This curious, sturdy, and rigid-leaved plant bears its
flowers in a most singular and anomalous manner, upon
the middle of the upper surface of its leaves, one only
in general being present on each leaf, subtended by a
scarious bract. In the autumn bright red berries
appear in the former position of the small flowers, as
if thrown by accident on the sharp-pointed leaves.

If the Apricot (Prunus Armeniacd), now exhibits a

'JO WILD FLOWERS OF

ing upon the bright ruby pistils situated beneath
them in a separate position, offers a familiar illustra-
tion of that curious structure in the fructifying organs
of plants on which Linnaeus founded his " Sexual
System." The sombre Yew now also flowers, and
the female Aspen (Populus tremula), presents a
curious appearance with its numerous catkins of
downy seeds, very conspicuous in marshy woods. The
Yew (Taxus laccata), being a disecious tree, evidently
flowers at this season that the farina of the male blos-
soms may be dispersed far and wide by the winds, and
thus more surely conveyed to the females, which are
on separate trees often long distances apart. If a very
small sprig of male unexpanded flowers be gathered,
they will soon burst open, and if ever so slightly
touched, a cloud of dust fills the room where they
may be placed, ready to escape into the open air — so
admirably are the mechanisms of all nature's struc-
tures adapted to fulfil the purpose assigned them ! -
" flowers of all hues" will now very soon appear.

About the middle of the month, the Elm ( Ulmus
campestris) displays its sessile tufts of purplish flowers,
which, though making no pretensions to beauty in
themselves, yet crowded together on the upper
branches of the tree, present a rich vinous tint pleas-
ing to the eye when the sun darts his rays bright
upon them. But amidst storms and blasts, too often
the concomitants of the season, they may be alto-
gether unnoticed. The common Elm, though most
probably introduced into Britain by the Romans, for
it no where grows wild in our woods, has so multiplied
itself in this country, from its numerous offsets and
the tenacity of their endurance in the hedgerow, that

MARCH.

91

more than any other tree it now forms a characteristic
feature in the scenery of an English landscape.
Indeed as Selby remarks, the elm "is seen in its
greatest perfection and beauty in the southern and
midland parts of England, where it not only forms the
avenues of the finest public walks and drives in the
vicinity of towns and cities, and enters largely into
the proportion of the trees which surround the resi-
dences and adorn the parks of our nobility and gentry,
but is also the common and prevailing hedgerow tim-
ber in many districts, among which we need only
particularize the valleys of the Thames and the
Severn."* Hence the "Elmy Grange," at once recalls
to the eye of memory the old English timbered man-
sion, with its carved gables and tall brick turreted
chimneys, the moat half filled up and half remaining
on the garden side, with steps leading down to it from
the terrace walk, and the whole shaded by majestic
surrounding elms coeval with the building their foliage
envelopes. Indeed many a country residence has some
old sylvan guardian of this kind beside its gate, all
knotty, and ragged, and hollow, with broken arms, and
bleached patches on its huge bole, bare of bark, like
an old retainer grown grey in the service, yet resisting
age and decay, and retaining his wonted position to
the last.

Almost every place has its favourite old elm, of
large dimensions, sanctified by some local name, often
on a common, or beside a rustic inn, or fold yard, —
once the resort of buoyant childhood, — now abandoned
for ever — and yet a hallowed landmark in the tearful
vista of memory. Such roadside elms are often pictu-

* SELBY'S British Forebt Trees, 8vo. p. 105.

0'2 WILD FLOWERS OF

ivsque objects, and attract the curious eye of the
passing traveller — as the Crawley Elm, on the road
from London to Brighton, which contains an apart-
ment paved with brick ; the Rotherwas Elm, near
Hereford; and PifTs and Maul's Elms, near Chelten-
ham. The " One Elm" at Stratford-upon-Avon, a
contemporary of Shakspeare's as a parochial boundary,
and only recently cut down in the ruthless or careless
spirit too often prevalent among ignorant or assump-
tive provincial officials, had been long regarded with
reverence, and many other old trees of association
might be mentioned. A very curious and picturesque
old Elm still stands on Barnard's Green near Great
Malvern, Worcestershire, bearing a manorial notice
on its aged trunk, which is hollow, with monstrous
extending roots spreading round on every side, its

branches

" bald with high antiquity,"

and perhaps in existence when DE SPENCER, as Chief
Justice of the Forests, held his court in Malvern
Chace, in the reign of EDWARD II. The steward of
the manor was about to fell this tree as useless a few
years ago, but the copyholders of the vicinity resisted
this unkind attack upon their old friend, and insisted
on his right to maintain his position on the common ;
and after some dispute, the lord of the manor agreed
to allow the old Elm his life interest on the green,
subject only to a quit-rent to the merciless winds. So
venerable in decay he still stands, with an heir appa-
rent rising beside him. The elm, when old, often
puts on a very distorted and wenny appearance, swell-
ing especially about the roots, and when too often
pollarded, becomes so black, stumpy, and hollow, as to

MARCH. 93

seein as if the row in -which it stands had been sub-
jected to all the horrors of a cannonade. The elmy
grange has generally a rookery attached to it, where
securely located among the topmost forks of the elms,
the sable birds add to the rural sounds that rise
around them, a hoarse cawing that tells of coming
vernal hours, and sounds not ungrateful to the ear of
the observant naturalist.

The WytchHazle (JJlinus montana), whose gnarled
monstrous headed twiggy stumps grotesquely impend
above many a ravine or ancient hollo way, has its
spreading branches at this period amply covered with
a conspicuous inflorescence.

When wandering about in many-weathered March,
if not with an object in view, yet seeking for one to
sooth or aid the mind by suggestive reflections, some
ruined wall or desolate fragment of castle or abbey
perhaps arrests the gazing eye, where sweetening
decay, the familiar Wall-flower brightens the gray
fabric with its golden spreading petals. Like the
martin among birds it loves the " coign of 'vantage"
or the vacant sculptured niche of the desolate priory,
as if it would hint to man how far more beautiful its
natural position when left to itself than when cramped
in an artificial border. So genius overleaps the tram-
mels of society and revels in its own aspirations. Yet
it is remarkable that in this country it is only an
escape of domestication — a captive that has broken its
garden chain, although a true denizen of the south of
Europe. But the power of association has with the
poet's aid linked it to ruined walls and broken battle-
ments, where it asserts its fragrant rule by day,
leaving the owl and the ivy to the terrors of romance
and night.

WILD FLOWEES OP MABCH,
(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. VI.

VERNAL INDICATIONS. — VARIOUS SPECIES OF VIOLETS. —
GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE, TUBEROUS MOSCHATEL, WHITE AND
YELLOW AWLWORTS. — DAFFODILS AND SALLOWS. — WIND-
FLOWER.

" Smell at my Violets ! — I found them where
The liquid south stole o'er them /on a bank
That lean'd to running water. There's to me
A daintiness about these early flowers
That touches one like poetry."

The practical botanist now begins to have something
to do, and unable to restrain himself as the sun beams
forth in splendour from an azure sky, is off to the
deep recesses of the wood. The book of nature has
always something instructive on its opening pages,
and should nothing better than an old yawning and
decaying stump meet the view, ugly and dissightly to
a common observer, it may be worthy of botanical
notice. Its chinks may be studded with the curious
Bulgaria inquinans, forming numerous black balls of
a leathery consistency, or great polypori may, like
relentless creditors, be the destroying incubi of its
last resources. But this is mere still life, and there

WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 95

are now actual indications of activity in sound and
motion, so that even the admirers of nature's beauties
only, who take a walk at this season, cannot fail to be
roused into poetical excitement by the return of those
appearances which are bound up with the remem-
brances of former days. Three things at least now in
turn speak to the eye, the ear, and the senses. In
the balmy freshness of morning the hoarse cooing of
the Ringdove, or Quice, sounds singularly plaintive
upon the ear. Called into life by a steady burning
ray of light, up springs to allure, amuse, and surprise
the charmed eye, a carmine-coloured or sulphur-winged
butterfly, oscillating about Like a primrose floating
before the wind ; — and, oh ! delicious excitement, the
perfume of the March violet becomes sensibly percep-
tible.

" Smell at my Violets !" — ah, indeed, their smell at
once recalls a thousand blissful hours of early life,
when the holiday afternoon was devoted to violeting
in the wild sequestered lane or solitary wood-side, and
when thoughts, and hopes, and joys, were beautiful
and odorous as the countless white and purple violets
opening in beauty on the sides of the bosky dingle, as
yet undimmed and unwithered by the constant action
of burning suns. Where are the hopes and joys of
early life now ? — alas, man has his violet season but
once only !

" Smell at my violets !" —yes, but we must first
find out where they are, and these " lowliest children
of the ground," are often difiicult to get at, though
the fragrance they diffuse around is so very obvious.
Do'nt tell me of the garden ; I must now have genu-
ine wild violets — these were the charmers of my early

WILD FLOWEES OF

days, and these alone can recall the past vision now.
-All ! there, as in olden days, still they are, on the
very same bank as erst I knew them, when stooping,
wond'ring, laughing, smelling, my first bouquet was
gathered, and the white and purple violets were
proudly marshalled in my hand, and blandly to all my
young compeers was the cry — " Smell at my violets !"
Short, however, is the reign of the sweet March
violets ; they are lost like the charm of life's early
spring, and are succeeded by other more specious
violets without scent, — the " Dog- Violet," that, like
the hopes of life, presents a fair picture, beautiful to
the eye, but deceptive in the expected realization.
There are, however, other violets that will rouse the
botanist to exertion, if they do not tempt the explo-
ration of the exciteful poet. A violet of fainter scent
than the genuine odorata may be often noticed with
its lateral petals devoid of hairs, and hence called
wiberbis ; and the hairy -leaved violet, Viola liirta, the
last of which is particularly fond of calcareous soil.
Then there is the delicate little marsh violet (V. pa-
lustris), that crouches its fair form amidst dripping
mosses and bogs ; and the Yellow Violet, that confines
itself to the bleak mountain side, and must be sought
among the misty heights of Siluria and Dimetia ; and
there are yet two other familiar violets that flower all
the summer in every waste spot — common and value-
less as that universal production, advice — the V. arven-
sis or field Violet, and the V. tricolor, Heartsease, or
three-coloured violet, from the latter of which all the
large and showy varieties of the garden Pansy have
originated—

" Heart's-ease, like a gallant bold,
In his cloth of purple and gold."

MABCH. 97

" Pansies — for thoughts," says SHAKSPEAEE, alluding
to the French origin of the name, — pensee, thought,
or pensez a moi — think of me, a garden equivalent to
" forget-me-not." " Love in idleness," and " Kiss me
at the garden gate," are rustic names showing the
pleasure which this familiar floral favourite was always
regarded. But alas, there is no smell to these more
showy violets. Form can be astonishingly varied by
horticultural art, and colour singularly modified, but
it is beyond the power of human skill to give odour
to the " Dog- Violet," or take it away from the sweet
one. Country botanists, who know well enough what
secluded lanes or distant dingles they must go to for
the sweet violets, have been not a little surprized in
the present day to find the Sweet Violet of their
mossy glens and meadows, actually degraded in the
" London Catalogue of the Botanical Society," to a
mere naturalized plant, as if it had stolen off from
captivity, and was no aboriginal native. To such an
extent may incredulity or absurd hypothesis carry a
closet manufacturer of a catalogue. But the violet-
embroidered vale, redolent of sweetness as we have
seen it, like snow-flakes covering the ground by the
brook side, in company with wood anemonies, never
asked man's aid for its location there, and no wanderer
among nature's sequestered scenes in the midland
counties would ever dream of stabling a sweet
violet ! * The colours of the flowers of the Viola odo-
rata are almost unaccountably varied — chiefly white,
sometimes lilac or mulberry colour, or a deep purple-
blue. The latter variety seems to prefer pastures, or

* In Floras and Botanical Catalogues, the t or dagger signifies a natu-
ralized plant.

H

98 WILD FLOWERS OF

forms a lank of violets, giving forth the most exquisite
perfume to the passing zephyrs. The spur or nectary
of the violet, forming a bag by the junction of the
lower petals for the reception of the secreted honey,
merits particular attention. The common dog-violet
is now known in our most recent floras as Viola sylva-
tica, and the term canina given to a kindred form that
affects open places rather than woods.

There are two curious little plants to be met with
in flower at this time in secluded spots by rocks and
waterfalls, or even by some neglected brook side,
known perhaps only to the wild duck or water-hen,
who fly splashing away from the intruding foot of the
botanist, who stands a fair chance of a fierce dash of
hail upon his hapless head from the capricious hand
of surly March — no great respecter of persons when
in pettish mood, These plants are the tuberous
Moschatel (Adoxa moscliatellina) , and the alternate-
leaved Grolden Saxifrage (Chrysvplenivm alternifolivm),
the botanical names of both, when written in a toler-
able sized hand, being about as long as the plants are
high ! The former is very pale, with very pale flowers,
agglomerated together in a capitate form, and the
meaning of the Latin trivial name is that they possess
no glory! This epithet tempted me to perpetrate
" an address" to little Miss Adoxa, snugly seated in
her secluded but inglorious obscurity, and which I
here transcribe from an old scrap of paper :

TO THE TUBEROUS MOSCHATEL

(ADOXA MOSCHATELLINA).
Ah ! little Adoxa, they say

Thy flower possesses no glory ;
But I'll at thy habitat stay,

And prove 'tis a palpable story.

MARCH. 99

For pale as thy leaflets appear,

And pale as appears thy green coroll,

Hid snug from the storms of the year,
I see in its petals a moral.

Thou art but a wee-one, tis true,

And held as unworthy the seeking;
Hid under the thicket from view,

While the trees of the forest are creaking.

When March stirs the spirits of air,
And clouds o'er each other are driving,

The dingy floods rolling despair-
Hope tracks thy unnotic'd arriving !

As when, o'er the shadows of night

Appears the first semblance of dawning,

How grateful that pledge of the light
To illness, awake 'neath its awning.

So pale though Adoxa presents

Her form, by the fountain scarce showing ;

'Tis a signal that winter relents,

And the Celandine soon will be glowing.

A blank is to nature unknown,

There's still an unceasing creation,
And down to the lichenized stone,

All charrn in their time and their station !

Who doubts it should open his eyes,

Once purg'd, they'll reveal unknown wonders; —

So the cloudlet a speck on the skies,

Joins the throng that embattles the thunders.

There is another little wild flower, very characte-
ristic of the prhnaveral Mora, which never fails to
delight the eye of the wandering botanist during
March's froward reign, studding a thousand walls and
rocks, and hills, with its innumerable silver cruciferous
flowers. This is the Draba verna, which from its
former fame of curing " the disease of the nailes called

H2

100 WILD FLOWERS OF

a whitlow," still bears the common appellation of
whitlow-grass. Old GERARDE, " Master in Chirur-
gerie," whom we have just quoted as to this, in his
quaint language thus describeth the plant, which,
perhaps, will be intelligible enough even now to the
non-botanical reader. "It is a very slender plant,
having a few small leaves like the least chickweede,
growing in little tufts, from the midst whereof rises
up a small stalk, nine inches long, on whose top do
growe verie little white flowers ; which being past,
there come in place small flat pouches, composed of
three filines ; which being ripe, the two outsides fall
away, leaving the middle part standing long time
after, which is like white satin." Mossy roofs, or
sandstone rocks, often present a pretty appearance at
this season, when the sun shines out upon the ex-
panding argent petals of this fairy plant.

The yellow Drciba aizoides is now in flower on its
only known habitat in Britain, the deserted wralls of
the secluded fortalice of Pennard Castle, in the pen-
insula of Grower, Glamorganshire, and the adjacent
limestone rocks. Its singular aspect, there, will be
noticed more in detail under the mouth of September,
at which time, in 1839, I visited the spot. The vicin-
ity, waste, wild, and desolate, has other temptations
for the botanical explorer, particularly about Port
Eynon, and the precipitous Worm's Head. Oxwich
Bay, too, presents a silent scene of beauty to the
explorer, and here, near the perforated rock, I have
gathered the rare and curious Medicago minima, whose
prickly spiral legumes are so interesting.

The garden becomes gaudy with the yellow glories
of the well-known daffodil, which, showy as it is, and

MARCH. 101

therefore gladdening the exploring eye, has in such a
position only the redeeming feature of its mention by
SHAKSPEARE, as coming

" Before the swallow dare?,"

and thus appearing in the advance of more permanent
delights — like a portrait that can only give satisfaction
in the absence of the original it represents. We can,
therefore, only tolerate the daffodil in the garden as,
Envoy Extraordinary of the floral queen, who takes a
temporary position which more valued but tenderer
plants would bo unable at present to maintain. In
the woods and on the hills, however, where this
"Pseudo-Narcissus" of the botanist, and "Daffydown-
dilly" of the rustic, spreads its roots by thousands,
and now droops in glorious array an innumerable host
of lemon-tinted bells, in contrast with the dark bound-
ary of branches that lift their labyrinthal tracery
against the deep blue sky, as we have seen with rapt
pleasure, about the Malvern Hills, and in the undula-
tions of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, it is in
its proper locality. There alone, when after a long
ramble through deep lanes and brambly woods, with
scarcely an object to diversify the gloomy sameness,
when at last emerging from the dark thicket — a broad
line of golden light, bursts to the astonished gaze,
upon the virgin turf of the hill side, and a nearer view
exhibits rank beyond rank, the bright pendent pen-
nons of a countless host of daffodils, the charmed
wanderer, as he gazes on the scene, fully recognizes
the " beauty" thus combined with the rough winds of
March, and long treasures in his memory the re-
membrance of the scene. WORDSWORTH has well

102 WILD FLOWERS OF

described such a sight among the romantic scenery of
the Lakes : —

" I wander'd lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden Daffodils ;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay :
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out did the sparkling waves in glee :
A poet could not but be gay

In such a jocund company.

* * » *

I gaz'd and gaz'd but little thought

What wealth to me the show had brought ;

For oft when on my couch I lie,

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

That is the bliss of solitude,

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the Daffodils."

Such a prospect can, however, only reward the
untiring botanist, who is not afraid to bivouac upon
the green though chill turf, and wash down his sand-
wich with a draught from the pattering rill that
splashes down the mossy rock, But whoever dares
" look out" at all now without the precinct of the
suburban garden, is sure to be gladdened with one
bright gleam of vegetable beauty, upon the margin of

MARCH. 103

any pool, or even by the way-side. This is presented
in the golden catkins of the Sallow (Salix Caprcea),
now in full perfection, and, if the morning be bright,
recalling the acquaintance of many a buzzing and
murmuring bee ; yet it may probably have escaped
attention, that no fruit ever arises from these specious
catkins. It is so — but see, farther within the coppice
there are other catkins without the alluring hue of
gold. These on close examination are seen to be
assemblages of pale green clammy ovaries, surmounted
by spreading stigmas, intended to receive that splen-
did hued dust or farina which the golden male catkins
before-mentioned give out, and which is conveyed to
the female plant either by the agency of the bees or
the rough blast. The winds of spring and autumn
then, annoying though they often are, have their
legitimate agencies to perform in nature's laboratory.
In the one case they scatter about profusely the
matured seeds that are waiting a favourable wand for
their voyage ; in the other, as in the yew, the hazle,
and the willow, they waft about that fertilizing powder
from plant to plant, without which process, in nume-
rous instances, no fecundation could take place, and
of course no fruit or seeds be produced by the plants
thus curiously circumstanced.

Where the Alder (Alnus glutinosus) covers, as it
often does, marshy spots and the banks of brooks, its
catkins are very conspicuous among the dark branches;
the different species of Poplar also make a pleasing
show with their pendant catkins.

In the garden the Bed Star Windflower (Anemone
kortensis) has a very ornamental effect, producing a
succession of flowers throughout this month, at a

104 WILD FLOWERS OF MAECH.

time when the parterre is but scantily furnished with
red or purple flowers. Thus we have now

— "A garland for you intertwin'd

With Violets, Hepaticas, Primroses,

And coy Anemone, that ne'er uncloses

Her lips until they're blown on by the wind."*

The poets of antiquity ran wild as the winds of
March in their fables with respect to the origin of
the Anemone from the blood of Adonis, or the tears
of Venus for his loss. Nor can we admit that the
wind primarily uncloses its flowers, although they
appear at a windy time. The Pasque or Easter flower
(Anemone pulsatilla), is a highly interesting and
beautiful plant, appearing, as its name implies, about
Easter, but chiefly confined to chalky downs in Eng-
land, though occurring also in several places on the
oolite of the Cotteswolds, Gloucestershire. The
beautiful locality of a hill side at the Seven Springs,
near Bourton-on-the- Water, may be instanced.

* HORACE SMITH'S Amarynthus.

EXPLOEATOET NOTICES FOE MAECH.

In this month the underwood of forests and cop-
pices is generally felled to a great extent, so that the
opportunity should be taken of penetrating woods not
before easily accessible, even by the botanical foot.
Additional habitats will thus be obtained for many
rare plants; for when a grove has extended its sombre
dominion over the ground for a number of years, the
constant gloom and exclusion of light renders the soil
incapable of producing those plants formerly abound-
ing there. Seeds of them, it is true, remain in the
deep dungeon of the earth, but each successive year
only increases the profundity of their incarceration,
by adding a thick damp layer of fallen leaves to the
surface of the soil where they lie concealed. At
length, the sound of the woodman's axe resounds in
the woody glen, the crash of falling branches is heard
on all sides, and the beetle and wedges commence
their dinning labours.

" The woodman is loudly calling,

The beetle and wedges he brings ;
For the oak is mark'd for falling

That has stood five hundred springs !
Hark ! a blow, and a dull sound follows ;

A second — he bows his head ;
A third — and the wood's dark hollows

Proclaim that their king is dead !

Then it is that the cleared ground once more ex-
posed to the influences of light and air, reproduces

106 >;. \PLOKATOEY NOTICES FOR MABCH.

those plants that had seemingly become extinct for
many years, and the botanist, therefore, should care-
fully explore those woods as the season advances,
where such falls of underwood have taken place. It
sometimes happens, too, that rare or peculiarly fine
specimens of lichens may be met with on the trunks
or upper branches of felled trees, which of course
were not attainable while in their plenitude of strength
they lifted up their heads to heaven, and spread their
branches high in air to a wide extent around. Cryp-
togarnic botany still claims much attention, while the
flowering tribes are as yet far from numerous. The
Scypliopliori, or Cup-Mosses, especially put on a flou-
rishing aspect about this time, and give a verdigris
tint to old stumps and the bases of moist rocks.

WILD FLOWEKS OF APEIL.

CHAP. VII.

AN APRIL MORNING. — PRIMROSES — DOG-VIOLETS, ANEMO-
NIES, &C. — BUTTERBUR AND TOOTHWORT. — CELANDINES,
ORCHIS, CUCKOO-FLOWERS. — MIGRATORY BIRDS OF
SPRING — FLOWERS OF THE WOOD. — ADORNMENTS OF THE
GARDEN. — DENIZENS OF A RUSTIC ONE.

" April comes,

And lightly o'er the living scene,
Scatters her freshest, tenderest green."

GRAY.

April is a tearful month, full of gleams and show-
ers— like hope struggling with adversity, but with
victory in view. It is not redundant in flowers, but
scatters with a lavish hand those that shelter under
its verdant wing. Tired with the dreary monotonies
of Winter, who like some scolding tyrant, still turns
round again to repeat his threats when we are chuck-
ling at the turn of his back — so even in April, hailing
as we do the bright green she daily spreads upon the
meadows and within the woods, in the midst of our
pleasures a storm of hail or rain o'erwhelms us in its
dripping embraces again — and compels us to look out
for shelter, in common with the bee and the too-ven-
turesome butterfly.

108 WILD FLOWERS OF

But suppose a morning of unclouded brightness,
the woods vocal with the thrush and the blackbird,
and all nature rejoicing in the genial rays of the sun.
With such a " bespeak" from the weather-office, we
can " look-out" with some pleasure and alacrity, and
gaining a beautiful and secluded locality, notice lei-
surely the gems of creation before us. We have
reached a little valley among the hills, where emerging
from rocky woods a brawling streamlet urges its fro-
ward course, splashing and murmuring over the round
stones in its bed, and then quietly stealing into green
meadows beneath a rough veteran of the forest over-
turned by the winter's storm, that now serves a
temporary purpose as a rustic foot-bridge. Looking
up into a vista of the wood, the Primroses now appear
in their greatest abundance and perfection. What
picture can be more pleasing at this season than to
behold a tribe of little ones all busied in the wood,
each with their hands buried in primroses. On a close
inspection curious varieties are often found, as the
umbelled and liver-coloured Primroses, and occasion-
ally the Oxlip (P. elatiors), occurs.* Prom the latter

* From experiments conducted by Mr. H. C. WATSON, Mr. SIDEBOTHAM,
and other botanists, the details of which appear in the Phytologist, it now
appears pretty clear that the Oxlip, as commonly understood, can only be
considered an intermediate link between the Primrose and Cowslip, pro-
ducible by seed from either. Also, that seed from " the Oxlip" will in its
torn produce not only oxlips, but cowslips and primroses. I have often
observed that when the coppice has been cut down in a wood, that nume-
rous oxlips have appeared there, that must have been seedlings benefiting
by the new light thrown upon the spot. There is indeed another plant
called the Bardfield Oxlip (Primula Jacquinii), found in Essex, which
was thought to be truly distinct as a species, but even this has been re-
cently shown to produce P. vufgaris from its seeds. Nature, indeed,
laughs at man's systematizing efforts, for when the Primrose exhibits
scapescent flowers it simulates the Oxlip, and is often so called ; while the
cowslip luxuriates also into a large-flowered variety. Real hybrids be-
tween the Cowslip and Primrose may also exist, as in England they often

APEIL. 109

the rich deep-coloured Polyanthuses of the Garden are
derived, and the curious florist would therefore do
well to collect any singular varieties of Primrose or
Oxlip met with in the woods. In a similar way the
singularly-varied blossoms of the favourite tribe of
Auriculas have all been derived from a small pale-
coloured plant of little beauty found on the Alps.
Eaw meat applied to the roots of Auriculas is ac-
counted very beneficial to them, and WITHEKIXG
suggests that a similar application would increase the
size and beauty of Polyanthuses. This is indeed only
an extension of the principle of manuring, which
affects even wild flowers very remarkably.

"Wherever we now look around, the border of the
wood is empurpled with violets. But we had better
rest contented with the mere sight of them, they are
" dog-violets" -odourless. Strange that amidst the
storms of March the sweet violet should present itself;
and as bright days arise when we might expect addi-
tional odours from the same tribe, a race suddenly
appear simulating the beauty of their precursors, but
entirely scentless — so that we contemptuously turn
away from what without such a prepossession might
have been regarded with pleasure and satisfaction.
]STo one likes deception. To make a promise to the
eye or ear and break it to the hope, is no uncommon
thing in life, but it is not the less disagreeable for
that. The delicate Anemone (A. nemorosa), bending
before the wind, inspires far different emotions — it

grow side by side. A writer in the Gardener's Chronicle, (1842J, says this
is not the case on the continent, and that the German Oxlip found through-
out Germany, south of the Neckar, and in the pastures of the Tyrol,
" seems to be subject to no varieties, and has a peculiar cramp habit of
leaf, a rough scape, nodding flowers, swelling calyx, and is scentless."

110 WILD FLOWERS OF

now whitens o'er the damp copse, closing its petals at
sunset, or before rain, and expanding them in the
fervid rays of noon. As it is a social plant, the num-
bers that often decorate the mossy carpet of the
woods, present the most pleasing spectacle to the eye
of the April wanderer, giving a peculiar feature to the
spots where they abound, long before the Cuckoo-
flower forms those silver islets that sparkle brightly
from afar in the damper meadows.

" Anemone's weeping flowers,

Dyed in winter's snow and rime,
Constant to their early time,
White the leaf-strewn ground again,
And make each wood a garden glen."*

The petals on their exterior side are often deeply
tinged with purple.

A plant with remarkable thyrsus-like purple ag-
glomerated flowers now presents itself often in great
abundance (for its habits are social) on the stony
barren banks of brooks and rivers. Though well
known in summer by its enormous leaves, which
are larger than those of any other British plant, it
flowers so early and in such low places as to be
seldom noticed, though when found by no means
inconspicuous, and offering an agreeable aliment to
the bees. This is the Butterbur (Tussilago petasites),
whose leaves not appearing till after the flowers have
faded, have several times been used by us as parasols
in summer botanical excursions, which their size and
the length as well as thickness of their petioles well
fits them for. The flowers of the Hybrid Butterbur,
the fertile plant, which is rarer than the common
kind, have a peculiarly elegant aspect.

* CLAUE.

APBIL. Ill

Another curious plant, only seen at this season, and
that but rarely, is the Toothwort (Latlircea squamaria) .
It is entirely confined to sheltered woody spots, almost
always entangled among the roots of trees, from which
circumstance many botanists have considered it to be
parasitical, and it is really so, though difficult to be
observed in its parasitical attachment. But the thick-
branched roots of the Lathrsea in general closely
surround some portion of the roots of the tree they
are connected with, and these roots throw off small
tuberous suckers that penetrate into the system of
the tree thus curiously preyed upon. Its yellow
sickly-looking stalk, clothed only with white tooth-
like scales, and its very pale purple flowers, impart
to it a singular aspect, and it might easily be passed
over at a little distance as a- dead or dying flower.
I once noticed it in rather a curious locality — the
lawn in front of EAEL MOTTNTNORRIS'S mansion at
Arely, Staffordshire, on the roots of lime-trees. This
shows that the plant might easily be introduced into
grounds or gardens, where it would flourish beneath
the shelter of most deciduous trees.

One of the characteristics of April are its golden
Celandines (Ranunculus ficaria) . A beam of light
flashes from the orb of day as he looks forth from
a tempestuous passing cloud, and at once in the moist
verdant meadow a thousand golden stars spread out
their rays as if at the lifting of an enchanter's wand.
Sweetly are they contrasted with the argent stars of
"the crimson-tipped daisy; " and here and there, with
maculated leaf, uprises the bright purple spike of the
Early Purple Orchis (0. masculd). In the marsh
the splendid Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris,)

112 WILD FLOWERS OF

presents her specious glories, and far and wide are
scattered the light purple Cuckoo-flowers (Cardamine
pratensis) —

" Wan-hued Lady-smocks, that love to spring
Near the swamp margin of some plashy pond ; " —

from whence perhaps as we approach, away springs
the quacking Mallard, or the sable Coot ruffles the
water as she shuffles off in a long extending line.

In moist rocky woods the Golden .Saxifrage (Cliry-
soplenium oppositifolium,} now makes a pleasing
appearance, the Hawthorn is evidently becoming
leafy, the Wild Cherry beautifully displays its in-
numerable snowy flowers, and perhaps, amidst its
branches, the newly-arrived Nightingale charms the
ear with her earliest rapturous melody.—

" It is the voice of Spring among the ti'ees." *

At this springing season the Botanical Explorator,
nervously alive to every enjoyment arising not merely
from rural sights, but rural sounds also, is often a
recipient of the most exquisite pleasure, arising from
the melody of birds among the budding brandies.
The feathered tribes, now intent upon the interesting
process of nidification, seek the most retired and
romantic solitudes for their nests. Where the dark
frowning rock shadows the still darker stream — where
the music of running waters gladdens the mazy
labyrinth of the trackless forest — where the still
pool, with its flags, bulrushes, and islets of water-lily
leaves, is skirted by a thicket of hazels and alders, the
ground covered with blue-bells or white Eamsonsf —
there the warblers are sure to resort, and there, too,
the Botanist repairs, to seek for his well-remembered

* GRAHAME. t Allium ursinum, LINN.

APEIL. 113

favourites ; while the Thrush from amidst a bush of
flowering Sallow, below which her blue-spotted eggs
repose, or the Black-cap and Willow-Wren from
Aspens or Poplars trembling beside the murmuring
rill, or old stony mill-weir, pour out their rich tones
and varying cadences with a vigour and delight un-
marked at a later period. Now, too, it is that in
some calm glorious gleam amidst the secluded woods,
just as a passing shower has swept away to sprinkle
distant groves and orchards, and the pausing wan-
derer crouched beneath the tortuous trunk of an old
pollard Lime, is watching anxiously the rifted clouds,
that the joyous note of the Cuckoo, confirming the
hoped for brilliant vernal noon, is heard once and
again, as if from some viewless form in the sky ! It
sweeps again upon the ear, and with it comes a host
of fond cherished remembrances, that for a moment
break the film that grief, care, and perhaps estrange-
ment from once loved friends, has caused slowly but
constantly to gather round the heart, as a breeze long
blowing in one direction, heaps up on the shore of
a lake an accumulated load of fragments, lost to the
eye when left to take their own wandering course far
over its unruffled surface. And yet who is there
from child to decrepid age, who does not pause to
imbibe pleasure or pain at the first sound of the
Cuckoo as it rises on the ear from the deep woods
just showing their primary tint of the palest green ?

Hark ! I can hear the Cuckoo ! what a show
The cherry-trees in wood and orchard make ;
Here with their clust'ring blossoms row o'er row,
There drooping lovely o'er the tangled brake ;
A shower bas fallen, and the branches shake
Sprinkling the rain-drops on our heads below ;

I

114 WILD FLOWERS OF

The sun breaks forth — Oh ! now's the time to take

The rural ramble, and behold in blow
Vetch with its pendants pink, and Stichwort's braids of snow.

Cuckoo ! a thousand extacies awake,

A thousand recollections at the cry ;

April's green woods, the golden gorsy brake,

Young Speedwell blinking with his azure eye,

And tipt with orange bands, the butterfly !

Cuckoo — Cuckoo ! — the echoing hill renews

The swift-returning cadence lost on high :

Lost, 'midst a labyrinth of bloom and dews —
Gone like the fleeting joys that perish as we use. — MS.

How exciting and animating it is at this period, on
a fine calm and balmy morning, to wander amidst
the mossy stones of some sequestered upland wood
adorned with Cherry trees in full blossom, amongst
whose branches the Willow Wren is warbling, or the
Titlark circling about and descending with reiterated
song, while a pattering stream is plunging with re-
peated splashing and gurgling far down within the
gloomy ravine, and at profound depth below, shining
and sparkling in the sunbeams, a silver river frets
and foams amidst rocky fragments, till beyond their
barrier it spreads a chrystal line of brilliance amidst
the emerald meadows. Or if even only roaming list-
lessly by the high road, still as the sunbeams blaze
upon a length of hedge where the Blackthorn (Prunus
spinosa) has encamped, and now puts forth its crowded
clusters white as a snow-drift along the side of a hill,
it is impossible not to pause and admire their lovely
aspect ; — while almost certainly the Wliitetliroat is
sure to be seen sporting in and out of the silvery
efflorescence, as if anxious to compare its white chin
with the sloe-flowers, or feeling that they offered an
admirable shelter for its slender and delicate form.

APEIL. 115

As it flits about, exercising the acutest eye with its
swift motions, it pours forth a soft, intermitting,
shrill, but not unpleasing melody to delight the ob-
server.

The Ground-Ivy (Glechoma hederacea) now flowers
plentifully, offering a bright blue devious line to the
eye beside many a rustic hedge — hence its vernacular
name of " Eobin-run-i'-the-hedge." Some red-cloaked
old woman may now be observed in most villages
"carrying off the church"* in searching for it to
make purifying tea.

From our retreat in the wood, various plants
belonging to the Vernal Mora now arise to view, and
claim botanical attention. Among these the "Wood
Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides), is very conspicuous
with its red stem, and the Stichwort (Stellaria grami-
nea), with its trailing stems and white flowers, is
peculiarly characteristic of this period. Two elegant
plants appear also at this time in the sheltered glade,
and often in juxta-position, that are very ornamental,
and when contrasted with each other, present a fea-
ture that would charm even a non-poetical eye. One
of these is the "White Meadow Saxifrage (Saocifraga
granulata), generally occurring on dry banks, but said
to indicate the proximity of water underneath. I
remember to have seen a great profusion of this
species by the side of the Man of Ross's "Walk, at
Ross, on a sandstone rock, overlooking the beauteous
valley of the "Wye. The other plant to which I
allude, as of frequent occurrence in the central
counties of England, is the Wood Scorpion- Grass
(Myosotis sylvatica), whose broad hairy leaves are

* Of course artistically, as a painter would say.

i 2

116 WILD FLOWEBS OF

well observable at this time, and whose brilliant azure
flowers (curled scorpion-like before expansion) have
a most elegant aspect, though not so large as those
of the true " Forget-Me-Not," which appear at a
later period. "When seen together, as I have fre-
quently seen these plants, and in considerable plenty,
in a little bosky meadowy glen, close to the thickety
side of the Laughern Brook, at Henwick, near "Wor-
cester, (a loved haunt of many a blissful day in
boy-hood,) the effect of their azure and white con-
trasted flowers is exceedingly charming and lovely.

The Wood- Anemone at its maximum of flowering,
now whitens almost every copse or woodland meadow ;
and scarcely noticeable but by close inspection, the
Field Hush (Luzula campestris) appears amidst the
rising grass pretty generally. On secluded banks or
hills amidst coppice wood, the light blue flowers of
the Lesser Periwinkle (Vinca minor), glistening with
dew-drops, present an interesting aspect to the prying
eye of the wanderer at this time, and indeed even a
warm January day will call forth some of its flowers
almost as early as those of the Snowdrop. The glossy
evergreen leaves present a singular contrast to the
blue flowers, and generally trail far and wide.

In delicacy of aspect surely no vernal flower can
exceed the Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosellci), which
now appears standing with its " veined flowers," on the
sides of romantic ravine-like lanes, amidst stones, and
moss, and fern, or not unfrequently its triune leaves
(said to have been the original Shamrock of St.
Patrick) and white drooping flowers cover over the
declining moss-covered trunk of a decrepid tree with
a- wreath of Nature's own approval. Often, fatigued

APKIL.

117

with a long ramble over hill and dale have we paused
in such a locality to refresh our tongue with the
agreeable acid derived from the leaves of this beautiful
but retiring plant.

The humbler throng of Flora's train, as the green
Mercury, the Dead-nettles, and other plebii we must
now, at least, leave undescribed — for every day pre-
sents some addition to them. Several Ranunculi also
appear, but in a general glance at vegetable nature,
they only claim attention in their perfect culmination,
when their golden tints in broad masses or waving
lines, give a feature to the landscape with the contrasted
hues of other objects. On the banks of coppices,
however, the goldilock Crowfoot (Ranunculus auri-
comus), when its flowers are in full perfection, often
offers a bright point of attraction to the cursory gaze.
But it is remarkable that the petals are mostly abor-
tive, and the little hairy -leaved Ranunculus par mflorus
seldom exhibits more than three petals.

Lady botanists and florists should be now on the
alert looking over their pots, mourning over the
destruction of winter, replacing the ravages of its
icy hand, and giving their poor stunted Geraniums,
&c. the benefit of light and air, as well as of a warm
shower, should it present itself opportunely. They
must also, bonnet on head, " look out " in the garden,
remembering that if seeds are to come up they must
be first sown, and now is the time to begin, if not
begun before. The Chinese Primrose (Primula
sinensis) looks well at this time, exhibited in full
flower in the windows of those who happen to possess
it. If fine days (which however in this fickle climate
it is impossible to guarantee,) should continue in any

118 WILD FLOWERS OF

succession, the gardens will be studded with the early
vernal flora, the primaveral being hardly yet gone
out. Wall-flowers, Anemonies, Early Tulips, Kanun-
culi, Narcissi, Jonquils, Hepaticas, Grentianellas, and
other hardy herbaceous plants, being in full bloom
by the middle of the month. In the rustic garden
the Crown Imperial (Fritillaria Imperialis), and its
varieties, now claim a passing attention with its pen-
dant coronals ; and what a beautiful appearance is
presented on looking WITHIN the flower, and per-
ceiving a lovely milk-white globule in the nectary, at
the base of each petal, which retains its place till the
flower begins to wither, when it dries up, unless some
bird has previously quaffed the delicious draught,
leaving only a depression to mark its former position.
It is said that if the petals are deprived of this
delicate fluid, the anthers and stigma soon wither,
and no seed is produced, so that it seems intended to
act as sustenance for the embryo progeny contained
after fecundation in the seed-vessel. PHILLIPS in his
" Flora Historica," calls this specious Persian plant
the " Lilv of the Turbaned countries, which towers

»• *

above all the flowers of our vernal parterres, throwing
up its tall stem amidst the dwarf flowers of April,
like the tall Palm amongst trees, or a pagoda arising
out of a Chinese town." He observes further, that
" this imperial, flower is not without its body-guard,
to keep its admirers at a proper distance ; for it
posesses so strong a scent of the fox, combined with
that of garlic, as to ensure its protection from med-
dling fingers, and its safety from the saloon vase. It
is the same property of the plant, we may presume,
that defends it from being rifled of its nectareous

APRIL. 119

juices, which are not only rejected by the bees, but
refused by all kinds of insects."

The chequered Fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris)
now shows its pendulous flowers in some old gardens,
or spots that once were gardens ; and occasionally the
American Cowslip (JDodecatlieon Meadia,) adorns the
border with its gracefully drooping brilliant lilac
umbels. The Double Daisy (JBellis perennis, var.
plena-flora), " O commendable flowre," as Father
CHAUCER hath it, is not to be despised in its aspect at
this season as a border plant, nor its favourite curious
rustic variety the Proliferous or Hen-and- Chicken
Daisy. There is something extremely pleasing in
entering within the trim enclosure of some old rustic
cottage garden entrusted to the keeping of a prattling
hobbling old dame, whose flower roots and stock of
bright red Polyanthuses have been kept up from old
time even beyond her memory, till the thick grown-
up box border of a century's growth encloses the
auriculas and crocusses within their enclosure like
so many Egyptian Sarcophagi. Here the old Crown-
Imperial is sure to be seen, and many a tuft of
old-man, marjoram, sage, hyssop, and lavender, while
a rough rugged time-battered old Elder shadows over
the ricketty gate at which he stands sentry, or makes
a homely arbour at the entrance of the timbered
or cracked thatched dwelling.—

" On piled bench, beside the cottage door,
Made up of mud and stones, and sodded o'er ;
Where rustic taste at leisure trimly weaves
The rose and straggling woodbine to the eaves, —
And on the crowded spot that pales enclose,
The white and scarlet daisy rears in rows, —

120 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL.

Training the trailing peas in bunches neat,

Perfuming evening with a luscious sweet, —

And sunflowers planted for their gilded show,

That scale the window's lattice ere they blow,

Then sweet to habitants within the sheds,

Peep through the diamond panes their golden heads."

CLARE,

In shrubberies the Laurel (Cerasus pruno-cerasus)
appears in flower, and at this time bees abound on
the laurels, attracted by the sweet liquor exuding
from two glands on the under side of the leaf, which
is particularly plentiful on a warm day. Plantations
of young Larches with their fresh green foliage and
young pink cones make one of the most pleasing
exhibitions of spring.

WILD FLOWEKS OF APEIL.
(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. VIII.

LEAFAGE OF THE TREES. — WILLOW, SYCAMORE, ELM, PEAR.
— FLOWERING ORCHARDS. — THE COWSLIP. — MARSH-
MARIGOLD, BLUEBELL, AND OTHER FLOWERS. — ACCOUNT
OF THE ARUM. — CLOSING STORM.

" I never see the broad-leaved Arum spring

Stained with spots of jet ; I never see
Those dear delights which April still does bring ;

But memory's tongue repeats it all to me.
I view her pictures with an anxious eye ;

I hear her stories with a pleasing pain :
Youth's wither'd flowers, alas! ye make me sigh,

To think in me ye'll never bloom again.

CLARE.

Slowly, especially in backward springs, proceeds the
leafage of the trees, but it does proceed ; and ere the
month has entirely closed, the proverbial tender green
of April is pretty generally diffused over the fields
and along the hedges. The fine digitated leaves of
the Horse- Chesnut, in particular, present, as they ex-
pand, an appearance very agreeable to the eye. The
young verdure of the larch, too, has now a very enli-
vening effect in plantations ; here and there a veteran
hawthorn will be seen with a scanty verdant mantle
about his aged limbs ; and in moist coppices the

122 WILD FLOWERS OF

elegant Birch is arrayed in the most delicate and
unsullied frondage. Where birches are numerous in
a wood, their aspect in early spring as the young
leaves have just expanded, and violets strew the
ground below, is very exciting to the observer, while
some sound of vernal movement is sure to break upon
the ear. In fact one genial April shower has often
such a magical effect, that woods and groves will, often
in a single day, exchange their sad hibernal aspect for
the smiling and exciting look that at once calls us
bounding away to the green woods.

The Beech is a tree that exhibits its delicate young
leaves before the close of April, though only scattered
trees appear to delight the eye, except where the hills
of Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire rejoice in
their extensive beech en groves, splendid in their
deep shade and solemn exclusiveness. A pleasing
writer has thus alluded to the foliation of the
beech woods of Gloucestershire, which is of course
applicable to other districts where the beech occurs.
" Virgil has elegantly given to the vernal season the
epithet of Hushing, because the shoots and buds of
trees assume a ruddy appearance previous to throwing
out their leaves. This beautiful effect is very obvious
in the deep beech woods of Gloucestershire. Unen-
livened by that silver rind and those multifarious
tintings that diversify the stem and branches of the
birch, they present a dreary appearance through the
winter months. But in April a slight change of hue
becomes perceptible. A casual observer might ascribe
it to a drier air, a clearer atmosphere, or to those tran-
sient gleams of sunshine which seem to light up the
face of nature with a smile. But the effect arises

APEIL. 123

from that secret renovation which the aged fathers of
the forest and their sapling sons are now experiencing.
The swelling buds are first brown, then bronze, then
of a reddish hue, and thus they continue till a light
green bough is seen to wave, as if in triumph, from
some warm sheltered nook. This is a signal for a
general foliation ; and he who retires in the evening,
casting a look at his beloved woods, rather wishing
than expecting that another week will cover them with
leaves, often rejoices the next morning to observe that
the whole forest has burst into greenness and luxu-
riance."*

The Sycamore very early puts forth its fine broad
frondage, a beautiful object wherever it stands by the
roadside and old farm-house ; the weeping Willow
(Salix Babylonica), is now also arrayed in its pallid
young foliage, and the Hazel and common white Wil-
low have their leaves just expanded; the Elm and Pear
are beginning to be partially green, but the other forest
trees will still remain in a denuded state much longer,

April 18th, according to Forster, has been desig-
nated Ulmifrondes, or Elm's-tide, on account of the
Elm generally appearing in leaf on this day; but this
will only happen in central England in early seasons.
The Elm (IJlmus cainpestris) flowers early in March,
long before the foliage appears, as does the Wytch-
Hazel (Ulmus montana), a true British denizen, often
of distorted aspect, whose hop-like clusters of capsules
begin to appear very conspicuous. Where a deep
winding lane is fringed on either side with pollarded
ashes or old monstrous-headed wytch-hazels, a solemn
yet soothing effect is often produced at this transition

* Annals of my Village, a Calendar of Nature, &c.

12 I WILD FLOWEKS OF

season, when a high wind lashes the young smooth
shoots of the past year against each other high in air,
with a shrill, straining, yet not unmusical sound ;
combined with the roaring of the wind among the
branches, while all is calm and still below. So the
thoughtful and contemplative naturalist, treads his
lonely quiet path, below the noise and convulsions of
the perturbed world around him, happy in his wood-
land shade.

The lover of nature, now looking out every morn-
ing for fresh objects of attraction, cannot fail to be
delighted while he is searching among groves and
streams, or toiling up dark stony ravines among the
hills, with the successive arrival of the various migra-
tory birds, which always takes place at this cool leaf-
ing time. A south-west wind is very favourable to
their appearance, and they will thus often be seen in
numbers among the trees on the banks of a stream
where one was not visible the day before. Thus in
certain favourite haunted localities, among violets and
primroses, where a coppice is divided by a gurgling
stream that in some places buries itself among black
lichenized pebbles, with its sides faced and tiled with
the glaucous-green Marchantia, on a bright April
morning the notes of the Nightingale, Titlark, Black-
cap, and "Willow-Wren, may all be heard in delightful
unison, while the pauses of the concert are filled up
by the loud cheer of the song Thrush, or the echoing
nourish of the "Woodpecker. Such a copse tempting
the early foot of contemplation it has been often my
delight to visit when the purple orchis with spotted
leaf was springing from the dewy pasture, and the
humble Robin-run-i'-the-hedge was opening its blue

APRIL.

125

eyes on the morning co-incident with the appearance
of the feathered warblers. Nor less do I remember
another dingle thick embowered with wood, where
springs trickled from amidst curling ferns, and meet-
ing rills dashed their brown waters over stony slabs
of high polish to foam and sputter in the deepening
ravine, where far below lonely pools enamoured the
blue kingfisher. There have I lingered after birds and
flowers like a "vagabond flag" -as these lines part of a
longer effusion may show.

Deep in the dandling foliage I beheld
A sportive Willow-\Yren as swift he flew ;
Down the rough glen by nature's love impell'd
I follow'd, but he vanish'd from my view ;
Yet it was lovely in the morning dew
To see the Bilberry blossoms, and to hear
From the young verdant foliage, the new
Song of the Blackcap burst upon the ear
Midst green romantic dells and splashing waters near.

Here I could linger in the woody glen
Beneath the beech or pensile birch-tree laid,
And mark the flowers, — the modest Woodroof when
Her milk-white blossoms scent the mossy shade,
And Alchemilia's green ones scarce survey'd,
Though curious with her spreading leafy fan,
With Woodrush's tall tapering silky blade,
Fair Vicia's purple clusters in the van,
And Strawberry's bunches white, and tall Alisma's wan.

Besides the plants here enumerated, the wild yellow
Tulip (Tulipa sylvestris), is occasionally met with
beautifying dry banks or old quarries, yet too seldom
flowering even in localities where it may have been
noticed for years, the long narrow glazed leaves only
appearing to view. In rough hilly spots, many a lofty
spreading Ash tree yet stands leafless, though bearing

126 WILD TLOWEBS OF

dark clusters on its branches, which are the naked
organs of its fructification. The wild woodbine has
now fully expanded its leaves, and festoons many a
hazel with a rich verdant wreath, or dangles from
the spreading head of some old pollard willow.

By the close of the month, on the average of years,
the Pear-trees in the orchards of Herefordshire, Wor-
cestershire, and Gloucestershire, present a most
beautiful spectacle ; and after a light shower, as the
sun again breaks through the parting clouds, and
picturesque white cumuli appear dotting the blue
heavens, scarcely any thing can be more exciting than
to ramble through a series of pear orchards, where
the landscape is backed by the mural Malvern hills,
stretched in long dark boldly-swelling steeps, the
trees white with a profusion of bloom, while the
humble-bee booms through the air, the Blackcap
warbles amidst the branches, the Nightingale chirrups
among the pollard oaks of the coppice, and the
"wandering voice" of the Cuckoo ', comes floating at
intervals up the vale now redolent of fragrance. A
pear-orchard in exuberant flower is a vegetable spec-
tacle not easily matched, for the bending branches of
the Pear-tree give a gracefulness to its outline far
exceeding the stiff formality of the Apple-tree, and
oppressed with a multitudinous crowd of blossoms its
branches almost trail the ground, a bending load of
beauty that seems by moonlight a mass of silvery
ingots. The "Barland Orchard," between "Worcester
and Malvern, containing more than seventy trees
lofty as oaks, cannot be seen by the traveller without
admiration, and is the finest in the kingdom, though
the trees are now getting old.

APEIL.

127

The Cowslip {Primula veris), one of the most
beautiful of British plants, now appears dotting the
moist meadows, especially upon clayey soil or the lias
formation ; and curiously enough the lias may often
be traced for miles at this season by the abundant
crop of cowslips on its surface, while the adjacent red
marl meadows have scarcely any.* The cowslip has
always been a general favourite, and surely a field of
cowslips in the vernal season is an object on which the
eye and the memory rests delighted; for who is
there that has not tossed about the cowslip-ball with
sportive glee, or brought home in triumph the first
expanded one that could be discerned in the field, or
rising beauteous in the shade of the thicket. A lady
may well be credited the recorder of a joyful maiden's
feelings, as in the following lines —

" But oh, what rapture Mary's eyes would speak,
Through her dark hair how rosy glow'd her cheek,
If in her playful search she saw appear
The first-blown cowslip of the opening year."

MRS. SHERIDAN.

And so to many is the first sight and scent of the
floral queen of the spring, for visions of childhood will
then rise again in the mind, for a transient moment,
brilliant as its golden bells when they droop lovely in
the balmy freshness of the morning. Then, we can
hardly fail to call to mind the beautiful simile of
SHAKSPEARE'S relative to IMOGEN !-

" On her left breast

A mole, cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I' the bottom of a Cowslip"
And recur also to the " Midsummer Night's Dream"

* The Cowslip is scarcely found in Devonshire, where there is a con-
siderable tract of red marl. But the observation in the text applies to the
borders of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

128 WILD FLOWEBS OP

where these " crimson drops" are denominated
"rubies, fairies' favours." The drooping corolla of
the cowslip, its golden bells hanging from their very
pale green calyces, is a peculiar feature that the poets
have not forgotten to allude to ; CLARE calls them

" Sowing odorers of the gale,"
and HUEDIS, in his " Village Curate" pictures

" The love-sick Cowslip, that the head Inclines
To hide a bleeding heart."

The Cowslip varies much in the bright or pale tint
of its flowers, and very rarely red ones are found.
The name probably originated from the perfume of
the flowers having been thought to resemble the sweet
scent of the breath of cows. Its odour, though weak,
is very agreeable, and the wine made from the blos-
soms is of the sweetest and most harmless in exist-
ence— scarcely, indeed, deserving to appear even in
the Index expurgatorius of a tee-totaller ! In some
districts the children of the peasantry sell the flowers,
divested of the ovaria, to some advantage to them-
selves to the manufacturers of British wines.

Damp meadows at this time present a brilliant
appearance with the specious flowers of the Marsh
Marigold, or rather Ranunculus (Caltlia palustris),
whose expanded petals now make a fine show, being
near their height of beauty. A luxuriant plant in a
sunny place will often flower in March, and Mr. T.
FOESTEE remarks it as " in flower in the end of
March in the marshes about Lea Bridge, in Essex."
In the midland counties this fine plant of the marsh
and the brook often presents its splendid flowers in
full blow by the 10th of April, and by the middle of
the month it is in perfection, edging willowy copses

APBIL. 129

with a belt of gold. In some rural districts the inele-
gant name of Horse-blob is applied to it, and so the
Northamptonshire peasant bard remarks —

" 'neath the shelving bank's retreat

The Horse-blob swells its golden ball."

By degrees, as the pleasant green of April spreads
over the country, flowers, albeit homely ones, get into
the ascendant and diversify the verdure ; — here and
there a Dandelion, in a snug warm birth, spreads out
the star of his order ; and on the margin of some
mossy pool, just within the copse where the thrush is
now sitting on her blue-speckled eggs, appears the
bitter Cuckoo-flower (Cardamine amara), distinguished
from its more common congener by the purple colour
of its stamens and the nauseously bitter taste of its
foliage. In companionship with this, though almost
in the water itself, appear the two allied golden Saxi-
frages (Clirysospleniwm oppositifoliivm et alternifolium) ,
the latter, however, rather the finer and the rarer of
the two. Trailing on the ground within the copse
appears the Bugle (Ajuga reptans), its rising heads of
dull blue flowers very apparent in the shade.

To the wanderer who at this renovating season
penetrates in the early morning into the dewy copse,
and there pauses, listening to the sounds that rise
around him, there is a soothing charm that comes
redolent of peace to the chastened spirit, and for a
time obliterates the memory of many a care. How
simply do they judge, who think the prying botanist,
has, in his morning's ramble, merely gathered some
humble plant on which to employ his systematic or
speculative powers. True, he bears some fairy blos-
som from its hidden retreat, and so far lias extended

130 WILD FLOWERS OF

his knowledge ; but he has done more than this — he
has communed with his own spirit amidst rocks and
clouds ; and above the hoarse-voiced waving of the
trees of the wood, he has heard a voice whose solemn
intonations follow his recollections into the common
walks of life. The secluded forest has now become
the adytum of his secret thoughts, where he flies like
a wearied bird to its roost ; and disappointment and
woe only add an increase to the sacred feelings with
which he regards it.

Towards the close of April the spring Blue-bell
(Scilla or Agraphis nutans), opens its nodding flowers
— FOESTEE intimates on ST. GEOEGE'S DAT, with
which it appears the blue-bell of spring is associated ;
but the hue of heaven is not actually profusely trans-
ferred to earth by this pretty plant till the brighter
days of May appear. Some botanists refer it to the
genus Hyacinthus, with which its habit more accords
than with Scilla, according to Dr. Hooker, but it has
nothing to do with the Hyacinth of antiquity; and
hence LINN.STTS distinguished it by the term, " non-
scriptus" as having no inscribed characters on its
petals. But if it fails in this respect, its beauty on
the forest lawn or upland meadow, spangled with the
pure dews of the morn ing, excites the most rapturous
delights, especially to any one deprived for a time of
so fair a spectacle. The untiring naturalist indeed
with all the fancy of a poet, can always find supreme
delight when on a vernal ramble —

" Tracking some channel on its journey wild,
Where dripping blue-bells on its border weep :
O what a lovely scene to nature's child !"

And so have we plunged into the copses bordering

APBIL. 131

some stream, whining like a child among the pebbles
of its native hills ; and there leaping from bank to bank
amidst a maze of long-stalked blue-bells and broad-
leaved Samsons, with rampant thickets bursting into
verdure about our steps, have wandered with the
wandering stream, excited into happiness and forgetful
of all but the peaceful influences of the moment.

CLAEE has associated the Arum or " Cuckoo-pint 5:
{Arum maculatum), with this month.

" Hooded Arum early sprouting up;"

and its leaves, often spotted with black, are among
the earliest to catch the eye, while its curious inflor-
escence surmounted by a purple spadix, and enclosed
within a large green hood, like a friar's cowl, has been
always the object of popular notice. This purple club
with its floral appendages bear various familiar names,
as "cows and calves," "lords and ladies," &c., as thus
noticed by the Northamptonshire poet — the fully ma-
tured dark purpled spadices being bulls or lords, the
paler ones cows or ladies, and immature ones calves.

" How sweet it us'd to be, when April first
Unclosed the Arum leaves, and into view
Its ear-like spindling flowers their cases bxirst,
Betinged with yellowish white or lushy hue ;
Ah, how delighted, humming on the time
Some nameless song or tale, I sought the flowers;
Some rushy dyke to jump, or bank to climb
Ere I obtain'd them ; while from hasty showers
Oft under trees we nestled in a ring,
Culling our ' lords and ladies.' — O ye hours.''

The Arum appears to have been mentioned by
SHAKSPEAEE, as "long-purples," though it is generally
contended that the immortal bard had the purple
Orchis (0. masculd), in his view. But the name of

K2

132 WILD FLOWEBS OF

" dead-men's fingers," by which the " cold maids '
designated the flowers of the plant, might seem to
decide the question in favour of the Arum, as the
flowers of the Orchis would scarcely suggest such an
idea ; though the flabby club of the Arum does present
such an analogy. In fact, curiously enough, we have
actually in the present day, heard "cold" country
damsels, who probably had never heard of the existence
of Shakspeare, call the Arum by this very name of
" dead men's fingers."* The cluster of scarlet berries,
which ripens in the autumn after the spadix is totally
withered, is not by common observers generally con-
sidered to have sprung from those minute bead-like
ovaria below the pollen-bearing organs, that in the
early spring, pale, wan, and delicate, charmed the eye
in contrast with the deep purple club, at whose base
they are so symmetrically ranged. In unclouded sun-
shine a fetid scent sometimes arises from the hood or
spatha of the arum, not observable under other cir-
cumstances.

But we have wandered through the floral mazes of
April amidst inspiring sunny gleams, and we quit them

* It is however rather curious, that both to the Arum and the Orchis,
liberal shepherds give a grosser name, as SHAKSPEARE says, and both are
abundantly conspicuous in the spring. In an old English MS. which was
published as a curiosity in the Archceologia, the Arum is made to figure as
an herb of power under the name of "Dragance " and " Nedderistonge,"
and it is there asserted that if the hands are well washed in its juice —
" Yu schalt Nedderis [Adders] withoutyn peryle

Gaderyn and handelyn hem at thi wylle."

Under the influence of a hot sun, a very foetid snake-like scent rises from
the spatha of the Arum. Its fine shining leaves sometimes thickly spotted
with black, emerge from the ground with the first mild days of February,
when the rustic term "Wake-Robin" seems not inappropriate, but the
foliage withers away before the sun of June, so that the cluster of red fruit
stands at last lonely and desolate, revealed beneath every hedge, a prey
to every passer by,

APEIL. 133

in a storm — such a one as must occasionally occur to
every botanical explorator, and which has, perhaps too
often, exploded upon ourselves when unprepared for it.
The hills lour, the sudden blast whirls the pear-tree
blossoms far and wide, dense clouds obscure the sun,
and ' deep impervious gloom settles upon all things.
And now the hail impetuously rattles upon the heads
of the flying rustics ; cattle run beneath the old pollard
oaks ; sheep in a compact body take the shelter of an
overhanging thorny hedge ; birds scream, and are lost
to view amidst the twisted branches of the dark extend-
ing wood. But whither shall we fly, for a furious and
overwhelming snow-storm drives along, and we are
surprised upon the bare unsheltered hills ! — But the
clouds fly swifter than the vicissitudes of life, — far on
the storm pursues its mad career, and resplendent
peaked silvery cirrJw-cumuli rise majestically above the
black rain-clouds on the western horizon.

EXPLOEATOET NOTICES FOE APEIL.

The Botanical Explorator commences his labours in
earnest this month, and hence, perhaps, it may be
advantageous to the neophyte, to give him an idea of
the apparatus he should be furnished with. A tin box,
orvasculum, has been generally recommended for put-
ting plants into when gathered, but though this is
convenient enough for Mosses and Fungi, Jungerman-
nice, MarcJiantice, or any succulent plants, it is not well
adapted for the preservation of delicate flowers with
others of a coarser nature, especially if any number
be collected, for the whole must then be pressed and
jammed together in one heterogeneous mass. A large
vasculum. may indeed be obtained, but the appearance
of this thrown over the shoulder is rather inelegant,
and subjects the wearer to the supposition of his being
a dealer in lolipops ! I have therefore long laid the
tin box aside, with the exception above adverted to,
and in its stead I recommend a folio or quarto blank
book of cartridge, brown, or thick cap paper, to be
carried. This should have interspersed within it a
number of what bookbinders term "guards," which
will allow of many plants being placed within the book
without increasing its thickness. Its cover may be of
green canvass, roan of any colour, or simply half-
bound, according to individual taste. For mountain
excursions I have found an external cover of polished
black leather very useful in case of rainy weather. It

EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR APRIL. 135

may be slung over the shoulder with a strap like a fish-
ing basket or artist's portfolio, and makes a better
turn out, and is in reality more convenient than the
tin vasculum. Plants at once carefully placed between
the leaves of the Collecting Book, may be preserved
for examination several days without detriment, though
it will be advisable of course as soon as convenient to
shift them into fresh papers, and then dry the leaves of
the book.

As it is expedient in many instances to get up
plants by their roots, which are often a considerable
depth in hard gravelly soil or stiff clay, a large case
knife should be carried for this purpose ; or what is
better still, a Digger, or curved Trowel should be
obtained. This should be ordered from some cutler's,
and consists of a broad stiff blade six or eight inches
in length, fastened into a strong handle, and fitted
with a stout leather sheath. Or the steel may be in
a tubular shape, with a handle, like a bricklayer's
trowel, and fitted into a case. A blade or hook that
Would screw to the end of a walking-stick or umbrella^
is a good aid for obtaining aquatic plants.

A smaller pocket-book, or old pamphlet, which could
go into the breast pocket, is very convenient for the
more delicate plants ; and this, with a magnifying
glass hung round the neck, and some Compendium of
the British Flora in the pocket, will complete the
equipment absolutely necessary for the practical col-
lector. A sporting jacket of a dark hue, is perhaps
the best external covering for the traversing of bogs
and thickets ; and this should have besides its external
pockets, one or two within side, sufficiently large
to contain the collecting book* For a long excursion

136 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR APRIL.

a pocket pistol is not to be forgotten. Eor protection
against a sudden storm when on a tour, I have found
one of the cloaks called a toga, or a wrapper of rough
cloth an excellent protection ; and with such a one
about me I endured comparatively scatheless, one of
the heaviest down-pours dashed off from Snowdon in
one of his very surliest fits.

WILD FLOWEES OF MAT.

CHAP. IX.
SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN THE FLOWERING OP BRITISH

PLANTS. — SIX FLOWERING PERIODS DESCRIBED IN DE-
TAIL, THE PRIMAVERAL, VERNAL, SOLSTITIAL, .^STIVAL,
AUTUMNAL, AND HIBERNAL. — FLORAL SYMPATHIES OF
POETS AND BOTANISTS.

" Let mother Earth now deck'd with flowers be seen,
And sweet breath'd Zephyrs curl the meadows green."

DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN,

" Methought fresh May before my bed upstude,

In weed depaint of mony diverse hue,
Sober, benign, and full of mansuetude,

In bright attire of flouris forged new,
Heavenly of colour, white, red, brown, and blue,

Balmy in dew, and gilt with Phoebus bemys."

CHAUCER.

Before gathering " May Flowers," it will be con-
venient to subdivide the garland of the year into
characteristic FLOBALIAS, or FLOEAL EEIGNS, which
may perhaps be made more intelligible by the peculiar
flowers comprised within them, than the mere artificial
divisions of the months. They will also be more na-
tural, as these Floralias will of course remain the same
whether the seasons be earlier or later ; for even in
successive years there is often a very considerable dif-
erence in the dates of flowering of many plants, accord-
ing to mildness or severity of the weather. Thus in
the stormy and ungenial springs of 1837 and 1839?

138 WILD FLOWEKS OF

the Blackthorn (Primus spinosa), which in average
seasons usually blooms about the middle of April, was
not in flower until May 1st, although in the hot spring
of 1840, I noticed it in flower at Stanton in Wor-
cestershire, on April 1st, as it was also at Worcester
in the very warm spring of 1848.

The Hawthorn (Qratcegus oxyacantha), which is in
many springs at least partially in flower on May-day,
only commenced flowering to my observation in 1837
on May 26th, for in a communication I made in that
year to " The Naturalist"* I penned this remark: —
" May 26. Noticed a Hawthorn-bush in flower for the
first time this year, but in a ride of thirty miles it was
the only one so circumstanced." The Hawthorn was
almost equally late in coming into flower in 1839,
while in 1840 it was observed in flower in Worcester-
shire on April 25th, and on the first of May was
copiously in blossom. The Pear Orchards ought in
genial seasons to be generally in flower in the second
week in April, continuing till the middle of May ; but
in 1837, the Pear-trees were not fully in flower until
May 15th, although in 1840 their flowering was over
by the 1st of May, when the Apple-trees, generally
a fortnight later, were in their primest perfection.
The Horse Chesnut usually displays its splendid
thyrsi of flowers the latter end of April and beginning
of May, but in 1837 this tree only came into flower
on May 25th ; yet, in 1848, it flowered at Worcester
on May Sth.f

* A Periodical, then edited by NEVILLE WOOD, Esq., but since discon-
tinued.

t In the Phytologist for 1848, will be found a paper, by myself, on the
" Acceleration in the flowering of Plants and frondescence of Trees,"
incident to the high temperature of the spring of that year.

MAT. 139

Thus temperature and the occurrence or non-occur-
rence of bitter frosts and uugenial storms in April
and May, make a great difference in the aspect of the
Flora SpectaUlis, for while in 1839, the bitter frosts
of April and May so cut up the vernal flowers, that
Lilacs ' and Laburnums scarcely exhibited expanded
blossoms at all, and while in 1837 they only displayed
their beauty in the middle of June ; on May 6thy
1840, both shone in the shrubberies with the utmost
gorgeous effulgence and profusion. I find the follow-
ing observation in my Journal for 1837, relative to
the retardation in the leafage of trees, and their foli-
ation was almost equally backward in 1839 : — " May
13. Alder not in leaf except very partially ; Ash, no
signs of opening foliage apparent ; Beech, the leaves
only fully expanded this day; Birch, young leaves
just open ; Elm, leaves expanding, but scarcely open,
general aspect denuded ; Hawthorn, the hedges not
yet entirely green, and no sign of blossom anywhere ;
Hazel, not in leaf except here and there ; Horse- Ches-
nut, the foliage fully out, but not any flowers ; Lime,
only just opening ; Maple, buds as yet only apparent ;
Pear, leaves only partially expanded; Sycamore, merely
in young leaf; AVillow, young foliage just apparent
only ; Service (Pyrus torminalis), entirely leafless ;
Oak, totally bare." — The latter tree was quite devoid
of foliage as well as the Ash on May 29, 1839, and
yet in 1840, so hot and cloudless was the weather in
April, the thermometer rising in the shade at three
p.m. to 72° (at Forthampton, Gloucestershire), that
the leafage of the trees was nearly accomplished in
a single week, from April 18th to April 25th, on which,
latter day I noticed even the Oak in young foliage ;

140 WILD PLOWEES OF

and the Ash, seldom in full leaf until June, exhibited
expanded foliage in many instances on May 1st. Both
the Ash and the false Acacia (Ilobinia-pseud-acacia),
had copious leafage on May 5th. Thus in this remark-
ably forward year the frondescence of trees •, which in
general begins with the aquatic kinds, was almost
reversed ; at any rate the "Willows, Poplars, and Alders,
put forth their leaves in company with the Lime,
Beech, and Oak. So in the suddenly warm spring of
1848, all the trees were in full leaf by May 10th,
except the Ash, whose foliage, however, commenced
expanding at that date.

The Elder (Sambucus nigra), is very characteristic
of our transient summer, which can never be said to
be established till the perfume of its sulphur umbels
loads the evening air, and this frequently happens the
last week in May ; but in 1839, the flowers were not
even expanded before June 17th. Yet in 1848 the
Elder commenced flowering on May 16th, and was
generally in flower by the 24th of that month.

In this way the flowering of plants and trees may be
expected to vary in their precise times ; and the noting
of this1, and its connection with the appearance of the
migratory birds, will always be a source of amusement,
instruction, and enjoyment, to the observant naturalist.

Mr. E. EOESTEB, in his "Perennial Calendar" and
other works relative to the periodical flowering of
plants, has indicated six distinct seasonal periods, to
each of which respectively a certain number of the
species indigenous to or naturalized in Britain belong.
These I shall now proceed to enumerate, and though
it must be expected that many plants will appear in
more than one division, or connect one with another,

MAT. 141

yet on the whole I think it advantageous to adopt
FORSTER'S nomenclature, premising, that in his view
each period has its culmination, or " maximum of
flowering beauty," when of course its aspect will best
appear in contrast with the culmination of its neigh-
bour. • " As individual plants may be noted as flower-
ing, culminating, and deflowering, according as they
first open, arrive at full maturity, and fade, so the
same may be said of the aggregate of flowers of each
particular season, technically termed Floras. And
this is the best method we can adopt for illustrating
the face of nature at each of the six principal periods
of the revolving year."*

The periods thus characterized are as follow, but to
render the subject more intelligible, I have somewhat
enlarged and further illustrated his minor details.
The various indications of the approach of the seasons,
constitute, as he observes, a subject of considerable
interest ; and they are to be deduced principally from
the periodical return of certain natural phenomena,
such as the re-appearance of the birds of passage, the
awakening of insects and other hybernators from their
long inaction, the pairing of animals, nidification of
the feathered tribes, the flowering of plants, and the
ripening of fruits. Let us now examine the divisions
adverted to.

I. THE PEIMAVEEAL KEIGKN.

II. THE VERNAL.
III. THE SOLSTITIAL.

IY. THE ^ESTIVAL.

Y. THE AUTUMNAL.

VI. THE HIBERNAL.

* FORSTIR'S Perennial Calendar, 8vo. p. 141.

142 WILD FLOWERS OF

The Primaveral Eloralia or Floral Beign, may be
said to commence with the first breaking up of the
frost before or in the early part of February. It com-
prehends the " first pale blossom of the year," the
Snowdrop, the Crocus, the argent though humble and
minute Draba Verna, the Grolden Saxifrages and some
other cruciferous flowers, the specious though after-
wards rank and dissightly Coltsfoot, the Anemonies —

" From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed;"
the ever-exciting Violets and Primroses on their well-
remembered banks, and all the tribe of Daffodils,
Narcissi, Hyacinths, and many others. In the woods
the golden catkins of the Sallow, as well as those of
the Hazel, are predominant and characteristic.

The Vernal Moralia may be considered as intro-
duced by the Lady-smock, (Cardamine pratensis),
which in warm spots is in flower by Lady-day, March
25th, though its culmination does not take place before
a month afterwards. Now it is that
" Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight,"

these "cuckoo-buds," so called when unopened, be-
coming when the sun breaks forth at noon the
resplendent golden stars of the Pilewort (Ficaria
verna] ; in damp oozy spots the Marsh Marigold
(Galtlia palustris), is seen from afar; and Dandelions
become very numerous, marking the latter period of
this floralia with their conspicuous white clocks. Now
"the love-sick Cowslip that the head inclines," appears
beautifying the pastures, and on the margin of woods
the early Purple Orchis (0. masculd), becomes a bril-
liant object of attraction. Towards the close of April,
or about St. George's Day, April 23rd, the carpet of

MAY". 143

the woodlands assumes a fresh aspect with the brilliant
blue of the wild Hyacinth or English Blue-bell (Agra-
phis nutans) ; the golden Broom beautifies the thickets,
the Mountain Ash the woods ; many Ranunculi span-
gle particular meadows, and in others a profusion of
the Meadow Orchis, (0. morio), has a very beautiful
effect. In the garden the Tulip is now the " Queen of
Beauty," while the shrubberies around are fragrant
with the Lilac or resplendent with the Laburnum.
This is the favourite season with the poets, the flower-
ing thickets being now vocal with the songs of all the
migratory warblers.

" I hail the time of Flowers,

When Heaven is filFd with music sweet
Of birds amons the bowers."*

The Germander-Speedwell, rivalling with its azure
hue the brilliant Blue-bell, is another attendant upon
the Vernal floral reign, as is the odorous Wall-flower,
the Columbine, the Globe-flower (Trollius Europceus),
the Peonies, and the blue Garden Iris (J. Germanica.)
The culmination of the Vernal Ploralia is marked by
the flowering of the Hawthorn, whose stainless clus-
ters breathe such fragrance on the balmy evenings of
this period; and where dwarf decrepid individuals cover
the declivities of hills like aged pilgrims with flowing
silver locks, the ground seems in the dubious twilight
as if strewed with newly-fallen snow.

The approach of the Solstitial Moral Reign is indi-
cated by the appearance of the great White Midsum-
mer Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) , and may
be said to be actually apparent when the common
Yellow Flag (Iris Pseudacorus), gilds the marshes;

* LOGAN.

144 WILD FLOWEBS OF

Poppies then flame in the gardens, and the Lychnis

flos-cuculi and Yellow Rattle diversify the meadows.

Delicious fragrance, too, fills the air from the masses

of Honeysuckle Clover widely dispersed in the fields.

" Now flames the grass with vegetable gold
Where yellow Buttercups their flowers unfold."

The grasses have attained their full perfection, and
the aspect of the woods and thickets covered with
froudage and intertwined with Roses and Honey-
suckles, diffusing the most delicious scents, is incom-
parable.

Pinks, Carnations, Sweet Williams, and Lilies, now
display the utmost pomp of confirmed summer in the
garden, while the brilliant St. John's Worts and
golden Cistus (G. TieliantJiemum) , accurately mark the
solstitial time on exposed banks and woods open to
the sun. The Foxglove becomes a noble ornament to
sandy lanes; rocks and roofs are overlaid with the
gold of the Stone crops (Seduwi), and the Mallows,
Chamomiles, and Bindweeds, follow with their white
or purple bells. Verbascwns are also conspicuous with
their tall wand-like stems thick clustered with yellow
flowers. The Solstitial Floralia lasts from the begin-
ning of June to July 15th. This period in the
midland and southern counties of England includes
the Hay-harvest, which, says STILLINGFLEET, in his
" Calendar of Flora" begins with the flowering of the
Lime, Clover being out of blow, and Yellow-Rattle,
or Coxcomb (RJiinantJius crista-galli), shedding its
seeds.*

* It is, however, said in Worcestershire, that the grass is fit for cut-
ting when the seeds of the yellow-rattle can be shaken in their capsules
with a rattling sound.

MAY. 145

" Now comes July, and with his fervid noon
Unsinews labour."

Hence the JEstival Floralia, or advanced Summer
Floral reign presents itself, characterized by the
agrarian Cockle (Agrostemma Githago), and golden
Chrysanthemum among the corn ; the Hawkweeds and
Bell-flowers on rocks and walls ; and the odorous
Meadow-sweet (Spiraea ulmarid), and purple Loose-
trife (Lytlira salicaria), as well as the various Willow-
herbs beside rills and banks of rivers. The nodding
Plume thistle (Carduus nutans), and others of the
tribe present their specious purple flowers to view,
characteristic of hot days and dusty roads — but like
the cuckoo in June — " seen, not regarded."

Wild heaths, wastes, and commons, so black and
horrific amidst the storms of winter, begin to assume
a robe of exquisite beauty with the innumerable
flowers of the Calluna vulgaris, and the still more
delicate and beautiful hues of the blossoms of the
Ericce (Heaths), and Andromeda polifolia ; — some of
the heaths long continuing and enlivening the Autum-
nal Moralia. In the garden the lofty Holyhocks
(Althcea), the Sunflowers, African Mary golds, China
Asters, and numerous other flowers, present an aspect
of regal magnificence. In rocky spots, perhaps, the
flowering of the Clematis or Virgin's Bower, (C. m-
talba), is the most decisive indication that the ./Estival
Mora has attained its culmination, while the universal
substitution of the flowers of the Bramble for those
of the Eose proclaims the same event. The berries
of the Mountain Ash, Hawthorn, and Guelder Eose,
now become evidently coloured, and add a pleasing
tint to the foliage of the hedge and shrubbery, though

146 WILD ri/OWERS OF

intimating that already summer verges to decay. In
hilly spots the autumnal flowering G-orse blazes reful-
gent in fine contrast with the fronds of the brake or
Eagle fern, especially when the latter fades into a
rusty hue, for the gorge continues in flower far into
autumn. On the hills and rocks of Wales it combines
splendidly with the heaths and grey cairns.

The Autumnal Moral Eeign begins to present itself
as soon as the Meadow Saffron (Colcliicum autvmnale),
shows its naked pale purple flowers conspicuously in
the meadows, which is generally the last week in
August. The autumnal Dandelion (Apargia autwm-
nalis), then throws a faint tinge of gold along the
pastures ; and damp spots in and about woods are
empurpled with the culmination of the Devils-bit
Scabious (Scabiosa succisa). The pretty little pink-
flowered Centaury is in perfection at this time, and on
the coast its dwarf varieties are particularly conspi-
cuous. On moist commons or the sandy sea-shore the
scented Triple Ladies' Traces (Neottm spiralis), now
presents itself sometimes in great abundance, and the
Sea Starwort (Aster Tripolium), exhibits its purple
rays along the muddy beaches of rivers within reach
of the tide. In the garden the Michaelmas Daisy is
a very characteristic feature of this floral period,
which closes with the flowering of the sombre Ivy,
on whose green umbels numerous insects alight to
derive the last sustenance the dying year has in
reserve for them. The sweets of floral life are indeed
fast waning away.

If the fields have not been entirely burnt up by the
heats of summer, Mushrooms and numerous other
Fungi will be daily spangling the green fields often in

MAY.

147

very conspicuous rings, while within the woods crowds
of them of almost every colour will be visible upon
the ground. The orchards show their rosy-cheeked
products in splendid perfection at this time, though
autumnal gales arising whirl thousands of leaves about
in the air ; and the foliage of all deciduous trees fading
into parti-coloured brilliance, gives an aspect of singu-
lar though melancholy magnificence to the face of
nature. The ground now becomes every where crisp
and leaf-strown, berries of numerous kinds, especially
the Hawthorn and Mountain- Ash, glisten in the dews
of morning, and every brambly hedge is loaded with
clustering Blackberries. A colder temperature at
length becomes very evident, and thick fogs prevailing
in the early part of the day involve all things in their
reeking folds.

From the end of November to the beginning of
February is the Hibernal Period, scarcely however at
all connected with the Flora conspicua. The realm of
flowers, sacked and desolated by the autumnal gales,
lies in a state of ruin and desecration, scarcely any
thing but withered stalks appear in the gardens ; and
as FOESTEB, remarks in his " Indications of the Sea-
sons"— " almost all nature seems at length to slumber,
and till the Holly and Ivy berries of Christmas enliven
our houses, every thing seems sombre and uninviting."
Yet, abroad, all is not barren to the botanist, for many
curious species of Pezizce, Spherics, Tlielephorce, Tre-
mellince, fyc. luxuriate in the damp atmosphere, and
even scent it very agreeably. Mosses and Lichens are
attaining their utmost perfection and luxuriance with
every brumal storm — roofs, rocks, and precipices,
become green and beautiful with them, and the moun-

L2

148 WILD FLOWERS OF

tain turf displays a host of Jwigermannice, whose
black globular-headed thecce glisten upon pellucid
stalks amidst their matted bright green foliage. The
banks of many quiet gliding brooks remain green
through the winter with the close-tiled fronds of the
wide-spreading MarcJiantia, which at times gives out
a peculiar pleasing scent unaccountable to the wan-
derer, when concealed from view as it often is.

Even amidst the tempests of this brumal season, a
few stray members of Flora's train may be traced ;
and in gardens the Sweet Coltsfoot (Tussilago fra-
grans) flowers, as well as the Christinas Eose (Helle-
borus niger). In the woods the Spurge Laurel
(Daphne laureola), is almost the only plant that gives
any visible token of vegetable life by showing a dispo-
sition to flower, except that here and there a Grorse-
bush (Uleoc Europceus), with its yellow buds glazed in
ice, gives a promise of what a few hours of genial
sunshine might perform. But every thing now
becomes obscured in sleet and rain, severe frosts set
in, or snow covers the earth, till yielding before the
milder influences of February ; — when at Candlemas,
the Primaveral Reign, with which we commencedv
again comes round in its turn. Thus, as has been
well remarked, " in this our temperate climate, have
we a round of botanical amusements all the whole
year, and the Botanist can never want for sources of
recreation."*

In glancing upon the varying Floralias of the year
and the different images they impress upon the mind,
some preference to one or the other may possibly be
suggested by fancy or memory, or we may consider

* Perennial Calendar, by T. FORSTER, F.L.S.

MAY.

149

the floral sympathies that many remarkable men have
shown for particular flowers; this, perhaps, as a
modern writer has remarked, revealing the character
in the preference indicated. SHAKSPEARE'S ever ver-
nal mind seems to have rejoiced principally in spring
flowers, and hence he reverts to them more than
others ; — especially does he praise the Violet as
" stealing and giving odour," as he himself could as
readily take an idea as originate one. CHAUCER
appears to have been quite enamoured of the Daisy,
for its regular closing and re-opening, symbolical of
"fear of night" and resurrection unto life, seems quite
to have been in unison with his old-life ideas.

" Of all the floures in the mede,

Than love I most these floures white and rede,
Such that men callen daisies in our town :
To them I have so great affeciioun,
As I sayd erst, when comen in the Maie,
That in my bedde there daweth me no daie,
That I nam up, and walking in the mede
To seen this floure ayenst the sunne sprede,
When it upriseth early by the morrow,
That blissful sight softeneth my sorrow."

BURNS could not help celebrating the "wee modest
crimson- tipped flower," but in accordance with his
gentle humanity mourns its destruction by his plough-
share, while MONTGOMERY hails it as indicative of the
poet's ever observant thoughtfulness — "the daisy
never dies." WALTER SCOTT has mentioned the
Wall-flower in connection with happy hours and his
antiquarian pursuits ; and the pensive BERNARD BAR-
TON marks its golden hue upon old shrines "with
fascination to the heart addressed." WORDSWORTH
philosophizing among lakes and mountains, has seized

150 WILD FLOWERS OP

upon the wild Daffodil as bringing in its March wan-
tonness beauteous images back to the mind, but has
lavished profuse praise on the vernal Celandine —

" There's a flower that shall be mine,
'Tis the little Celandine."

There may be perhaps some conceit in this, but asso-
ciation with past thoughts or circumstances will flash
up in the mind at the sight of a flower, and so give to
the poet as well as to other people a hidden charm in
some particular plant. So PETRARCH from his roman-
tic love for LAURA, delighted in the Laurel and its
shade as connecting his fancy with Tier, and in his
sonnets celebrates both his mistress and the tree,
from beneath the shade of which he was called to be
crowned with his beloved Laurel in the Capitol. In
like manner ARIOSTO, the name of whose lady-love
(Gineura), nearly corresponded with that of a Juniper
(Ginelro), in one of his sonnets says, that the shrub
bearing her name that prescribes laws to his troubled
soul, shall alone crown his brow.

Our own poets in general rather by implication
denote their predilections, as SHELLEY'S delicate
organization is shown by the Sensitive-Plant winning
his muse ; while SOTJTHET bold and homely with Eng-
lish thoughts and church attachments, grapples with,
lauds, and points a moral in the shining and prickly
Holly. BRYANT sees beauty and imagery in an inele-
gant and neglected Gentian; CRABBE in his truthful
strains descends to so homely a vegetable product as
the Kelp; while ELLIOTT'S stern temperament led him
to take under his protection what all poets had before
neglected — the bramble ! So then from a poet's floral
pictures we see the colour of Ids mind. — GOLDSMITH'S

MAY. 151

sympathy with rural and touching images is associated
intimately with the Hawthorn —

" for whispering lovers made ; "

and CAMPBELL has referred with buoyant joy to his
recollection of the white water lily of the Highland
lakes.. Even city poets cannot get up their stanzas
without a plant of some sort, domesticated though it
may be, and LEIGH HUXT recognized drawing-room
comfort in the feel of a Geranium leaf. —
" And genteel Geranium,

With a leaf for all that come;"

which is natural enough in its place, as few fail to
pinch a geranium-leaf in the drawing-room or parlour
window to imbibe its fragrance.

Scientific botanists have often indicated their
favourites as well as poets, and perhaps every student
loves some genus more than another; hence mono-
graphs of particular genera are framed, and the
partiality of one observer becomes of utility to the
general mass of students. LINN.ETTS honoured most
of his friends by naming certain genera or species
after them, and he himself was delighted to have a
little northern flower, " depressed, abject, and long
overlooked," — the delicate Linncea fiorealis, named
after himself, and it figures in his portraits. He was
also enamoured with the exquisitely beautiful Trienta-
lis Europcea, and HALLER the Swiss botanist in like
manner was charmed with Astrantia major. Sir J. E.
SMITH felt inclined to avow a partiality for the nod-
ding crimson Water Avens, and the authors of most
local floras show a fanciful poetical leaning, influencing
them in favour of some plant. I think from its deli-
cate beauty and its association in my mind with oases
of bright thought, I should fix upon the Ivy-leaved

152 WILD FLOWEKS OF MAY.

Bell-flower {Campanula hederacea). — I first gathered
it in Wales, when revelling in new-born freedom from
care and anxiety; and by the Severn's source on
Plinlimmon, and in numerous other mossy spots vocal
with plashing waters, I have since gazed upon its
delicate pale blue petals where there was no sound no
thought but of pure airy unbounded delight. The
plant in its seclusion preserves such pleasiires for the
wanderer to revel in, and its bright image brings them
back again to the mind.

In connection with the thoughts and inspirations
awakened by the glories of nature throughout the
various seasons of the year, the Botanical Explorator
will, in his solitary rambles, often recal the glowing
language of one of nature's inspired interpreters,
especially adopting as his own, the following noble
apostrophe, from an ode of the author of " The
Excursion"

" And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
Think not of any severing of our loves !
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your weight ;
I only have relinquish'd one delight
To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I love the brooks which down their channels fret,
Even more than when I tripped lightly as they ;
The innocent brightness of a new-born day

Is lovely yet ;

The clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an age
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality ;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears"*
* WORDSWORTH.— Ode-Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of

Early Childhood.

WILD FLOWEKS OF MAT.
(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. X.

SCIENTIFIC AND POETICAL FLORAL INFLUENCIES. —
SCENES OF PAST WANDERINGS. — MAY FLOWERS ON THE
WELCH MOUNTAINS AND COTTESWOLD HILLS. — DANDE-
LION AND OTHER FIELD FLOWERS. — REMARKABLE
HAWTHORNS. — HORSE-CHESNUT AND OTHER FOREST
TREES.

" The meadow by the river seems a sea
Of liquid silver, with the cuckoo-flowers ;
And here and there where 'midst the smiling lea
Caltha in green and gold refulgent towers,
Islets of splendour shine, whose radiance pours
A glory o'er the scene ; — a magic spell
Would tempt me to forget the passing hours,
And in the copse that overlooks the dell,
'Midst primroses and cowslips for a season dwell.

MS.

The botanist may look out upon nature with a
scientific or poetical eye — he may either store his
herbarium with specimens classified according to the
most approved nomenclature, and form his catalogue
with a view to claim the notice of the initiated only ;
or with more enlarged views he may awaken general
attention, by connecting the objects of his study with
those allusions which can scarcely fail to penetrate to
the feelings even of the most unsusceptible. At all

154 WILD FLOWERS OF

events the re-awakening of vernal life, and the bright
succession of flowers that now daily rise up, has an
exciting influence upon the mind, and it insensibly
reverts back to those bright oases of the memory, that
still seem reviving with the sight of renewed vernal
life.

The same recurrence of images to the eye, still calls
up the buoyant feelings of olden days, while one spark
of sensibility remains to warm the heart ; for nature
still ever revolving, nevertheless displays again the
same flowery forms and scents that once taught the
swelling heart to bound with irrepressible enthusiasm.
Hence it is that the sight of vernal flowers cannot fail
to call up some blissful emotion in every breast,
because memory hurries us back to the first vernal
flowers that we ran tottering to pluck, or displays the
polyanthus we were wont to water in our little garden,
or the gaudy flower that beyond our reach, we ear-
nestly entreated an indulgent and beloved parent to
pluck for us. These are incidents that all are familiar
with ; and simple as they are, they affect us because
they recal the purest and best sympathies of our
nature. Who can fail to be moved with WOED-
;SWOBTH'S description of the "trembling, earnest
.company" of little ones, " each with a vernal posy at
his breast," who are represented by him as standing
round their reverend pastor in the untried character
of catechumens. Himself one of that innocent band,
he thus beautifully apostrophizes in reference to it :-

" How flutter'd then thy anxious heart for me,
Beloved Mother ! Thou whose happy hand
Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful tie :
Sweet flowers! at whose inaudible command

MAT. 155

Her countenance, phantom-like, doth re-appear:
O lost too early for the frequent tear,
And ill requited by this heart-felt sigh ! "

The month of May with its buds, birds, and fresh
green bowers, may well recal the mind to poetical
influences and thoughts freshened with the dews of
youth, and we yield to them ere the heart grows cold
or is clogged with the dusty contentions of life.
Looking forth in the early morning hour especially,
the distant landscape in twilight with gray vapoury
lakes scattered over the low country, all seems still,
calm, and serene, the infancy of morning as the infancy
of life. The eastern sky brightens into gold with
pencil streaks of ruby, and the twitter of the swallow
and the musical bell of the Cuckoo are the matin
notes of early worship. The meadows wet with a
profusion of dew exhibit the liveliest green as the
river vapours roll away their fleecy squadrons and
ascend towards the dark wooded heights, but daisies,
cowslips, and buttercups are yet drowsy on their
stalks. One flower only, the yellow G-oatsbeard,
brisk and wakeful, meets the welcome blaze of the
sun upon the eastern hills. Time has been when we
were as wakeful too, eager to gaze on nature's beau-
ties, dashing over the reeking meadows in the gray
morn like the Bat in the twilight, crossing tottering
bridges, heathy wilds, and stumbling over stony places,
till amidst scented shrubs we stood panting with
excitement waiting for the sun on some mossy hill
top. Unless, indeed, the season be very ungenial, the
extreme beauty and freshness of vegetation at this
period of the year, awakens sensations of buoyant and
thrilling delight in every breast not absolutely pros-

156 WILD FLOWERS OF

trate before disease or despair ; while yielding to the
excitation of the brilliant scene, we may exclaim with
AMBROSE PHILLIPS —

" Have ye seen the broider'd May
All her scented bloom display,
Breezes opening ev'ry hour
This and that expecting flower,
While the mingling birds prolong
From each bush the vernal song ? "

"May Flowers" are proverbial, but where shall we
look for them ? — on the bold sides of the majestic
Silurian Malverns, from whence the pear-trees of
Worcestershire and the apple-trees of Herefordshire
in their rival blooms of stainless white and rose, pre-
sent a sight the world cannot equal ? — there, taking
in the way the broken and wooded limestone heights
of Cowleigh and Cradley, with friends ardent and
curious, hath been oft our quest.* Shall we pluck
May flowers beside the gravelly torrent of the roman-
tic Usk, or on the huge "Black Mountains" that flank
its lovely valley with their frowning barrier ? — there
we have been. Shall we look down on the bright
plain of Salop, and from the craggy bladder-stone of
the famed WreJcin trace them in the green woods that
fill the romantic hollow between that hill and the long
Edge of Wenlock, the silvery horseshoes of the Severn
gleaming lovely amidst the foliage ? — there we have
been. Shall we trace them by the beauteous Medway
amidst its deep woods between Rochester and Maid-
stone ; or slumber as we once slumbered in life's
seeming fair but inexperienced morn among the

* My "Botany of the Malvern Hills" (published by Boo UE, London,
and LAMB, Malvern,) can be consulted for the plants there.

MAT. 157

lustrous cherry orchards of Kent, and from the chalky
hills of Boxley look down in fancy upon a scene we
can now tread no more ? Shall we gaze from Snowdon,
Idris, or Plinlimmon ? — winter has scarcely left those
bleak heights ; though high among the rocks, where
we have also rambled, the Rose-root (Rhodiola rosea),
is at least pushing forth its succulent leaves, and just
showing its clustered cymes and pale green petals*
emerging from sheltered crevices amidst dwarf ferns
and dripping mosses. There, too, amidst fearful crags,
like a roseate gleam before sunrise, the purple and
moss Saxifrages ($. oppositifolia and hypnoides) , spread
their lowly but exquisitely beautiful gems. — Shall the
Isle of "Wight, with its steep chalky cliffs fringed with
Samphire ; or the fair fields of Devon where no Cow-
slips grow, again claim our presence ? Shall we dash
among the wild cataracts of Glamorgan, beauteous
with the crimson drooping blossoms of the Water

• It is remarkable that all botanical authors from LINNJEUS to WITHER-
ING and HOOKER, affirm the colour of the flowers of the Rhodiola to be
yellow, and they are so coloured in the plate of the plant in English
Botany ; yet strange as it may appear all these great authorities are cer-
tainly incorrect, for in a fine plant I brought home from Cadir Idris with
five perfectly developed cymes of flowers, not one was yellow at any
period of blooming, and the anthers are only purplish, as represented in
SOWERBY'S plate, when in an immature state. At a little distance, indeed,
the cymes have a bright golden aspect, but on a close inspection this is
seen to arise from the copious yellow pollen that completely covers the
protruding anthers, combined with the nectaries that glow at the base of
the narrow concave petals like minute drops of the richest amber. But
the petals themselves, as well as the calyx, are light green. The flowers
have a strong scent like that of peppermint- water. The root is slightly
rose-scented, and the whole plant in autumn assumes a roseate colour.
This curious plant shows how nature delights in anomalies, the stamens
and pistils are generally on different individuals, hermaphrodite speci-
mens being rare, the stamens are mostly 8, though the central flower has
often 10, like Sedum, so that SCHRCEBER, DE CANDOLLE, and LINDLET
have classed it as a Sedum, with which genus it only differs in the num-
ber of its organs, having the habit of S. telephium.

158 WILD FLOWERS OF

Avens ( Gemn rivale) ; or climb with daring step, the
fearful crags of the Breidden in Montgomeryshire, to
gather once more the white Cinquefoil (JPotentilla ru±
pestris), on the only mountain in Britain where its
stainless flowers charm the wondering gaze ? Shall
we mount the strange fortress-like Steiper-stones, or
the basaltic Glee Hills in proud Salopia, for the Yellow
Violet ; pluck the flossy Cotton-grasses, that bend to
the breeze white as snow upon the bogs of the Brecon
Fans ; or rest in the calm sunnv noon amidst the dark

J

and ever verdant thickets that clothe the famed Box-
hill in Surrey ?

The Botanical Explorator must progress in turn to
a hundred scenes like these, for to him they have a
double charm as botanical haunts where kindred
spirits have trodden before him, while the scenes they
present tinge his thoughts and charm his labours. So
inspired, twice have we toiled up the bold limestone
shelves of the Great Orme's Head, to see the Cotone-
aster's round candicant leaves and creamy blooms
rooted among the fissures, with broken relics of
druidean worship, and riven crags of desolate anti-
quity darkly looming round as the clouds slowly
descended upon the scene.

But the beautiful claims attention equally with the
sublime, so rest we for a season near the vale of Glou-
cester, the countless villas of fair Cheltenham
intermixed with the foliage of the vales, and the dark
belt of the Cotteswolds rising in theatrical pomp as a
fine background that at present meets our view. For
we are now upon the long indented Cotteswold ridge,
bristling with broken oolitic crags, and adorned with
the specious though somewhat rough blue flowers of

MAT. 159

the Viper's Bugloss (Ecliiumvulgare), and the glisten-
ing white ones of Arabis hirsuta. The wind blusters
about the solitary pile of the " Devil's Chimney," on
Leckhampton Hill, threatening the unwary wanderer
with loss of hat, while stumbling amidst the stones
of this aeolian region ; — but the eye delights in the
vast amphitheatre bending far on either hand, while
below a thousand lines of light chase each other over
the Yariegated landscape. Many a grey and many a
white tower flash in brightness or sink in shadow,
as the light clouds dash on, while sternly solemn,
purpureal Malvern frowns throughout his long broken
crest in the far distance. In this stony vicinity, the
clustered Bell-flower (Campanula glomerata), may be
found abundant, as well as the little Snap-dragon
(Ldnaria minor), and blue Gentiana amarella ; while
in the belt of wood between this and a broken crom-
lech and barrow above Shurdington, the Pyrus aria
and Viburnum lantana exhibit their white clusters
and silvery foliage. But now to the more general
features of fair May.

"Bring me those flowers," then, as SHAKSPEARE
makes PARIS exclaim, in HOMEO and JULIET — and
here they are - - the bonnie Blue-bell, sweet-scented
yellow Barberry, odorous Hawthorn, golden Broom,
and blue-eyed Speedwell, which with the G-oldilocks-
Crowfoot, shining Cranesbill with its polished red
stalks, and bunches of the hairy Violet, will make a
jungle garland fit to match in elegance with any
garden one. Shall we look out upon the fields ? —
there the starry Dandelions cover the meads with a
robe of gold to be soon succeeded by an ermine man-
tle of white clocks.

160 WILD FLOWERS OF

" Dandelion this

A college youth that flashes for a day

All gold ; anon he doffs his gaudy suit,

Touch'd by the magic hand of some grave bishop,

And all at once, by commutation strange,

Becomes a reverend divine. How sleek !

How full of grace ! that globous wig

So nicely trimm'd."*

Common as this object is, how beautiful its mechanism
when examined as it deserves to be, and how indica-
tive of providential design. When the golden florets
wither and the calyx shuts up, the seeds are not ready
for the purpose nature designs them, therefore the
withered florets, twisted in a mass, keep off the rain,
while the pillar of the seed-down grows to its full
length, and then they are pushed off; the pillars still
rising bear upon the calyx, which now gently expands,
while, at the same time, the receptacle altering its
form from concave to convex, the calyx is more and
more deflexed, till at length its segments are pushed
parallel with the stalk, — and the globe of down is com-
plete in its beauty, ready and anxious for that mystic
flight which spreads its progeny abroad upon the
earth.

The Daisies about this time show their argent rays
tipped with crimson, in the acme of their beauty, for
their lines of silver will now soon be lost before the
more gorgeous sway of millions of golden Buttercups.
In orchards a beautiful pale liloid flower now presents
itself, the two-flowered Narcissus (N. biflorus), often
by the first of the month ; the red Lychnis or Cam-
pion (L. diurna), begins to beautify the sides of
hedges, and the Cowslips gradually going out, are

* HlTRDIS.

MAT. 161

relieved by an abundant crop of the meadow Orchis
(0. morio), and hosts of Blue-bells, that give the hue
of the azure heavens for a short space to the fields of
earth. The May- weed, too, or Cow-parsley (Cheer o-
pJiyllum sylvestre), covers various pastures, and the
white Stichwort (Stellaria kolosteum,) shines, while
under 'the banks of coppices the "blue-eyed Speed-
well" charms the eye, the lesser Periwinkle spreads a
tracery of green leaves and blue cups, and the curious
Weasel-snout (Galeobdolon lutewn?) blooms around.

At length Spring is established, and the woods and
groves appear in leafy verdure, oak and ash excepted ;
and the White-thorn or May, shows itself here and
there in the hedges, still sparingly in flower. After a
moderately warm April nothing can be more beautiful
than the aspect of the country white with hawthorn
hedges, rising copiously into flower in every direction,
while the gale wafts their fragrance far and wide. But
though hedges are a comparatively modern innovation,
the Whitethorn is an old English denizen, long loved
and honoured, and formerly every village and mansion
had its favourite old Thorn, or Bush —

" The hawthorn-bush, with seats beneath the shade,
For talking age, and whispering lovers made."*

Where these monuments of days of yore have been
suffered to remain as relics of the past, they have
attained a considerable size. In front of a little
public house at Shrawley Wier close to the Severn,
about nine miles above Worcester, I noticed one some
years ago, with a bole full nine feet in circumference,
and a very lofty branched tree yet stands in a neg-
lected part of the shrubbery at Northampton Cottage,

* GOLDSMITH.
M

1C2 WILD FLOWERS OF

Gloucestershire, with a conjoined triple bole, all rnoss
and lichen-covered, and probably more than four
centuries old. I also remember several very fine ones,
ivy-cinctured, and with innumerable tortuous arms,
on the feathery summit of the Little Skirid, near
Abergavenny, Monmouthshire ; — but never have I
seen this reverend tree's grey locks more beautiful
than amid the southern trenches of the camp on the
summit of the Salopian Wrekin, where numerous old
trees lie scattered, of the slow growth of centuries.
My memory doats upon a blissful afternoon I once
spent there, dozing on the sunny bank, and ever and
anon looking upon the " siller gray" thorns, the tre-
mendously rugged glacis of the hill fortress, and below
upon the glorious vale, serpentized by the sparkling-
Severn, and bounded beyond by the rich groves of
Buildwas, and the indented waving ridge of wind-
blown Wenlock. Those were young days of toil,
sorrow, and depression, when poetry burnt me up,
but enthusiasm summoned me to many a wild em-
bowered scene, and offered consolations amidst
Nature's beauties that cheered me then, and have
scarcely lost their inspiring influence now. In parks
hawthorns often appear as if in clumps, their boles
divided and multiplied, which is a sign of extreme old
age. In the "bottoms" of the Cotteswolds, as they
are termed, numerous many-boled hawthorns may yet
be seen, some of them singularly overgrown with ivy,
twisted, and remarkably tortuous. A curious one of
this kind, in the park at Enville, near Stourbridge, has
twelve boles spreading out from the base. There are
many species of Hawthorn (Cratagus), and numerous
countries have a peculiar one allotted to each, but

MAY. 163

our own British tree yields in beauty to none of the
others, and has surely been more celebrated in the
pages of our poets, scarcely one omitting to mention
it or praise its pearly blossoms. Its pleasant shadow
in summer offers repose to the tired shepherd, who

"tells his tale

Under the Hawthorn in the dale,"

and Burns makes it the sheltering canopy for happy
lovers in the evening hour, when the May moon per-
haps is rising over the clouds upon its glistening
clusters.

Another beautiful object in April and May is pre-
sented when the Horse- Chesnut trees put forth their
splendid spikes of flowers, most magnificent in aspect,
for they are often in such profusion as at a little
distance to give each tree the resemblance of one
gigantic boquet.

" The thick Chesnut gloriously array'd ;

For in its honour prodigal Nature weaves

A princely vestment, and profusely showers

O'er its green masses of broad palmy leaves,

Ten thousand waxen pyramidal flowers;

And gay and gracefully its head it heaves

Into the air, and monarch like it towers,

Dimming all other trees."*

The Ash, Beech, Birch, Alder, Oak, Scotch Fir,
Sycamore, Maple, and many other forest trees are now
in bloom. On various heathy hills, also, the common
Juniper (Juniperus communis), is in flower with the
last year's berries upon it still green; for in this
country they are biennial. Several grasses, and among
them the sweet-scented Vernal begin to exhibit their
spikes, and " Jack-by-the-hedge," (Erysimwn alliaria,)

* WFLLIAM and MARY HOWITT'S Forest Minstrel.
M 2

164 WILD FLOWERS OF MAT.

sprinkles hedge banks with a border of milky hue.
The pretty Geranium lucidum now spreads abundantly
its bright red stalks, the Bush-vetch (Vicimn sepium,)
shows itself, as well as the little Bird's-foot (Orniiho-
pus perpusittus), and the purple flowers of the bitter
heath Vetch (Orobus tuber osus).

We have now reached the middle of the Vernal
season — fresh flowers too numerous to recount, are
daily springing up — the cuckoo sings all day, the
nightingale all night — the weather is fair and " sea-
sonable," and every thing looks daily more and more
beautiful.

WILD FLOWERS OF MAY.

(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. XI.

THE BONNIE BROOM. — FLOWERS OF THE UPLAND WOOD
AND ITS TINKLING RILLS. — THOSE OF THE RUINED AB-
BEY.— THE BOG. — THE GARDEN. — SKETCH OF THE LILAC.
— MAY-WEED. — HERB PARIS. — APPLE ORCHARDS IN
FLOWER. — TULIP BEDS AND VALUE OF THEIR BULBS. —
MOUNTAIN AND WOOD FLOWERS. — FLOAT ON THE WATER.

" Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes,
That on the green turf suck the honied showers,
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers."

MILTON'S LYCIDAS.

The wood, the open country, and the garden, are all

now equally delightful. Flowers of every hue attend

upon us at each step we take. In the wild glen the

"bonny bonny Broom" (Sarothamnus scoparius), covers

every slope with golden veins, recalling the glowing

language of BURNS, and many a pleasant recollection.

" Their groves of sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon,

Where bright beaming summers exalt the perfume ;

Far dearer to me yon lone glen o' green breckan,

Wi' the burn stealing under the lang yellow broom."

The lonely places where the Broom grows may perhaps
explain SHAKSPEAEE'S mention of it in connection
with the " dismissed bachelor," for an American tra-
veller thus remarks : — " For hours I followed a mule

166 WILD FLOWEKS OF

path in the most deserted part of Sicily, cheerful with
its [the broom's] blossoms, whose rich yet delicate
odour embalmed the air ; hence the significance of
SHAKSPEAEE'S allusion to this flower 'which the dis-
missed batchelor loves, being lass-lorn.' " — We must
suppose the " dismissed batchelor" in this case, to fly
from the perfidious fair one into Nature's solitudes,
and there soothed by floral charms, put the broom in
his button-hole, and rejoicing that his hat covers his
responsibilities, consider on calm reflexion that his
case is not so very unendurable after all ! Or retiring
within himself, amidst the solitude of broom wastes,
and far from the busy stir of life, he may attempt to
recall the happy visions that once haunted his imagi-
nation. THOMSON in his " Castle of Indolence"
paints a broomy spot as a fit place for the listless
enjoyment of a mere loiterer intent on the enjoyment
of the dolcefar niente.

" Amidst the broom he basked him on the ground,
Where the wild thyme and camomile are found."

But leaving the gay but barren broomy slopes to those
who may like them, let the botanical looker-out be up

and awake—

" The morning shines, and the fresh field

Calls us : mark how spring

Our tender plants."*

In the upland wood thousands of Bilberry blossoms
(Vacciniuin myrtillus), droop their rosy bells, and a
booming host of " red-hip t humble-bees" are attendant
upon them; the graceful Mountain Ash (Pyrus aucu-
parid), displays its white clusters on the hill; the
Way-faring tree (Viburnum lantana,) in the limestone
copse ; and the Gruelder-rose (V. opulus), fringes the

* MILTON.

MAT. 167

borders of wandering brooks with its silvery stars. In
the open field the elegant green-flowered Ladies' Man-
tle (Alchemilla vulgar is) t charms the eye and shows
its wide plaited leaves amidst the grass, while the
scattered flowers of the "White Saxifrage (Saxifraga
granulata), and the meek blue ones of the wood Scor-
pion-grass (Myosotis syhatica), have a lovely effect.

The woods are now glorious with their fresh and
green umbrageous multitude of leaves ; and within
their cool recesses how delightful to pass the noontide
hours. Oft have we done so, reading a page of living
poetry, surrounded by an investiture of quivering
foliage, hiding nought else but mossy banks, blue skies,
or sailing clouds. In such lone spots the blue Colum-
bine (Aquilegia vulgar is), adorns the scene ; the
"Woodrufle (Asperula odorata,) fills the air with fra-
grance; and the delicate Lily of the Yalley (Convallaria
majalis), droops its stainless bells. The mountain
Speedwell (Veronica montana), a great lover of the
shade, adorns with its pale blue flowers the ground of
the wood, contrasted here and there with the yellow
Pimpernel, and the deeper blue of the Milkwort
(Poly gala vulgaris). The tinkling rill that slowly
winds its way amidst a labyrinth of briars, is profusely
covered with the snowy clusters of the Samsons, or
broad-leaved Garlick, (Allium ursimm), and the tall
Comfrey (Sympliytum officinalis), is conspicuous by
the river, with its curled corollas of dingy purple and
long-pointed rough leaves. In the same locality the
shaggy spikes of the great river Carex (G. riparia),
present themselves, forming thickets where the blacJc-
Jieaded Bunting loves to hide, and on whose tall stems
the quick-darting pink-hued Dragon-flies, or orange-

168 WILD FLOWEKS OF

tipt butterflies love to rest; while the gravelly shallows
glitter with the silver flowers of the Water- Crowfoot
(Ranunculus aquatilis,) that spread their white petals
on the water in countless multitudes. By the sides
of roads the red flowers of the Hound' s-tongue (Cy-
noglossum officinale), begin to make a conspicuous
appearance,

Now suppose we have wandered close to the crumb-
ling walls of some ivy-invested abbey — there beauteous
amidst desolation and decay the Wall-flower (CJieiran-
thus cJieiri), spreads odours on the balmy wing of
morning, the yellow - flowered Barberry (Rerberis
vulgaris), appears on the wall, and the ivy-leaved
Snapdragon (Antirrhinum cytnbalaria) , droops her
purple blossoms in luxuriant profusion, while amidst
the rubbish of broken tombs and tracery, the great
Celandine (Chelidoniwn majus), shows her golden but
fugacious flowers, mostly in man's vicinity or where
he hath been. May " from her green lap throws"
many other beautiful and characteristic flowers to
those who look for them — among these we may men-
tion, the Red-rattle (Pedicularissylvatica), conspicuous
in boggy places with its bright pink flowers rising
from amidst the green moss ; the broad-leaved Orchis
(0. latifolia), when luxuriant as it is in some of the
Welch upland bogs, truly regal in its purple insignia,
the lovely petal-fringed Water Buckbean (Menyanthes
trifoliata), tempting the spoiling hand, though mostly
safely out of reach in its splashy asylum, and the
EriopTwri, or Cotton-Grasses, which waving their
downy silvery tresses before the breeze like a cloud of
snow-flakes, present a charming spectacle to every
adventurer in the vicinity of mountainous scenery.

MAT.

Towards the close of the month the Burnet Eose
(Rosa spinosissima), presents its cream-coloured and
delicately scented flower, a week or two before its
sisters of the same family, somewhat rare, however,
except in the vicinity of the coast. At length under
the influence of a bright May's increasing temper-
ature, the Hawthorn (Cratcegus oocyacantha,) puts on
its snowy attire in full perfection, and filling the
country far and wide with fragrance, " with its locks
o' siller grey" dots the landscape with indescribable
beauty. This is so favourite a tree with me, that I
cannot forbear to quote Ho WITT'S sweet lines upon it,
breathing fragrance delicious as the unsullied May

itself in his " Forest Minstrel" —

" The beautiful Hawthorn, that has now put on
Its summer luxury of snowy wreaths j
Bending its branches in exuberant bloom,
While to the light enamour'd gale it breathes,
Rife as its loveliness, its rathe perfume :
Glory of England's landscape ! favourite tree
Of bard and lover ! it fliugs far and free
Its grateful incense : whether you arise
To catch the first long sun-gleam in the skies,
A nd list the earliest bird-notes ; whether you
Linger amidst the twilight and the dew —
There, through the silent air its odour strays,
Sweet as in home-scenes of our earliest days."
Who can forget, in reference to the Hawthorn, that
matchless verse of BTJBBTS, where he describes the

happy lovers seated

" Beneath the milk-white Thorn that scents the evening gale."
If, however, any lady is so fastidious as to object to
our (of course platonic) effusions " beneath the milk-
white Thorn," we beg to move an adjournment to the
garden, where, perhaps, the shade of some dark

170 WILD FLOWEKS

" lover's walk" of Yew, Hazel, or Honeysuckle, may
be found equally convenient for meditation. Here,
looking out from our pleasing position, what inspiring
objects meet the view. The Lilac (Syringa persica),
and its varieties of paler purple and white, brilliantly
mantle the shrubbery with colorific hues ; the Labur-
num (Cytisus laburnuni), " in streaming gold" breaks
upon the charmed eye, and hangs its golden chains
with profuse luxuriance. This, indeed, is the time to
enjoy the garden, while its transitory beauties last.
Among these, the Summer-Snow-flake (Leucojum cesti-
vum), and the deep purple Iris (/. germanica), appear.
Narcissus poeticus is still in full beauty, and the fol-
lowing flowers, among a host of others, may be noticed
as of frequent occurrence in gardens : — Azalea pontica,
purple Rhododendron (R.ponticum), Virginian Spider-
wort (Tradescentia Virginica), sweet-scented Daphne
(D. cneonwi). White Broom (Spartium multiflomvm) ,
the specious Peony (Peonia corallina), the various
kinds of Stocks, and Oriental Poppies.

Chief among the ornaments of the shrubbery, the
flowering thyrsi of the Lilac present an unrivalled
spectacle, while their fragrance is one of the most
exciting things that inspire the senses in the per-
fumed garden, after the slumbers of the night in the
vitiated air of the chamber. PHILLIPS, in his " Sylva
Florifera" thus rapturously mentions the Lilac in
language almost embued with the sweets of the flower
itself. — " The delightful sensation which the lovely
tints of this elegant flower and its fragrance produces
on us in the month of May, has been compared to the
first emotions of love, for nature seems to have or-
dained that mortals should not be permitted to see

MAT. 171

the one or feel the other with indifference ; for who
can behold the flexible and modest, yet dignified clus-
ters of this charming flower, whose colours vary at
every movement, and so sweetly descend from the
finest violet down to the silvery white, without regret-
ting the short duration of so divine a gift." Perhaps,
therefore, the following lines may recal to some minds
the pristine delight with which the favourite Lilac
was once hailed in early days when in its acme of
splendour.

THE LILAC BOUGH.

I see it glittering by the wall,

Methinks I see it now ;
For me a stripling much too tall,

The flowering Lilac bough.

' Twas April's reign of splendour gay,

That comes by fits and starts \
A world of tears, and then a ray

Exulting to all hearts.

Bright beam'd the Lilac to my eye,

All brilliance and delight;
Its purple, with the azure sky

Contrasting exquisite !

Thus standing, vainly on the gems

Making my weak essay;
A father's hand tore off the stems,

And sent me proud away.

The Lilac since for many a spring

Has blossom'd o'er my brow ; —
And still I see it clustering

As on that first bright bough.

'Tis only recollection's power,

And gleams of days of yore —
All vanish'd ! — and its purple flower

I ask to pluck no more.

172 WILD FLOWERS OF

But again the woods and fields tempt us to look
out there. In May, many meadows exhibit a peculiar
feature in the abundance of mnbelliferous plants,
whose rank herbage covers them. This natural family
is distinguished by the flowers being always in umbels,
(the pedicels all proceeding from a central point like
the frame- work of an umbrella,) simple or compound ;
the styles are two, mostly persistent on the fruit,
which consists of two carpels, separable from a com-
mon axis to which they adhere by their face or
commissure. They are herbs generally with hollow
furrowed stems, often dangerous or poisonous, except
blanched as in the celery, but the fruit is aromatic
and pungent. The common Hemlock may give a good
idea of the group. At this period the May-Weed
(Anthriscus sylvestris), is distinguished among the
Umbelliferce, often completely covering and whitening
over whole fields especially in the vicinity of coppices,
where even the ebon robe of night becomes em-
broidered with a broad border of silver. Another less
conspicuous species, A. vulgaris, with smaller flowers
and tri-pinnate leaves, may be seen under hedges
often near to towns and villages ; and the Gout-weed
(^Egopodiimpodagraria), is observable on river banks
and moist waste places very socially clustered in its
selected localities. The Sulphur-weed "Water-drop-
wort ((Enanthe peucedanifolia) , now commences flow-
ering in wet meadows, its leaves all linear, and
distinguished by the sessile-elliptical tubers of its
roots. This has been confounded by most botanists
till recently, with (E. Laclienalii, more of a coast
plant, whose tubers are vermiform and very much
longer. The latter flowers in August and September.

MAT.

173

In thick woods, a singular dnll-looking flower rising
from the centre of four leaves, called Herb Paris (P.
quadrifolia), often meets the searching eye. Its green
calyx and four green petals are soon succeeded by a
solitary lurid purple berry, whence the name given to
it by rustics of " One-berry," or " True-love." Per-
haps the latter name may be assigned it from a rustic
superstition that any flower or leaf that multiplies its
parts, or becomes distorted, is to be considered pre-
cious; as a four-leaved-trefoil or shamrock, a six-
partite leaf of a cinquefoil, &c. Thus, W. BEOWITE, in
his "Britannia's Pastorals," alludes to the blossom of
a Primrose accidentally possessing six petals (called by
him leaves), instead of the usual number five.

" The Primrose when with six leaves gotten grace,

Maids as a true-love in their bosoms place."
Herb Paris is very remarkable in this way, for it is
not uncommon to find specimens with five or even six
leaves, and occasionally the divisions of the calyx and
the petals are also multiplied. Though not uncom-
mon in sheltered woody spots, it so seldom meets the
gaze of a non-botanical eye, as to excuse the beautiful
sketch of it given by GEAHAME, who in his researches
after birds, had probably never before seen it.

- " There is a Hawthorn tree
With which the Ivy arms have wrestled long ;
'Tis old, yet vigorous : beneath its shade

A beauteous herb, so rare, that all the woods

For far and near around, cannot produce

Its like, shoots upright ; from the stalk

Four pointed leaves, luxuriant, smooth, diverge,

Crown'd with a berry of deep purple hue.

Upon this aged Thorn, a lovely pair

Of Cushats wont to build." *

* GRAHAME'S Birds of Scotland.

174 WILD FLOWERS OF

Iii rocky secluded woods half unbosomed by the
forester, where the wood-ants were swarming on
many a crumbly pile of broken twigs ; or on the en-
crusted ledge of some embowered brook, hoarsely
lashing the dark stones in its deep bed, have we oft
in devious progress noticed the green sullen Paris,
ere the lofty Ash had completed its leafy adornment,
and while the glades of the copsy grove were still
brilliant with the blue-bell, relieved at intervals by
the deep red of the Campion (Lychnis diurna), glow-
ing in the shade like a blazing ensign.

In the cider counties the Apple orchards are now
the charni of the landscape wherever they occur.
Upon the precipitous slopes of the beauteous valley
of the Teme, in Worcestershire, backed by woods of
ancient growth upon the Silurian hills, they perhaps
appear in the highest possible perfection, and mixed
up with old timbered houses, wooden spires, and nu-
merous thatched cottages and little gardens with
their trim Yews and Hollies, all telling of cultiva-
tion and comfort, form a truly English and inspiring
picture in the noon of a bright and glowing day
towards the end of May. In a late spring the silver
blossoms of some pear orchards finely blend and
contrast with the red and not fully expanded petals
of the apples, which every succeeding day glow
with increasing beauty, giving a peculiar though
short-lived charin to the rural scene. The summer
approaches its highest beauty when, as an acute
naturalist has observed, " Pomona, dressed as it were
in her snow-white garment, celebrates her nuptials ;
while the Tulip, Narcissus, and Peony adorn the
garden, the fresh shoots of the Fir illuminate the

MAT.

175

woods, and the Juniper sheds its impregnating va-
pour." *

Once more the garden demands our notice, for
there the Tulip-beds are become one dazzling blaze of
splendour, almost tiring to the startled gaze. This
familiar but gaudy flower, like many others of the
parterre was derived from the East, and it still flou-
rishes spontaneously in Asia Minor, its name being
derived from some resemblance to the turban worn
by the orientals. The Tulip found its way into Eng-
land in the reign of Elizabeth, and now constitutes
one of those "florists' flowers1' on which cultivators
bestow so much time and trouble to induce perfection
in the bloom itself or create new varieties. To this
they are instigated with increasing ardour by the
various Horticultural Exhibitions so common every
where in the present day, and growers look carefully
over their beds, and make those selections from
whence their prize flowers of " Bizarres" and" Bybloe-
meus," with a thousand princely and imperial names,
are to bear away the palm from a host of streaked
competitors.

The " Tulipomania'1 that once raged in Holland,

A. O '

when Tulip-bulbs passed from hand to hand at great
premiums, like our present mining and railway shares,
without any one wishing permanent possession, has
been often dilated upon ; yet few besides professional
florists, are aware that, even now, certain rare bulbs
bear an enormous price. Not very long ago, a Lon-
don florist transmitted us a list of his bulbs for sale,
with their prices, which for curiosity we now extract
from, premising that the sums annexed are per root,

* STILLINGFLEET'S Calendar of Flora.

176 WILD FLOWERS OF

and may be obtained, most likely, from all commer-
cial florists " to order" by any person anxious for

initiation in Tulipology.

£,. s. d,

Rose Brilliants 2 2 0

Ponceau Tres Blanc (Dutch) 2 10 0

Julianna 5 5 0

Grand Rose Imperial 10 10 0

Pompe Funebre 1010 0

Lac (true) 1515 0

Pandora 21 0 0

Shakspeare 21 0 0

Parmegiano 50 0 0

Groom's King William IV 50 0 0

In this list £50. appears as the maximum price, but
still purer or rarer gems may be had higher ; for a
tulipomauiacal friend, whose name often appeared in
the records of horticultural shows, once told us he had
been asked £70. for " Fanny Kemble," and that there
were a few bulbs that mounted up in the scale even
to £150 ; which I should think with DIOGENES of old
though on a different matter, was paying rather too dear
for — repentance ! It must be observed, however, that
some amount of time and trouble is necessary to raise
tulips from seed, the only way to get new varieties of
value, and that numerous efforts may be made before
a really superior flower worth notice can be obtained.
Indeed the manufacture of " florists' flowers" is an
affair out of the genuine pale of botanical research,
and not unfrequently forces nature and all parties
concerned in the operation of bringing out something
new, to be very much out of humour; for bickerings,
jealousies, and disputes with rival growers generally
contrive to come out at the sa/ine time, with the new
and too highly laudated bloom. Field Botanists in-

MAT. 177

deed, are not without their little jealousies, " pity it
is," when candour and kindness are forgotten on
account of some fancied neglect ; but mercenary mo-
tives being excluded, their animosities are not quite
so deadly as those of the gardeners — merely the hum
of the hornet without its sting. The owners of beds
of tulips are very chary of them, and when in their
pride of bloom, they may be inspected with wonder
and even pleasure, as a proof of the powers of culture
directed to one point, though we may smile, perhaps,
at the extravagant value placed upon them. This has
been well remarked upon by a cynic of the last cen-
tury, whose observations appeared in " Tlie Tatler"
and they are not undeserving of quotation now. The
writer thus mentions his visit to the proprietor of a
tulip garden, and recording a whimsical incident,
which possibly may be a little exaggerated.

" The owner told me that he valued the bed of
flowers which lay before us, and was not above twenty
yards in length and two in breadth, more than he
would the best hundred acres of land in England ;
and added that it would have been worth twice the
money it is, if a foolish cookmaid of his had not
almost ruined him, the last winter, by mistaking a
handful of tulip roots for an heap of onions, ' and by
that means (says he) made me a dish of porridge that
cost me above a thousand pounds sterling ! ' He then
showed me what he thought the finest of his tulips,
which I found received all their value from their
rarity and oddness, and put me in mind of your great
fortunes, which are not always the greatest beauties.

" I have often looked upon it as a piece of hap-
piness, that I have never fallen into any of these

178 WILD FLOWEES OF

fantastical tastes, nor esteemed any thing the more
for its being uncommon and hard to be met with.
For this reason, I look upon the whole country, in
spring time, as a spacious garden, and make as many
visits to a spot of daisies, or a bank of violets, as a
florist does to his borders or parterres. There is not
a bush in blossom within a mile of me which I am
not acquainted with, nor scarce a daffodil or cowslip
that withers away in my neighbourhood, without my
missing it. I walked home in this temper of mind,
through several fields and meadows, with an unspeak-
able pleasure, not without reflecting on the bounty
of Providence, which has made the most pleasing
and beautiful objects, the most ordinary and most

common.'

Many plants of the woods and meadows remain to
be noticed that adorn this month with their flowery
glories. Among these in rocky woods ever charming
to the eye, is the beautiful Holly (Ilex ayuifolid),
whose small white flowers might however be unnoticed
but for the multitude of bees humming their song of
gladness about them. Marshy spots among the
mountains of Wales produce the gay yellow Globe-
flower (Trollius Europceus), whose appearance pro-
claims broken rocks, rushing streams, and romantic
solitudes vocal with water-falls, as we have oft found
when our tired foot has rested for a while among the
stern secluded fastnesses of Caernarvon and Merio-
neth. "Within dark shadowy recesses on the margin
of deep burrowing brooks or laved by the murmuring
water itself, the bashful "Water Avens ( Geum rivale,)
delights to abide, drooping her crimson petals charm-
ingly, worth a journey to behold. About groves and

MAT. 179

copsy places the fair Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris,)
oft shows its blue flowers as well as purple and white
varieties; and within the thickest woods the Milkwort
(Polygala vulgaris) presents its curious wing-like
purple flowers, where, though unseen, the Turtle-dove
is traced by its low solemn coo, like a voice from the
trees, amidst the tangled foliage. To the sensitive
mind and the scrutinizing eye such objects cannot fail
to impart delight, nor is it necessary to go very far to
enjoy them, for quiet nooks of rural beauty are often
nearer to towns and the busy haunts of men than are
imagined by dwellers at home. As a specimen of
scenery on a small scale almost as enchanting as in
wilder districts, I may mention the Sapey brook run-
ning on the western border of Worcestershire, and
especially wild and cliffy about Tedstone-de-la-mere, a
Herefordshire parish. To this locality when I ram-
bled with the "Worcestershire Naturalist's Club, I
made a note of our doings as follows. — From the lofty
site of Clifton church we descended to Sapey brook,
whose deep course in the sandstone glen, half choked
with great broken slabs of sandstone and environed
about with lofty banks and dense foliage, is quite of
a Welsh character. Little waterfalls and deep pools
continually occur, and the dingle deeply overshadowed
and made musical by bubbling waters has a truly sub-
alpine aspect. We proceeded to the Hope Mill, where
the stream is crossed by a rustic foot-bridge, and then
followed its course to Lower Sapey. From Hope Mill
to the bridge of Lower Sapey, the brook offers a con-
tinual scene of excitement — sometimes leaving a little
islet in its midst overgrown with enormous coltsfoot
leaves (Tussilago petasites), and throughout having

B- 2

180 WILD FLOWEKS OF

great masses of sandstone in its bed of various sizes
and shapes, some covered all over with moss, but the
generality bare and giving a wilderness aspect to the
scene. "We leaped from stone to stone wherever we
could, and where we were unable from the interven-
tion of a deeper reach of the water, climbed the steep
bank, again to descend to the deep shadowy and
slabby bed of the brook. Some distance below the
Hope Mill we found a great sandstone slab on the
side of the brook marked with those semicircular in-
dentations that countenance the tradition and legend
of Si. Catharine's mare and colt, said to have left their
impressions upon the sandstones in the bed of the
brook when carried off by thieves, who were thus
detected, and their spoil recovered ! * The slabs with
the marks upon them are generally found on the
stones exposed to the degrading influence of the
water, which seems to wash out the softer particles of
argillaceous matter that filled up a former hollow
made by some means when the sandstone strata was
originally deposited. The brook itself now flows at
the bottom of a very deep chasm in the sandstone
strata, which some ancient convulsion or rush of
water must have given rise to. On the shaded banks
of the brook above Hope Mill, we found plenty of the
rare Carex strigosa, and below the mill in several spots
the rosy Snakeweed (Polygonum listorta,) in full
flower, and scattered on the rocky banks in almost
impassable places, the pretty white Saodfraga gra-
nulata. The exquisitely blossomed Wood Vetch

* The subject has been illustrated and examined in its geological rela-
tions, in a work entitled " Observations on certain curious indentations
in the old red sandstone of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, considered
as the tracks of antediluvian animals, &c ," by JABEZ ALLIES, Esq., F.S.A.

MAT. 181

(Vicia sylvatica,) covers the banks of the brook most
profusely with its lengthened braids twisting high
among the thickets. At Sapey bridge, too, where
a tumbling rill offers its tribute to the larger brook,
the flowers of the Columbine brightened the banks,
and the common Balm {Melissa officinalis}, appeared
as if wild. In a very overgrown and steepish place
near this spot, close to the main stream, I detected
the curious Geum intermedium, and a few yards fur-
ther several tall plants of the graceful Water Avens
(G. rivale). The former plant illustrates one of those
curious points that frequently claim the attention of
botanists — the bounds within which species may vary
or approximate to other species. Geum intermedium,
so designated by EHBAKT, is a highly remarkable
plant, as large as G. rivale, and the corolla nearly as
fine, only that the petals are of a brilliant yellow as in
the common G. urbanum, but thrice as large. When
compared with G. rivale, its size and height are the
same, and the foliage agrees in softness and thinness
(not having the stiff prominent veins beneath so con-
spicuous in G. urbanum}, but the terminal lobe instead
of being only deeply cut as in rivale, is divided to the
base. The stem leaves are larger than in rivale,
deeply three-lobed, and the stipules much larger with
deeply indented teeth. Flowers slightly nodding,
calyx green, patent, not so hairy as in rivale, nor pur-
ple as in that. Petals brilliant yellow, not quite so
large nor with the prominent diverging veins so
noticeable in G. rivale. Upper joint of the awn
covered with long hairs, but the glabrous point is
strait, not nodding as in rivale. The larger flowers,
much broader petals, and patent calyx at once distin-

182 WILD FLOWERS OF

guisli this curious plant from G. wbanum, and the
hairy iipper joint of the awn is very remarkable and
discriminative. The foliage, however, seems almost
exactly intermediate between urbanum and rivale, but
is much less coarser than in the former, and does not
exhibit such prominent veins. The stipules are
smaller, not so wide, with fewer but more deeply
indented teeth. On the whole it has much the aspect
of a hybrid.

Many other rare or remarkable plants are to be
found in the interesting vicinity of this romantic
brook, where Dr. SEWABD first noticed Hypericum
dubium as a British plant. Here I have gathered the
Lungwort or Jerusalem Cowslip (Pulmonaria officina-
lis), Rosa rubiginosa, Dame's Violet (Sesperis matro-
nalis), Mentka rotundifolia, Butterfly Orchis (Habe-
naria chlorantha) , Pyramidal Orchis (0. pyramidalis),
its red flowers presenting a lovely spectacle, Fragrant
Gymnadenia (G. conopsea), Bee Orchis (Opkrys api-
fera), Broad-leaYed Helleborine (Epipactis latifolia),
and the rarer and elegant Marsh Helleborine (IZpi-
pactis palustris). Nearer to Tedstone the banks of
the brook rise to a commanding height, shadowy with
lofty trees, and their faces encrusted with travertine.
Near the Hoar Stone a bubbling spring helps to
clothe the rocks with the most vivid verdure, while
the receding broken ravine shows a waterfall, neglected
and unknown indeed, but equal in beauty to many of
higher pretensions. Such are a sample of the scenes
unveiled to the botanical explorer only within the
compass of a day's walk. In returning to "Worcester
we crossed the river Teme by a curious old bridge
near Ham Castle, which now nourishes on its walls in

MAY. 183

a dwarf state, and has done for many years past,
the pretty fern Asplenium viride, generally only to be
gathered from moist alpine rocks.

In the open country, as May closes its flowery
reign, all is verdant and beautiful, and the meadows
rustle with luxuriant rising grass and golden crow-
foots, for the silver cuckoo-flowers have faded away,
and in their place various docks and the characteristic
large Summer Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum),
and other composites begin to appear. On a brilliant
sunny afternoon, a float down the sleepy glazy stream
of some glittering river, as the Medway or " Sabrina
fair," whose shallows are brilliant with the large
silvery flowers close clustered together of the Eiver
Crowfoot (Ranunculus fluitans, Lam)* is particularly
delightful; while, as the dewy evening approaches,
and the sun's fiery orb rests upon the horizon, the
Corn-Crake, newly arrived from his migration, com-
mences his harsh note — till, amidst the gloom of night,
an incessant and reiterated creek creek-ing resounds
through every field. On the tranquil bosom of the
silent stream the young May moon trembles in tran-
scendent lustre.

* The Rev. W. A. LEIOHTON, in his instructive Flora of Shropshire,
very pleasingly alludes to this floating plant, as constituting the " tresses
fair" of Sahrina, in MILTON'S Comus.

EXPLOKATOBY NOTICES FOE MAY.

In this mouth the phanerogamious, or flowering
plants, should almost exclusively be attended to, un-
less the Explorator be wandering in places of difficult
access, which he is not likely to again explore, such as
the wilds of Scotland, or the rocks of Cumberland and
Wales. In such spots, of course, all will be fish that
comes to the net ; indeed, the exploring botanist will
never shut his eyes for a moment when abroad ; for it
is a matter of general experience, that, although the
particular plants sought for may not be met with, yet,
others are sure to be found, perhaps not before previ-
ously recorded as occurring in that locality.

It is not possible to lay down a rule that shall be
applicable to all plants ; but, in general, it is best to
lay the specimens out upon fresh papers immediately
upon arrival at home, but without applying any
weight upon them that night. In the morning they
should be again changed, and the more succulent ones
placed by themselves ; and it is now expedient to lay
on a moderate weight, which, as the plants grow drier,
should be gradually increased. Till quite dry they
should by no means be left for more than a day with
a heavy weight upon them, or the juices will penetrate
the underlying papers, spoiling both them and the
plants below. The common botanical press does ex-
ceedingly well for the smaller and finer specimens, as

EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR MAY. 185

well as for the Grasses, Ferns, &c., but it is not adapt-
ed so well for larger or succulent-stemmed plants. I
have found it best, when time pressed, or I had not
the means of proceeding exactly secundem art em, when
travelling, to lay the specimens I had collected loosely
between brown or thick cap-paper, (let blotting-paper
be always eschewed.) covered at each end with a piece
of card-board, and just sufficiently secured with a
cord. I have thus, without much injury, carried spe-
cimens for hundreds of miles. Indeed, I have often
found old memorandum books that I had neglected
for years, and carried loosely in the pocket at the
time, to preserve some specimens almost as fresh and
good as if but recently gathered ; but in these instan-
ces no pressure had been applied to the papers.

Since the first edition of this volume was printed, I
have had opportunities of trying BE]STT ALL'S Botanical
Drying Paper, and I can recommend it as being the
best I know for placing plants in during the process
of drying, if a sufficient thickness of it can be left
between each layer of plants collected. A quantity
of it may be conveniently taken by the tourist, se-
cured by one or two stout leather straps, buckled
between two strong oak boards, the plants collected
being placed between thicknesses of the paper, and
the strap again tightly applied. This package can be
passed with the luggage, by train or otherwise, easily
enough without injury, but it is not adapted for the
pedestrian traveller. The latter, if collecting to any
extent, can however still use this paper, and forward
the result of his labours in packages of it.

From long experience I consider brown or " bag-
cap" paper the best to preserve plants in permanently,

186 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR MAT.

when fastened down. The colours of flowers are
difficult to preserve for any length of time, as a very
little damp abstracts them. The blues especially are
liable to fade. A very dry room, therefore, should, if
possible, be always selected to hold the Herbarium.

WILD FLOWEES OF JUNE.

CHAP. XII.

EXCITEMENT TO BOTANICAL WANDERING. — HABITATS OP
PLANTS. — THOSE OF THE BOG, WOOD, MEADOW, AND
RIVER-SIDE. — ROMANTIC CLIFFS OF THE WYE. — PLANTS
OF THE S\NDY BEACH AND MARITIME ROCKS. — DESCRIP-
TION OF THE PRINCIPAL BRITISH FERNS. — SCENE IN
GLYN CLYDACH WITH THE LADY FERNS.

" How sweet it is, when mother Fancy rocks

The wayward brain, to saunter through a wood !
An old place, full of many a lovely brood;
Tall trees, green arbours, and ground flowers in flocks."

WORDSWORTH.

ONE obvious charm of Botany is the continual ex-
citement it holds forth to wander amidst the wild
scenes of nature : and these wanderings are somewhat
different from the saunter of the promenade, and re-
quire a little more exertion than the range of the
smooth gravel beds of the garden. Woods, bogs,
marshes, mountains, the precipitous crag, and the low
expanse of sandy shore — all have their peculiar plants ;
and to find out the habitat of any remarkable plant is
the delight of the Botanist, and affords him unmixed
pleasure. When tired with his long walk in the
burning rays of noon, he sits down beside a tuft of
scented fern, where a chrystal spring tinkles among
the pebbles at its birth-place, his eye beams with
pleasure to behold the fairy vegetation that have
found a dwelling within this cool recess. All about

188 WILD FLOWERS OF

his feet are the round shining leaves of the Marsh
Penny-wort (Jlydrocotyle vulgaris), among which the
Plea Carex, and brown-spiked Blystnus appear ; here
the blue Pinguicula or Butterwort, with its oily leaves
covered with the spoils of minute flies, enjoys the
moisture of the bog; the red Sundew (Drosera rotundi-
folia), spreads out its rosy hairs in such congenial
localities, each tipped with a pellucid gummy drop ;
and the Hose Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella), mingles
its hosts of pale pink blossoms with the gray bog-moss
that spreads far around ; while occasionally, the still
more delicate and beautiful ivy-leaved Bell-flower
(WaJilenbergia hederacea), presents its exquisite azure
petals.

In still wetter spots the singular rigid looking
Mare's-tail (Ilippuris vulgaris), abounds; and with
its beautiful spike of roseate-coloured flowers rising
upwards, while its multified leaves are concealed be-
neath the water, appears the Water- Violet (Hottonia
palustris), though by no means of common occurrence.
Where sequestered pools with boggy and sedgy mar-
gins adorn the wide-spread waste, many of the rarer
Carices flourish, or the Hare's-tail Cotton-grass (Erio-
pliorum vaginatum}, whitens the plain ; and in such
places the great Spearwort (Ranunculus Lingua) lifts
its tall stem and golden flowers, the lovely but less
aspiring Jblenyantlies cradled in the water at its feet,
half hidden amidst moss and sedgy foliage. On neg-
lected commons, like Sutton Park, near Birmingham,
a favourite resort of Warwickshire botanists, such
plants may still be seen even in proximity to cultiva-
tion, and there we have gathered, with joyous friends,
the exquisitely lovely Cranberry (Vaccinnium Oxycoc-

JUNE. 189

cos), its bright red flowers contrasting with the pearly
Sphagnum around it, and the little clustered box-
leaved Cowberry (F. Vitis-idcsa) , with its pure white
or slightly rose-tinged petals.

Eanks of brooks and slow rivers are brightened in
June by that universal favourite the Eorget-me-Not
(Myosotis palustris) , and sometimes beside it is the
kindred species M. ccespitosa, with smaller flowers and
ligulate leaves with appressed white hairs, while those
of JLT. palustria are smooth, and the pubescence of the
stem, if any, spreading. Much sentimental absurdity
has been lavished upon the Eorget-me-Not, imported
however from Germany, for it is not upon record that
any knight in England ever perished in getting it for
his lady-love, and clumsy must any one have been to
do so. Still, without growing too wild' upon such a
tempting subject, it may be truly said that this is a
chaste and enchantingly delicate flower, sacred to love,
friendship, and poesy, in almost every part of Europe.
This may have arisen from its affecting those shady
and retired localities by the fountain's perennial flow,
which are alone grateful to the wanderer at the fervid
season when this symbolic azure flower unfolds itself,
bright and expansive in the twilight hour on the
margin of the lone stream as in the blaze of noon.
In this respect, then, it may well typify wakeful affec-
tion, and as always growing in wet places, may induce
the poetical suggestion, that affectionate remembrance
will always moisten the eye of sensibility. There are
other species of Myosotis, or Scorpion-grass, that with
almost equal beauty of flower are confined to dry
spots, as the M. Sylvatica, M. arvensis, and the
yellow-flowered M. versicolor. The racemes of the

190 WILD FLOWERS OF

true Forget-rne-Not are many-flowered, their peduncles
as well as the pedicels and calyces thickly covered
with close appressed white bristles ; the flowers are of
an enamelled azure, though pale purple before expan-
sion, with white ribs at the base, where five brilliant
yellow nectaries form a golden star, within which the
stamens and the pistil are carefully sheltered. A
nearly allied plant to this, which grows only in
swamps or quaking bogs, with creeping stolons (M.
repens of Don), was once impressed upon our recol-
lection— for perceiving it blooming in the middle of a
bog on the bleak deceptive sides of Plinlimmon, we at
once made a dash at it ; but received so cool a recep-
tion from the coy beauty, though our knees had bent
before her dripping shrine, that we retired with a
very inadequate specimen of the favours she had at
first appeared so disposed to offer.

The deep wood has now a train of bright adorn-
ments that are more beauteous still within its dark
recesses, than if exposed to the full glare of day. On
its verge half hidden within the over hanging foliage
of the limestone steep, the simulating Bee Orchis
(Ophrys apifera), hangs its flowers like insects sus-
pended in air, exserting the wondrous tube that im-
bibes the odoriferous nectar ; amidst the shade of the
thicket the Butterfly Orchis (O. chlorantlia) , lifts its
scented spike of greenish-white flowers with their long
horn-like lips ; and in the thickest and darkest part
of the grove a brown stem may be faintly seen, as if
scorched and withered, which on closer inspection is
seen to bear pale sulphur flowers, and is the curious
Listera nidus-avis, or Bird's-nest Orchis. Here, too,
but less in the shadow, rise up numerous plants of

JUNE. 191

the common green T way-blade (List era ovata), while
in some spots, though but rarely, the eye is relieved
with the appearance of the bright red clusters of the
Wood Hound' s-tongue (Cynoglossum sylvaticum).

In wilder and more mountainous woods the glades
are decorated with the blue flowers of the "Woody
Crane's-bill (Geranium sylvaticum), and the elegant
nodding grass Melica nutans, occurs in similar spots ;
in such situations, also, damp and umbrageous, the
barren fronds of the Wood Horse-tail (Equisetum
sylvaticwn) spread their compound whorled branches
like some fir-tree in miniature, or a grove of palms.
A few fertile plants with black terminal catkins may
be discerned among them. On all sides here the
Enchanter's Nightshade (Circcea lutetiana^) scatters
its slender red spikes and pale flowers widely around,
while sheltered in mossy hollows the Winter- Green
(Pyrola rotundifolia et minor}, is here and there
revealed by its small drooping round white or rose-
tinged blossoms. In favoured tracts such as those of
Wyre Forest, Worcestershire, whole glades become
white as ermine with the numerous stainless flowers
of the Narrow-leaved White Helleborine (Epipactis
ensifolia).

Meadows on the borders of hilly woods, especially
on calcareous soil, now exhibit in various localities the
specious pink Saintfoiii (Onobrycliis sativa), shining
from afar, and the purple-headed Mountain Milk
Vetch (Astragalus hypoglottis), as well as the common
Yellow Melilot (Melilotus ojficinalis) ; while lime-
stone banks and quarries present to view the yellow
clusters of the Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria),
and the brighter clusters of the Bird's-foot (Hippo-

192 WILD FLOWEES OF

crepis comosa). The small purple Acinos vulgaris, may
also be noted here.

In the general landscape ere the hay harvest com-
mences, the pastures flash in refulgent spreads of
brightness, where the red heads of the Honey-suckle
Clover blend into rich mingled tints with the golden
yellows of the Butter-cups and Bird's-foot Trefoils,
while a bronzed hue prevails where the spikes of the
Sorrel (Ilwnex acetosa), stud the field. Composite
flowers as Crepis virens, and Hypocliceris radicata arise
on every side to add to the bright gilding of the sum-
mer scene. The picture is animated by numbers of
the Green Forester Moth (Ino S tat ices), fluttering
above the grass in great numbers, their rich tinted
wings glittering in the sun.

If we trace the river side and the deep bed of the
wintry torrent, where now a nearly exhausted rill only
oozes, the ground is blue with the little Veronica Bec-
cabunga, spreading in dense patches, while proudly
erect, the rosy heads of the great Bistort (Polygonum
Bistorta), are seen in lovely array; and the Meadow
Hue (Thalictrum flavuni) , droops its clustered stamens
over the yellow Moneywort (LysimacJiia nummularia).
spread over the ground at its feet.

Slowly we now climb the woody cliff that on either
hand shadows the bright river, that here smooth as
chrystal sleeps in the bright glare of noon, there hur-
rying o'er the shallows, musically echoes upon the ear.
Let us rest in this nook, where umbrageous beeches
wave their branches high in air, and the ground forms
a rough glacis from the dismembered rocks that topple
far above our heads, where many a golden Hawkweed
glows beyond all reach or grasp. Here in the cool

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SYMOND'S YAT,
A lofty Limestone Rock on the Banks of the Wye.

Habitat of the Pyrus Aria, Tilia parvifoha, Taxus baccata,
and numerous other trees and plan's.

JUNE. 193

interstices of the rock the Navelwort (Cotyledon
umbilicus} finds an appropriate home, and fills the
crannies with its curious round fleshy leaves and pale
campanulate flowers. A host of Ferns and " Maiden
hairs," also show their beauteous fronds, and the
climbing Fumitory (Corydalis claviculatd) winds its
delicate tendrils around in all directions. Here the
blue-flowered Sheep's Scabious (Jasione montana),
spreads about, and many minute plants present them-
selves, more, indeed, than we shall now stop to
enumerate ; but the white clusters of the Hairy Eock
Cress (Arabis liirsuta^) are conspicuous, and the dizzy
summit of the precipice is crowned with the garland-
like white and dense umbels of the Service-tree (Pyrus
forminalis).

Many such cliffs may be found, rugged and for-
tress-like, shadowing the reaches of sandy-bottomed
Severn, but still loftier, more rugged and time-toned,
beside

" Sylvan Wye, that wanderer through the woods ; "

and in my mind's eye the broken masses of millstone
grit on the northern flank of Symond's Tat,* forming
a magnificent debacle, yet rise before my view.
Frightful must the bare scene once have been ! — but
now, romantic beauty has chased desolation away, and

* This is a noble mass of mountain limestone clothed with wood, and
connected with the Coldwell rocks on the banks of the Wye below Good-
rich Castle. It commands splendid views of the river and adjacent
country. The Wye approaches to its eastern base, but unable to break
the barrier, makes a circuit of more than six miles ere it returns to bathe
its western side. Its eastern end is dangerously precipitous, and it is
crowned by scrubby masses of Yew, Whitebeam, Lime, Hawthorn, Hazle,
Beech, Oak, Dogwood, Maple, Spindle-tree, Crab, Wytch-Hazle, Holly,
&c.— in fact, a natural forest.

O

194 WILD FLOWEKS OF

the enormous masses of rock that spread exposed
along the side of the hill, tufted with tall Beeches, and
thicketed with the deep evergreen of Hollies and
Tews, are invested by Nature with a charming effect,
especially when the declining sun flames its slanting
rays upon the scene, throwing the caverns in the rocks
into gloomy shadow, while a light breeze exposes the
silvery under-surfaces of the foliage of the White-beam
tree (Pyrus Aria). Lovely, too, are the hues upon
those slippen rocks, half way down the hill, that yet
cling to the soil in mid air — green Bilberries, Mosses
of deeper green, bristling Heath, and Lichens grey,
white, and umber, combine to give them tints, con-
trasting yet harmonious. Oh for another exploration
of the shattered rocks of Symond's Tat ! The
bleached cliffs on either side of the "Wye below New
Wier are finely fringed with wood, where the dark
Tew mixing with the silvery leaves of the Whitebeam
has a singular effect. On some broken cliffs almost
exactly like the towers of a dismantled fortress, the
Tews clothe the ledges with a sable fringe, and pro-
duce a very picturesque aspect. In combination with
the golden beeches of autumn, forming a continuous
robe on the sides of the river and reflected in the
tranquil stream, scarcely any thing can be finer or
more impressive to the imagination. As few Wye
tourists have noticed tJie plants that occur in this
vicinity, I shall select a few that present themselves
in various spots on the banks of the river, as an
incentive to the botanical looker-out to pause on his
rout 60

JUNE. 195

Remarkable Plants of the "banks of the Wye, "between
Symond's Yat and CJiepstow.

Clematis vitalba. — Abundant.

Helleborus viridis. — Westerauside of the river.

d

Aquilegia vulgaris. — Several spots, and in a truly wild state.
Arabis hirsuta. — On the Windcliff, &c.
Cardamine impatiens. — In profusion on Symond's Yat.
Diplotaxis tenuifolia. — Sandstone cliff, near Ross.
Koniga maritima. — Near Chepstow.
Cochlearia officinalis. — At Chepstow.
Lepidium ruderale. — Ditto, on the Monmouthshire side
Saponaria officinalis. — Plentiful at the New Weir and near Red-
brook.

Althsea officinalis. — Below Chepstow.
Tilia parvifolia. — Most abundantly in a large wood extending

from Redbrook almost all the way to Big Wier, but mostly

pollarded.
Hypericum calycinum. — In a bushy place under the cliff beyond

Chepstow Bridge.

H. Androsaemum. — Near Whitchurch.
H. maculatum. — About Goodrich.
H. montanum. — Lancaut Cliffs.
Geranium sanguineum. — Finely adorning Lancaut Cliffs and the

Windcliff.
G. lucidum. — Symond's Yat, &c. With white flowers on the

Windcliff.

Trifolium scabrum. — At Lancaut.
Anthyllis vulneraria. — In calcareous spots.
Vicia sylvatica. — This elegant plant dangles over the rocks that

overhang a sequestered part of the road between the

Windcliff and St. Arvans.
Lathyris sylvestris.

Hippocrepis comosa. — Near Chepstow.
Spiraea filipendula. — In hilly pastures between the Wye and

Severn, abundant.
Potentilla argentea. — Lancaut Cliffs.
Rubus suberectus and Sprengelii, grow in the woods between

New Weir and Hillersland.

o2

196 WILD FLOWEBS OF

R. glandulosus. — Near Landoga Waterfall.
R. pallidus, var. foliosus. — A very curious form near Vaga Cot-
tage, Great Doward.

Rosa villosa, tomentosa, inodora, and rubiginosa.
R. micrantha. — At Lancaut.
R. systyla. — On the edge of the wood between Redbrook and

Big Weir Bridge.

Pyrus aria. — Beautiful on the cliffs.
P. torminalis. — Not uncommon.

Epilobium angustifolium, — In several spots, but most plentiful
at Landoga.

Sedum glaucum and rupestre. — On the Chepstow cliffs.
Cotyledon umbilicus. — Various places.

Saxifraga granulata and tridactylites.
Apium graveolens. — Near Chepstow.

OZnantha crocata. — Very fine in many spots, and by the spring
near Warre's monument.

Ribes nigrum. — Banks of Wye.

Smyrnium olusatrum. — Chepstow.

Sium angustifolium.

Sambucus nigra, with pretty variegated leaves.

Viburnum lantana. — Plentiful.

Asperula cynanchica, but rare.

Rubia peregrina. — Lancaut Cliffs.

Scabiosa columbaria. — On Symond's Yat, &c.

Erigeron acris. — Near Lancaut.

Inula Conyza. — Rather common.

Artemisia maritima. — About Chepstow.

Antennaria dioica. — Near Coldwell Rocks.

Tanacetum vulgare.

Campanula latifolia and Trachelium.

C. patula. — This pretty Bell-flower occurs almost continuously
for more than a mile between Redbrook and Big Weir
Bridge.

Chlora perfoliata. — Plentifully.

Anchusa sempervirens. — Lancaut.

Hyoscyamus niger. — About Chepstow.

Veronica montana.

Mentha rotundifolia. — Very plentiful.
Origanum vulgare and Calamintha Nepeta.

Anagallis ceerulea. — Rarely.

JUNE. 197

Euphorbia platyphylla. — By the road side from Tintern to

Chepstow.

Orchis pyramidalis. — Lancaut.
Ophrys apifera. — Cliffs at Chepstow.
N arcissus biflorus. — Near Lancaut.
Melica nutans. — On the Great Doward and Windcliff.
Carex-digitata. -Opposite Symond's Yat, and at Lancaut Cliffs.
C. montana. — On the Great Doward.

As will be seen by the above enumeration, the
Great Doward, a steep hill between Symond's Tat
and Monmouth, and the romantic cliffs of Lancaut,
opposite Percefield, are excellent stations for many
of the rarer plants affecting limestone ; and the
"Windcliff, near Chepstow, offers a fine scene of bota-
nical beauty, in its winding paths deeply overshadowed
with vast grotesque Tews or knotty boled Beeches.
From the summit the view of the winding "Wye and
broad Severn, the craggy Lancaut cliffs, and the ex-
tensive flat country, where the sister rivers glide into
each other's embraces, is as fine as any prospect
where beauty is the chief characteristic. I saw it
first in the clear brightness of the morning, but at
another visit, when the rays of the declining sun fell
with mellow light upon the old castle and town of
Chepstow, glanced upon the cliffs of Lancaut, or
glared fitfully upon patches of green meadow; the
eye relieved by the change of light and shadow gazed
upon the scene with greater pleasure, while the hang-
ing woods of Percefield, all in deep gloom, greatly
heightened the effect.

The vicinity of Symond's Tat is adorned with seve-
ral rare Ferns, while the commoner ones grow to a
greater magnitude than usual in the excavated and
shadowy recesses of the Forest of Dean. Polypodium
Dryopteris grows south-east of the rocks of New

198 WILD FLOWEBS OF

by a path through the woods towards Staunton ; and
P. calcareum, a still more local species, I haye ob-
served just within the wood on the side of the path
by the Wye between Symond's Tat and New Wier,
as well as abundantly among the rocks at Lydbrook.
The Scaly Spleenwort (Ceteracli officinarwri), is here
most abundant, it covers the old walls of millstone
grit about "Whitchurch, and between that village and
the Wye, occurs on Welch Bicknor church and walls,
on rocks near Clearwell, and most profusely on the
walls at Chepstow. Not far hence is the sweetly
retired village of Clearwell, situated within the pre-
cincts of the Forest of Dean, with a broken stone
cross in its quiet street of old cottages. Most of these
are overgrown with pretty wreaths of the scented
Aspleniwn or Maiden-hair ; and at a singular mossy
excavation at the entrance of the place, called the
Pleasure Bocks, the finest fronds of Hart's-tongu©
(Scolopendrum vulgar e) and Aspidium angular e luxu-
riate that I ever met with. Some that I gathered
here were nearly a yard in length.

The scene is changed ! for full in our view, lo, the
eternal billows of the ever restless ocean lash the
sandy beach in their magnificence of foam and spray.
Yet even here is vegetable life, for, wide as the winds
spread the sandy inundation from the sea margin, still
Flora makes an effort for the resumption of her domi-
nion, and disputes every inch of ground. Though
reduced to a pigmy, yet the Burnet Hose blooms most
profusely; the Yellow Poppy ( Glaucimi luteum) shows
its curious glaucous leaves and specious opening
corolla; the Sea Milk-wort (Glauoc maritima), the Sea-
side Sandwort (Arenaria peploides), the Sea Convol-

JUNE. 199

vulus (C. soldanelld), the Sea Spurge (Euphorbia
esula), all display their various flowers; and the
Eryngo or Sea Holly forms a beautiful object on the
sandy beach, with its prickly blue-veined leaves and
dense heads of blue flowers. Thus Creative Benefi-
cence adorns the most sterile spots, and there is
something in nature exciting and suggestive wherever
we turn our steps.

In another quarter, the raving ocean has rolled a
barrier of pebbles, and having thus raised a bar, the
fresh waters from the inland hills are dammed up into
marshes and morasses. These have their peculiar
plants, and show the black heads of the ScJiaemts nigri-
cans, the silvery stems of the Rliynchospora alba, the
Sea Arrow-grass (TriglocJiin maritimwn), and the
pretty white flowers of the Brook-weed (Samolus
valerandi), to say nothing of a host of Carices and
Scirpi, all presenting dense masses of green of various
hues, diversified here and there with a single immense
flossy head of Cotton-grass. In the deep drains or
ditches round the morass the Utricularia minor just
shows its small golden flower, bright as a passing star
through gloomy clouds when stagnant vapours rest on
the sullen air. Such appears the scene at Goodick
Morass, near Fisguard, and many other such places on
the shores of AYales.

But we are now at a rocky headland towering above
the surly main, whose breakers hollow its base into a
hundred grottoes, caverns, and gullies, whence a
hoarse murmur rises upon the ear, broken by the
shrieks of gulls and other birds, nestling within their
dark confines. Here the silvery flowers of the Sea
Charnomile (Antliemis maritima), decorate the rocks j

200 WILD TLOWEES OF

the Lady's finger (Anthyllis vulneraria), as if wounded,
displays its yellow or faintly sanguine hues ; the Squi-
nancy-wort (Asperula cynanchica^ strews its pale
lilac beauties ; and on a tottering crag inaccessible to
its dominion, the Tree Mallow (Lavatera arbor ea,)
lifts its dark villous broad-lobed leaves and deep pur-
ple flowers, vainly tempting the eye of the too daring
Botanical Explorator. Several isolated and lofty
limestone crags on the coast of Pembrokeshire, called
the Stacks, are crested with this fine maritime plant,
and one in particular called the Elyange Stack, is
covered with it. The scenery at this point is of a
sublime character — broken and precipitous rocks, a
stormy sea, deep sunken cauldrons, and vast flocks of
screaming birds, combine to impress the mind with
wonder and awe.

But away from the margin of stormy ocean, we are
again upon the mountains — gradually we recede, till
the yellow sands alone mark the line of the beach,
and not a murmur ascends among the rocks even to
the listening ear. All is hushed as by a spell ; the
beetle sweeps by without extracting a single modula-
tion from the unfelt air, and the sun blazes from a sky
of azure upon which no vestige of a cloud appears.
"We turn the angle of a lofty grey promontory, and
the sea is hidden altogether : — we are now upon

" The upland ferny braes remote from man ; " *
and here a tribe of plants merits our particular notice,
though undistinguished by any apparent flowers.
These are well known as the TEENS.

To a common eye the frond of a Fern presents the
appearance of a leaf generally extremely cut and

" GRAHAME. — Birds of Scotland.

JTTNE. 201

divided, or pinnated, as the common male and female
ferns, and the Brake or Eagle Pern ; or with a long
entire scaly-stalked green leaf such as the Hart's-
tongue, so frequently seen about the mouths of wells,
and in other damp spots. The fructification appears
for the most part upon the back of the frond, and
presenting itself all at once about Midsummer, from
the unfurling or circinate vernation of the plant, was
superstitiously supposed to come to perfection only
on St. John's night, in each year, at the hour the
Baptist was born. Hence it was supposed that if it
could be gathered at this time, it would possess many
magical properties, and was even reputed to give its
possessor the power to walk invisible. SHAKSPEARE
has alluded to this superstition in the often quoted
passage in his Henry tlie Fourth, Part I.

" We steal as in a castle, cock-sure ; we have the receipt
of Fern-seed, we walk invisible." *

* The old Herbalists and Simplers had many disputes and divers

opinions as to the fructification of Ferns. Dr. TURNER, writing in 1560,

thus remarks: — " DIOSCORIDES denyeth that the Feme hath anye frute,

and therebye that it hath also no seede, but not onlye the opinion of the

commen people is that the Ferae hath seede, but also it is the opinion of

a Christien Phisicion, named HIERONYMUS THAGUS, who doth not onlye

saye that Feme hath sede, but wrytith that he found upon mydsomer

even seede upon Brakes. I have taken out of his Herbal his wordes

concernyng that matter, and have translated that into English after this

manner followinge. Although that all they that have writen of herbes,

have affyrmed and holden that the Brake hath nether sede nor frute : yet

have I dyvers times proved the contrarye, which thinge I will testefye

here in this place for there sakes that be students in the knowledge of

herbes. I have foure yeres together one after another upon the vigill of

Saynt John the Baptiste, (which we call in English Midsummer even)

soughte for this seede of Brakes upon the nyghte, and in dede I fownde it

earlye in the mornynge before the daye brake, the sede was small blacke,

and lyke unto poppye. I gatherid it after this maner : I laide shetes and

mollen leaves underneath the brakes whiche received the sede, that was

by shakynge and beatynge broughte out of the branches and leaves.

Many brakes in some places had no sede at all, but in other places agayne

a man shall find sede in everye brake, so that a mail maye gether a hund-

202 WILD FLOWEBS OP

Although the modus operandi of the reproduction of
ferns is not entirely so elucidated as to be devoid of
obscurity, it may be sufficient here to observe, that
these Cryptogarnic vegetables spring from seeds or
spores contained in round capsules or thecce, which are
collected upon the frond in linear, oblong, or circular
clusters, called sori, which, though in some few in-
stances naked, are in most of the species covered with
a thin white integument, called an indusium, which
being disruptured, displays the ripe thecce. Each theca
opens at a transverse irregular fissure, and is fur-
nished with a jointed spring nearly surrounding it,
whose elasticity causes it to burst and disperse the
spores contained within.

The Ferns have been separated into three divisions,
of which I shall here only notice the first — the true
FILICALES, These have their fructification either
dorsal, marginal, or in naked clusters, terminating or
attached to the frond. The Polypodiacece and Hyme-
nopliyllacece have rings to their theca?, but Osmundacece
and Opliioglossacece have their theca3 without rings.

The Perns cannot exist in a luxuriant state without
moisture; they are, therefore, most numerous in
humid and woody countries, or where moisture con-
stantly drips upon shadowy rocks. They abound in
the tropical islands and in equinoctial America ; but
in the sultry land of Egypt where rain scarcely ever
falls, only one species is known. They become rare
towards the north, for Sweden can only number
twenty-seven species, while nearly fifty are found in

red out of one brake alone ; but I went aboute this busyness, all figures,
conjurynges, saunters, charmes, wytchcrafte and forserves sett a syde,
takynge wyth me two or three honest men to bere me companye."—
TUHNER'S Herbail, folio, 2nd Part.

JUNE. 203

Britain. Being easily preserved and examined, they
are a favourite tribe with most botanists, and deserve
attentive examination from their exquisite delicacy
and beauty in many instances. It has been lately
discovered and now abundantly proved that most of
the Ferns will nourish luxuriantly in glass jars or
boxes, provided with a little moist earth, without any
other attention than that of excluding the external
air. They may thus be made ornamental accompani-
ments of the parlour window.*

Perns do not appear to be of much value in an
economical point of view ; — the " rheum-purging Poly-
pody," Moonwort, Osmunda, and even Capillaire, are,
in the present day almost discarded from practice, and
except for burning, or as litter for cattle, they excite
no attention in the country. Their bitter principle
renders them so unpalatable to both man and animals,
that they are scarcely at all employed as food, and
even insects almost universally neglect them. Let us
regard them, then, in our usual way, as elegant
objects of natural beauty, and as incentives to botani-
cal ramble. At this season of the year they are in full
perfection in the vicinity of their native woods, bogs,
and mountains.

The Adder' s-tongue (Opliioglossmi vulgatuin), is a
curious little plant, with a single entire frond, about
the size of a sorrel-leaf, above which rises a narrow
pointed spike of tkecce, which seems to issue from the
upright leaf, like the tongue of a serpent quivering
beyond its mouth ; hence the common name. The
vicinity of marshes and low meadows should be exa-
mined for this plant, which though not uncommon, is

* See Mr. WARD'S interesting volume on the Growth of Plants in
closely glazed cases. 1842.

204 WILD FLOWERS OF

often overlooked from its being concealed among
springing grass, and the heats of summer soon cause
it to wither away. The Moonwort (JBotrychium luna-
ria), is another curious fern, growing in heathy spots,
whose fructification is borne upon a compound spike
rising above its pinnate frond. The pinnules of the
latter are in fan-shaped pairs, whence the name of
Moonwort is derived. Degraded and almost for-
gotten, its mystic powers gathered when the moon
was "walking in her brightness," are now entirely
disregarded.

Osmunda regalis is the king of British Ferns. This
splendid plant bears several bipinnate fronds, above
which the deep brown sori rise clustered together in a
compound spike of much elegance. In the bogs of
Wales king Osmund is very abundant, and I have
often viewed it there with high pleasure. It even
approaches close to the sea as in Goodick Morass,
near Fisguard, Pembrokeshire ; Cors Grochno, north
of Aberystwith ; and very fine near Harlech, as well
as between Barmouth and Dolgelle, Merionethshire ;
in all which places I have gathered it. The rhizorna
or root-stock, when cut through, has a whitish centre
or core, said by old GEEAEDE, in his Herbal, to be the
heart of OSMUND the waterman. No doubt the
"flowering fern" was once honoured as a "plant of
power," for Professor BUENET states that Osmunder
was one of the titles of THOE, the Saxon god of
Thunder, while mund is well known to denote strength
and power. Even now the Osmunda is said to possess
styptic and astringent qualities.*

* The translator of Dodonseus says—" The harte of the roote of Os-
monde is good against squattes and bruises, heavie and greevous falles,
and whatever hurte or dislocation soever it be." •

JUKE. 205

The Hymenophyllacece, or Filmy Ferns, of which
two species only are British, must be sought in wet
alpine spots, among black dripping rocks, where the
clouds are often resting, and continually oozing their
moisture among the saturated patches of moss. I
gathered the dark and sad looking Hymenophyllum
Wilsoni in considerable plenty, a few years ago, on
the rocks that overhang the roaring Rhyddol, on the
opposite side of the torrent at the appalling hollow
of Pont Bren, near the Devil's Bridge, Cardiganshire;
and since abundantly on the damp rocks above Llyn
Cae on Cadir Idris. H. tunbridgense grows in the
shadowy parts of that most romantic and beautiful
dingle called "The Torrents," which every rambler
should visit, in the vicinity of Dolgelle, Merio-
nethshire.

The PolypodiacecB are all known from having their
fructification in clusters at the back of the frond,
which gives them so peculiar an aspect. It is these
that form those masses of russet fern, which in the
autumnal months gives so mellow a hue to the fore-
ground of forest scenery, and even embrowns the pre-
viously purple hills. The naming autumnal gorse
well contrasts with the burnt sienna of the fading
brake, and exhibits one of those beautiful artistic
harmonies so well known to the student of nature.
Every heath and damp alder copse is then strewn
with the crisp Eagle Brake (Pteris aquilina), the rigid
Hard Fern (Blecknum boreale), or waves with the
deep green fronds of the Great Shield Fern (Aspi-
dium dilatatim). Even the driest walls offer a conve-
nient nidus to the Rue-leaved Spleenwort (Asplenium
ruta-muraria), or to the Scaly Hart's- tongue

206 WILD FLOWERS OP

( Grammitis ceteracli) . A few are partial to maritime
situations, as the Asplenium lanceolatum, which is so
plentiful on the rocks about Barmouth: while the
waving fronds of the Sea Spleenwort (Asplenium
marinwn), decorate the caves of ocean with a classical
nereidic foliage. The singularly beautiful Venus's
Hair (Adiantum Capillus-veneris), is partial to sea
cliffs moistened by land springs, and in such places
about Ilfracombe, in Devonshire, in deep sequestered
coves like White Pebble Bay, and others at the
indented base of old Hillsborough, it catches the eye
of the Botanical Looker-out in a chain of brilliant
verdure often far out of his reach. Nothing can
exceed in elegance the fructification of this delicate
fern. The numerous fine fibres springing from its
roots have the appearance of hair, whence perhaps
the common name Venus's Hair.

Other ferns of this division are chained to moun-
tain rocks, there to bear all the vicissitudes of heat
and cold, as the Parsley Fern (Allosorus crispus), so
indicative of an alpine station, and spreading luxu-
riantly on the secondary slopes of Cadir Idris,
Snowdon, and the mountains of Yorkshire and Cum-
berland. This elegant species, the barren frond of
which is of so delicate a green ere it becomes burnt
up from exposure, varies much in size according to
the altitude it attains. On the Berwyn mountains,
near the cataract of Pistill Rhaidwr, it assumes almost
a shrubby aspect. In similar mountain habitats,
though of very rare occurrence, the Hair-Ferns
(Woodsia)* take up their abode. The Bladder-ferns

* The rare Woodsia Ilvensis grows on the rocks at Falcon Glints, in
Teesdale, Yorkshire, as thus noticed by Mr. SAMUEL KING, in A Botanical
Excursion in Teesdale.—" Here [at Falcon Clints] I cast around many

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JUNE. 207

(Oistopteris,) are a beautiful little family, with their
fine cut pinnae delighting the eye of the botanical
explorer wherever they are dragged from their obscure
retreats, which are often in the damp shady crevices
of rocks among massive stones in mountain ravines
where any one but a botanist would think there was
nothing but a fox, a rabbit, or a wheatear. There like
hermits they meditate in their hidden retreats, and
seem to cower from the garish eye of day. Yet occa-
sionally the C. fragilis adorns the works of man in
wild districts, as on the Devil's Bridge and neighbour-
ing walls near the cataracts of the Monach, Cardigan-
shire. The species of these delicate ferns are with
difficulty discriminated, since, according to exposure,
or shade and moisture, they differ in size from a
length of only two inches to twelve or fourteen, and
fronds with pinna} and pinnules of every intermediate

an anxious look for Woodsia Ilvensis; at length, after much searching,
and a good wetting from the drip of the water from the huge basaltic
rocks, to my great joy I espied two small plants, which were instantly
secured ; a little farther on we saw three more under a bush of Prunus
Padus, but not liking to destroy the plant, we left the roots of these in the
crevice of the rock where they were growing." — Phytologist, vol. i. p. 114.
Another botanist, (Mr. S. SIMPSON,) in the same useful periodical, testifies
to similar results — the Woodsia and a wetting! — "We found our track
hemmed in by the overladen Tees on our right hand, and the lofty basaltic
rocks, called Falcon Clints, on our left. My eye was now anxiously
directed to the face of these rocks to discover, if possible, the chief object
in taking our present course — Woodsia Ilvensis. Rain now began to fall
heavily, and the wind, which had been all day very tempestuous, bore it
against us so as to render observation either of locality or objects, very
imperfect. However, after tracing as near as I can judge about 400 yards,
I espied some small specks of green through the broken fragments of a
stream which poured over the Clints, and under which I soon stood,
pulling hastily the patches I had seen, and these, to my delight, proved to
be two small plants of the Woodsia, mixed with a few fronds of Asplenium
viride and Cistopteris fragilis." The Woodsia, according to Mr. WILSON,
of Warrington, is also found near Llyn y Cwn, on the Glyder Mountain .
and Woodsia hyperborea on Clogwyn y-Garnedd, Snowdon.

208 WILD FLOWEBS OF

aspect occur. The variety called by Sir J. E. SMITH,
C. angustata, is exceedingly elegant, and as an ex-
treme form seems at first sight very distinct from the
more rigid mountain plant named C. dentata. This
we once gathered in a wild romantic spot on the
banks of the river Terne, near Downton Castle, Here-
fordshire.

The feather-like Beech-fern (Polyp odium pJiegopte-
ris), the tender three-branched Polypody (P. dryopte-
ris), as well as the more rigid and taller P. calcareum,*
generally occur on stony mountains, or by the margins
of alpine streams just plunged from a wooded preci-
pice into some black shadowy abyss, hemmed in by
crags and ancient trees, immersed in rimy fog ; silent,
save to the eternal patter of the falling water ; horrid
with a confused debacle of ruins from the broken
cliffs above; and curtained with a triple fold of
Stygian shade, where darkness luxuriates even at
noon day. In the secluded tracts of North Wales,
many scenes may be found like the one here imaged,
as at the Raven Waterfall in the vale of Eestiniog,
and deep within the bed of the river Cynfael in the
same glen, where a naked rock towers, called Pulpit
Hugh Llwyd, said to have been once the dreaded
scene of magical rites and incantations. The beauti-
ful ferns last mentioned may be found at Cil Hepste
"Waterfall and Pont Henrhyd in the Vale of Neath,
and near Bala Lake, as well as about many of the
cataracts both in North and South Wales. A scene
somewhat similar to the one above depicted is thus

* The somewhat rare P. calcareum grows abundantly on the stony
declivity of Cleeve-Cloud Hill, one of the Cotteswolds, near Cheltenham.
It is well characterized by the stouter and taller rachis, with frond larger,
and much stiffer pinnae than in P. dryopteris.

JUNE. 209

mentioned by G-RAHAME, in his "Birds of Scotland,"
which, as true to nature, we shall quote — such roman-
tic pictures give a zest to the labours of the botanist,
and rouse his reflective powers. —

" What dreadful cliffs o'erhang this little stream !

1 So loftily they tower, that he who looks
Upward, to view their almost meeting summits}
Feels sudden giddiness, and instant grasps
The nearest fragment of the channel rocks,
Resting his aching eye on some green branch
That midway down shoots from the crevic'd crag.
Athwart the narrow chasm fleet flies the rack,
Each cloud no sooner visible than gone."

It is in romantic solitudes like this that the fragrant
"MAIDEN-HAIRS" delight to dwell, decorating the
rocks with their slender fronds, and giving a vivid
verdure to them, especially if within the reach of
oozing moisture or bubbling water-break. In such
situations we have often seen and gathered Aspleniwn
viride, once singularly covering a fallen mountain ash
with verdant tracery in the deep hollow below Pont
Henrhyd near Grlyn JSTeath. The fronds of A. viride
have as the specific name implies green stalks, while
the scented but more common A. trickomanes have
deep purple ones, as is also the case with A. adiantum-
nigrwn, both lovers of rocky lanes, the latter often
strikingly variegated with white. The rare Lanceolate
Spleenwort (Asplenium lanceolatum) , has in perfection
very finely cut pinnae, forming a verdant object de-
lightful to the exploring eye on the rocks where it
vegetates. This local fern is plentiful about Barmouth
in Merionethshire, once its undesecrated reign, but
now intruding roads have cut through and broken up
rocks that had lain untouched from eldest time, and

p

210 WILD FLOWEES OF

the sulky Spleenwort still pertinacious to its haunts,
exists there, but on the side of the dusty road curls
up, and shrinks from view into the deepest crevices,
from which it can scarcely be dragged out by the
botanist by main force.

The Athyrium filix-fcemina or Lady-Pern, is the
Queen of British Ferns, exquisitely and superemi-
nently tall, delicate, and beautiful. Though by no
means uncommon, yet it is only in wild rocky soli-
tudes secluded from the glare of day, soothed by
babbling water, and nursed in delicious scented shade,
that it attains in perfection, that character entitling
it fully to the appellation adverted to. Some years
since in a delightful exploration of Glyn Clydacli, on
the borders of Monmouthshire and Breconshire, I
gathered some splendid specimens of this description,
far superior to the more common varieties, which,
when too densely covered with sori, as they often are
in open heathy spots, have rather a coarse and inele-
gant aspect.*

The Grlyn is not always explorable, but at this time
the stream that waters it was low, and by leaping and
climbing from rock to rock, over many a still pool and
up many a frothy water-break, our party at last gained
its innermost recesses. It was a burning summer's
day, and looking up to the mural precipices of moun-
tain limestone on either side, tufted here and there
with Tew or daring "White-beam above a jutting crag,
on to the scanty cleft of blue the opposing cliffs
afforded, not a trace of cloud could be noticed upon
the sky. We threaded our way on the shadowy side

* A rare and very curious variety of A. Filijc-fcemina with broad pinnae,
grows in the lake district, near Kendal ; but its habitat is kept strictly
secret, as I am informed.

JUNE. 211

of the rocks, where many a fantastically boled beech
lifted its tortuous arms, and wound its briarean roots
among the rifted rocks. Still progressing onwards,
we paused before a bolder ledge that obstructed our
passage, over which twin currents lazily curdled down,
and from which a pair of brown Dippers (Cinclus aqua-
ticus,) had just emerged. Suddenly a dark cloud
curtained the ravine, and a peal of thunder solemnly
echoed among the hills. Drops, streams, torrents of
rain now poured upon our heads, and we sought shel-
ter in the first concavity we could find. But the
silver threads that had just been faintly murmuring
within the Glyn were now sullied in their course —
they foamed and raged, lashed the rocks hoarsely in
their fury, and increasing in magnitude and violence
every moment, soon threatened our retreat, and the
pleasant prospect presented itself of being washed
away specimens and all in the arms of the furious
flood, and hurled mercilessly down " the Black Catar-
act," which we had left behind us. Fortunately the
rain abated, and saved us from this melancholy fate ;
but the adventure rises before me, in vivid hues,
whenever I gaze upon the specimen I gathered here.

As almost every wild rocky lane and moist wood
abounds with the Aspidii, or Shield Perns, elegant as
some of them are, I shall leave that family for the
botanical explorator to develope for himself — no very
hard task — and only descant now upon the charms of
my favourite Mlix fcemina.*

* Those who may wish to pursue the subject in detail, and obtain
localities for every species or variety, should consult Mr. EDWARD NEW-
MAN'S elegantly illustrated History of British Ferns, which is full of
interest, general as well as botanical.

p2

212 WILD FLOWERS OF

THE LADY FERN.

When in splendour and beauty all nature is crown'd,
The Ferns are seen curling half hid on the ground,
But of all the green brackens that rise in the burn,
Commend me alone to the sweet Lady-Fern.

Polypodium, indented, stands stiff on the rock,
With his sori expos'd to the tempest's rough shock ;
0n the wide chilly heath Aquilina, stands stern,
Not once to be nam'd with the sweet Lady-Fern.

To the rambler who heaths and dark ravines explores,
Northern Blechnum appears crouching low on the moors ;
But like a rough savage with manners to learn,
Its rough frond seems a foil to the soft Lady-Fern.

Filix-mas, in a circle, lifts up his green fronds,
And the Heath-fern* delights by the bogs and the ponds ;
Through their crisp scented tufts though with pleasure I turn,
The palm must still rest with the fresh Lady-Fern.

By the fountain I see her, just sprung into sight,

Frail her texture, and bent as though shiv'ring with fright ;

To the water she shrinks — I qan scarcely discern

In the deep humid shadows the pale Lady-Fern.

Where the water is pouring for ever she sits,
And beside her the Ouzel and Kingfisher flits ;
There, supreme in her beauty, beside the full urn,
In the shade of the rocks droops the tall Lady-Fern.

If sweeter the Maiden-Hair^ scents to the gale,
If taller King Osmund's \ crown'd glories prevail,
Though darker Sea Spleenwort, well pleas'd I return
To the thicket that shelters the fair Lady-Fern.

Her delicate pinnae there droop in the shade,
By whispering Aspens and Wood Vetches made ;
In the pattering ravine there stands one grey Hern §
Embower'd in the fronds of the tall Lady-Fern.

* Aspidium Oreopteris. t Asplenium trichoraanes.

t Osmunda regalis, the " Flowering Fern."
§ The common name of the Heron.

JUNE 213

Noon burns up the mountain— -but here by the fall
The Lady-Fern flourishes graceful and tall ;
Hours speed as thoughts rise without any concern,
And float like the spray gliding past the green Fern.

WILD FLOWEBS OF JUNE.
(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. XIII.

FLOWERY SIMILES ADAPTED TO USE. — ADVENTURE ON THE
BRECON MOUNTAIN. — RAMBLE IN GLYN NEATH. — THE
POPPY ANNOUNCES THE APPROACH OF THE SOLSTITIAL
FLORALIA. — THE YELLOW IRIS AND OTHER ATTENDANT
FLOWERS. — GRASSES OF VARIOUS KINDS. — LEGENDARY
AND BOTANICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ROSE — ITS SPECIES
AND VARIETIES — SYMBOLS AND SENTIMENTS CONNECTED
WITH THE SUBJECT. — SYNOPSIS OF THE BRITISH SPECIES
OF ROSE.

" I dreamt that at even a white mist arose

Where the hedge-row Brambles twist ; —
I thought that my love was a sweet wild Rose
And I the silvery mist !

I dreamt that my love was a sweet wild Pea

All cover'd with purple bloom ;
And I, methought, was an amorous bee

That lov'd the rich perfume.

Again — I was where the moon did line

The forest with silver bright ; —
I thought that my love waa a wild woodbine

And I — a zephyr light."

ANON.

Flowery similes have ever been eagerly appropri-
ated by the poet in every age, and the anonymous
bard just quoted is not deficient in boldness of idea.
"Why should not the Botanical Explorator who of

WILD FLOWERS OF JTJNE. 215

course ought to be awake to every thing that the use
of flowers in season or out of season may by possibi-
lity command, take advantage of them ? At this
dreamy season they may rouse the imagination, and
come^in not inappropriately; for as an old author
says —

" I cannot tell how others fancies stand,

But I rejoice sometimes to take in hand,

The simile of that I love."

So for the nonce be it so — in dreamy luxuriance we
may rest awhile, canopied in honeysuckle bowers,
odours from white clover fields saturating the air
around us, as gleainy lights break in upon the sighing
foliage surrounding our retreat, while in imagination
" the silvery mist" leads us to lily-covered lakes em-
bosomed in mountains ; or the light zephyr wafts us
deep into rocky solitudes, where by the side of bogs
and splashing mountain streams, as at Can Coed by
the young Severn's rapid stream, near Llanidloes, we
have in past happy excursions gathered the fair Globe-
flower (Trollius Europeans), in companionship with
the Yellow Kingspear (Narthecium ossifrayum} , the
blue Pinguicula, Scutellaria minor, and the lowly
drooping but silvery glistening Hypericim elodes. To
such an inspiring spot, to the lofty Brithen's rocky
flanks carpeted with the rich purple spikes of Veronica
Jiybrida, or upon the Glyder's awful misty peaks
brightened with the fugacious - petalled Cambrian
Poppy, thankful should we be to some light zephyr to
waft us again — with a return ticket ! For in actual
exploration although the botanist may ivander like an
"amorous bee," he can only take fanciful flights, and
eminences where rare plants grow must be visited and

216 WILD FLOWERS OF

scaled not without risk of life or limb, and long dis-
tances must be painfully trodden, not uncommonly
(as it lias been oft our lot to experience) amidst tor-
rents of rain.

I had rather a dangerous adventure some years
since, on the summit of the Brecon Yan mountain.
While on the peak, I observed a tuft of white flowers
some little distance down the precipitous side which
descends perpendicularly in one unbroken cliff many
hundred feet, I Was alone, and the plant lay too far
beyond my reach either to gather it or to ascertain
with certainty what the species was. Unwilling, how-
ever, to retreat without it, I looked about for some
means to effect my object. I found a stick left by
some guide or former traveller, and planting this
firmly in a crevice of the rock, I used it with one
hand, while I sought support farther below with my
umbrella on the other. A slight projection gave me
a resting-place for my foot, and thus cautiously de-
scending, I got within reach of the desired plant. I
had just seized a portion of its flowers in my hand,
when the crumbling sandstone I was trusting to gave
way, splintered into pieces, and plunged thundering
far below ; and had I not at the moment immediately
sprung upwards and caught the fixed stick, I must
have fallen myself and doubtless been dashed to pieces
without the possibility of escape. Safe back again
upon the summit, I yet trembled nervously for some
minutes afterwards, and shrunk instinctively from the
edge of the precipice. — -Even Botany is not without
its incidents. Eroni this lofty but dangerous spot,
two persons from Brecon, not very long after my visit,
fell in a mysterious manner never fully explained,

s.w

MELINCOURT WATERFALL,
Glyn Neath, Glamorganshire,

Habitat of Asplemum viride, Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, &c.

JUNE. 217

after ascending the mountain, and were both killed
upon the spot. The plant for which I had thus
endangered existence, proved after all to be only Si-
lene maritima, one of those coast plants which like the
Sea Pink (Statice Armeria), and the Scurvy-grass, are
found growing as well upon lofty mountain rocks as
upon the sea shore. In descending the Yan I found,
however, beautiful specimens of Saxifraga liypnoides
and Lycopodiwm alpinum.

Thus the exploring Botanical Looker-out does in
fact wander with the mist and the zephyr, and in his re-
searches outdoes the flower-loving bee itself. How oft
have we been led thus to wander on heathy hills and
cloud-capt summits, roaming with the devious stream,
lost in verdant thickets, or immersed in the spray of
roaring water-falls. How oft have the glens of Wales
received us, and charmed our wayward footsteps.
Several times have we explored the beauteous recesses
of Grlyn Neath, when thickets of roses embowered
our path, their petals of that deep red which renders
the Welch roses so eminently beautiful; or amidst
tall rank plants of JEnanfhe crocata, stood by the
cascade of Melincourt, thoughtful and happy. Above
our heads a black sullen trunk with leafless arms
stood spectre-like on the rock, and the patter of the
water as it splashed and fell amidst enormous boul-
ders dashed a cloud of rime on all the trees around.*
This was my first visit to the falls about the valley,
when being alone, and finding out the localities with
difficulty, in getting on by Pont Nedd Vechan to the
cataract of Scwd-Inon-G-am, or the Crooked Fall, I

• At this picturesque waterfall the pretty filmy-fern Hymendphyllum
Tunbridgense grows, and other rare plants may be found in the vicinity.
Somewhere in Glyn Neath I gathered Potcntilla alpestris.

218 WILD FLOWERS OF

got many a wetting in crossing the river where the
rude stepping stones had become immersed by a rise
of the water from recent rains. Here was the white-
flowered jRubus siiberectus so abundant in Wales, the
Globe-flower, and the Water-avens, while ferns ap-
peared in abundance, and none more elegant and
luxuriant than Polypodium pliegopteris. In ascending
the precipitous rock that bars further passage at Scwd
Einon Gram I felt rewarded in finding on the dripping
strata abundance of NartJiecium in full flower, and
the cottony purple-flowered bog-thistle, Cnicus pra-
tensis. On the heath above grew the soft white and
elegant Mountain Cudweed (Antennaria dioica^) very
plentifully.

The last ramble we took in Glyn Neath, was a very
delightful one, in company with two enthusiastic
friends, when the Rubi called for our most particular
attention, though we gathered many other plants.
Rubus corylifolius (.5. sublustris, Lees,) grows exces^
sively fine and large upon the side of the river Mellte.
We first progressed from the Lamb and Flag Inn to
the Lady's Waterfall, on the river Purthin, near to
which, and close to the Logan Stone, we noticed plenty
of Rubus suberectus, as well as on the ascent from
Einon Gam. The romantic boiling and foaming falls
of the Little Oil Hepste, fringed and half hidden in
wood, are delightful to contemplate. Here we paused,
on the verge of a ravine into which the waters madly
plunge, deeply embowered in the foliage of the small-
leaved Lime (Tilia par vif olio), which here has every
appearance of being a true native of the district.
One distorted old lime jutting out of the rock and
densely covered with ivy, was a remarkable object.

JUNE. 219

Onward by the side of the stream through dense
thickets and hemmed in by gloomy heights we pro-
gressed to the Upper Hepste Falls, here the waters
of the Hepste gathering the mountain streams toge-
ther, plunge over the slate rocks with loud acclaim
into profound woody ravines deepened by the wear
and tear of ages. The water here precipitates itself
in five divisions of beauty-columns, which, however,
superficially unite in one showery mass of chrystal
spangles, dashing with eternal motion, like the joys of
life, down the slippery rock that vainly offers to detain
them within its intricate crannies — gleaming for a
moment in iridescent lustre, till the instantly succeed-
ing leap, reverberated by the rocks around, records
their passage into the sullen shadows that for ever
conceal them from view. Ere we left the spot a sun-
set radiance broke finely upon the hurrying waters.

Many moisture loving plants adorn the wet rocks
about the Hepste water-fall and their vicinity, among
which, not the least beautiful, is the bright green
Asplenium viride, and the palm-like Wood Horsetail
(Equisetwm, sylvaticum). On the lofty rock called
Craig-y-dinas, farther down the glyn and near Pont-
nedd-vechan, overlooking a deep dingle half choaked
up with shapeless masses of stone, a considerable
quantity of Arabis liirsuta grows, and on the summit
among the broken remains of a Druidical circle the
little fern Cistopteris dentata, growing very stiff, and
covered with sori.

The next morning we walked over the Banwen
Mountain to Pont Henrhyd, passing in our way an
extensive bog called Gors Lwm, beautifully adorned
with Orchis latifolia finer than usual, prettily sprink-

220 WILD FLOWEKS OF

led with the tall pubescent Cotton-grass (JErioplwrum
pubescens, Smith,) and covered with the shrubby and
fragrant sweet Myrtle (Myrica Gale). In the same
vicinity but in drier meadow spots was a good deal of
the Whorled Caraway (Carum vertidllatwm). It was
a burning morning, and fatiguing work ascending the
barren mountains, so that long ere we reached Pont
Henrhyd we were glad to shelter in a neat Welch
cottage and refresh ourselves with milk. The little
bridge over the torrent is rather pretty, and a short
distance below it the stream plunges into a deep
chasm hemmed in by wooded precipices not easily
descended. With some difficulty we got down into
the ravine, gathering in our way Rubus saxatilis, and
finer specimens of Polypodiim pTiegopteris than pre-
viously seen. An old overturned mountain-ash trunk
lay in the glen most elegantly wreathed with Aspi-
dium viride, seldom seen except on rocks.

On leaving Scwd-yr-Henrhyd, an incident subjected
us to some little difficulty, for a Welchman, from
G-lyn Neath, whom we had engaged to carry baggage,
finding we were resolved to proceed direct towards
Swansea, turned restive, and would go no farther, so
we were obliged to become our own camels. This on
a burning summer's day lessened our pace, but fortu-
nately when almost tired out we happened to pass by
the mansion of a hospitable gentleman who invited us
to his board, and with whom we spent an evening
long to be remembered. But we consequently did
not reach Neath until past midnight, and had some
difficulty in procuring accommodation at that time.
Another day of botanical research led us by the Neath
Canal, Britton Ferry, and across Cromlyn Burrows,

JUNE. 221

and Morass, localities celebrated in botanical story,
where we gathered many interesting plants.

Cromlyn Burrows extend for some miles along the
coast, and bounding them inland is a great morass
intersected with drains and pools covered with the
white- water lily and the great Spearwort (Ranunculus
lingua}. A canal now cuts through the morass amidst
reeds and tall aquatics, and the view from near the
sea over the bogs towards the hills of the coal forma-
tion beyond is of a peculiar description. A river
intervenes between the Burrows and Swansea, and a
wilder tract or one from its very nature more diversi-
fied in aspect — salt-water, sand, marsh, bog, and
morass, the naturalist need not desire. Here we spent
a considerable time in botanical exploration, and the
following plants occurred — a mere selection from nu-
merous others growing at the spot.*

Ranunculus lingua, most splendid in Cromlyn Morass.
Nymphcea alba, covering the pools in Cromlyn, its large leaves

matting over and hiding the water.

Meconopsis Cambrica. In Glyn Neath, above Pont Nedd Vechan.
Glaucium luteum. On the shore of the Burrows, profusely.
Potentilla alpestris. Rocky places in Glyn Neath.
Sisymbrium. Sophia. On the beach near Swansea Ferry.
Senebiera didyma. Plentiful, even in Swansea streets.
Lepidium latifolium. By the side of Neath Canal, not far from

Britton Ferry.

Cochlearia qfficinalis. About the shore in various places.
Cakile maritime. Frequently on the Burrows. A rigid wiry

and tortuous fleshy plant, with deep green polished very

hard stem, purple flowers, and smooth green silicles.
Diplotaxis tennifolia. On the sandy burrows.

* Mr. DILLWYN, the well known author of British Conferva, has pleas-
ingly illustrated the Natural History of Swansea in his publications ; and
J. W. G. GUTCH, Esq. has published a copious list of its plants in the
Phytologist.

222 WILD FLOWERS OF

Diplotaxis muralis. On the beach among sand hills.

Drosera rotundifolia and longifolia. Cromlyn Bog.

Hypericum maculatum. Pont Nedd Vechan.

CEnothera biennis. In great profusion near Britton Ferry.

Cicuta virosa. In ditches between Neath River and the Canal.

CEnanthe Lachenalii. Boggy spots on Cromlyn Burrows.

Aster tripolium. Sea Starwort. Muddy shores of the river.

Erigeron acre. Cromlyn Burrows.

Verbascum nigrum. Conspicuous near Britton Ferry.

Veronica montana. Glyn Neath, near the Lamb and Flag.

Verbena officinalis. In great quantities near Britton Ferry
Church-yard.

Origanum vulgare. Near Britton Church, in a hedge.

Er -odium cicutarium, var. album et purpureum. Cromlyn Bur
rows.

Lysimacliia vulgaris. Near Neath.

Alisma ranunculoides. Remarkable for its proliferous umbels.
Borders of Cromlyn Morass, near the Canal.

Samolus Valerandi. In shallow water on the Burrows.

Typlia latifolia and angustifolia. In Cromlyn Morass abun-
dantly, forming a fine feature with their tall waving rib-
band-like leaves.

Cladium Mariscus. Near Cromlyn Canal.

Erioplwrum angustifolium. Cromlyn Bog.

But we must digress no farther on excursion's
wing, but returning to quiet home scenes, like Uriel
on a sunbeam, or as the author we have quoted sug-
gests - - gliding on the silvery mist ; — we look out
on the summer landscape, where glowing before us
in full glory and beauty, expands the SOLSTITIAL
ELOBA, — the indubitable offspring of increased tem-
perature, and we must "gather tlie roses ere they be
withered"

Scarcely has the sun of June arisen, in favourable
years, than a very remarkable change is perceptible in
the flowers of the woods, meadows, and gardens. The

JUNE. 223

flaming Poppy* is the first to announce the approach
of the Summer solstice, by the display of its scarlet
banner, and the red Lychnis (L. flos-cuculi?) quickly
follows in damp places, with its ragged pink petals,
from whence it is commonly called " Ragged Robin."
Next the yellow specious flowers of the common Flag
( Iris pseudacorus,) glitter in the marsh, where gene-
rally at this time many splendid blueish-green Dragon-
flies {Agrion virgo} , are fluttering ; and conspicuous
in the golden meadows, towering above the masses of
sweet Honey suckle- Clover, appears the Great Summer
Daisy (Chrysanthemum lencanthemum) ,f The purplish-
blue flowers of the Meadow Cranes-bill (Geranium
pratense), are now very obvious amidst woody or river-
side pastures, with several others of the same tribe ;
and the bright yellow heads of the Bird's-foot Trefoil
(Lotus corniculatus) , often tinged with light red or
crimson, greatly contribute to ornament the scene.
A wet gully or tinkling rill, may often, at this time,
be traced along the whole extent of a field by a line
of the sweet-scented Meadow Dropwort (Spiraea id-
maria), whose cream-coloured panicles are now
becoming every-where visible. The Great Valerian
(V. officinalis^) fringes woods in a similar manner.

For those botanists who desire to study GRASSES,
this is the opportunity to inspect them in their full
perfection, as their stamens and coloured farina pre-
sent themselves to view. At least thirty-five genera,
and about one hundred and twenty-five species, are

* The light-red Papaver argemone, distinguished by its long hairy cap-
sule, blows earliest ; the specious Rhceas is rather later, as well as P.
dubium-

t This is generally called the " Midsummer Daisy," though in fact it
comes into flower in May, and is abundant the first week in June.

224 WILD FLOWERS OF

natives of this country. Although their want of peta-
loid colorific beauty renders them too often neglected,
yet, surely that is made up in the elegance exhibited
by their panicles ; while their utility to man and
animals gives them a value which no other tribe of
plants can with the same justice lay claim to — for
from hence is derived the " stafi" of life." Indeed,
when we reflect upon the sheep, oxen, &c. fattened in
luxuriant pastures, whose flesh makes up when con-
sumed so great a portion of our nutriment, if flesh
eaters are not exactly and literally vegetarians, yet, as
Professor BURNETT tersely and truly says, they are
in fact living upon " grasses in disguise," — only in
fact a little more elaborated. Even as far as beauty
is concerned, the Feather-grass (Stipa pennata) , the
Silver Hair-grass, and others of the genus Aira, the
elegant panicled Agrosti, and the common Reed,
whether in its early purple or late feathery aspect, the
Mountain Melic- Grass (Melica nutans), the Hair's-
tail Grass (Lagurus ovatus), and the Wood Reed
(Calamagrostis Epijejos), are not to be despised ; —
while the common Quaking- Grass (JBriza, media),
charms even the humblest rustics, who gather it to
adorn the mantels of their little thatched cottages.
Briza minor is still more elegant.

It is interesting to watch the progress of a meadow
from its emergence from the snowy mantle of winter,
until waving in full luxuriance its matured grasses
yield before the fatal scythe. First the daisy is seen
decking the pasture with silver stars, that in some
spots become dense as a white cloud, Then in some
places dandelions gild the rising grass, or in others
cuckoo-flowers form beautiful but transient silver

.TTTNE. 225

islets soon lost, overpowered at length by the rapidly
growing grass, whitened here and there by the clocks
or feathery globes of the dandelions. Then follow
the Buttercups that rapidly cover the whole field and
make it one mass of vegetable gold, gorgeous for the
eye to repose upon. By degrees this lustre is softened
down by the Sorrels, whose pink sepals intermix and
blend with the buttercups ; then finally the grey
heads of the foxtail and other grasses take entire
possession of the scene — the gold vanishes away, the
wind blows coldly over the meadow, displaying only
the fading culmiferous pallid grasses, now ripe and
ready for the hay-harvest.

Summer is now fully come, for long desired, at last
appears in its multiform varieties and exuberant fra-
grance, the Queen of Flowers—

" Resplendent ROSE, the flower of flowers,
Whose breath perfumes Olympus bowers ;
Whose virgin blush of chasten'd dye

Enchants so much our mortal eye.

*****

Oil ! there is naught in nature bright,
Where Roses do not shed their light."

The very sight, or even the name of the Rose, is
sufficient to raise our temperature to the poetical
point, and recall a hundred legends and fables relative
to this universal favourite, from its colour being de-
rived from the blood of Adonis, down to the " Eosa-
mundi"* and "Wars of the Roses, of our own history.
" Warwick. I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.
Suffolk. I pluck this red rose with young Somerset."

SHAKSPEAR, Hen. VI.

* Literally, flower of the world; hence the play of words on the inscrip-
tion to Fair Rosamond — " Rosamundi non Rosamunda."

Q

226 WILD FLOWERS OF

The Rose being the emblematical flower of England,
as the Thistle is of Scotland, the Leek of Wales, and
the Trefoil or Shamrock of Ireland, it may be inte-
resting to dilate upon it in some degree, — popularly,
historically, and botanically.

The Rose has ever been the favourite theme of
apologue — its flowers emblematical of the short-lived
pleasures of life — its thorns of the ever accompanying
adversities ; hence, when the late Nabob of the Car-
natic addressed Lord CLIVE on the injuries and insults
he had received from the English in India, he drew a
parallel between himself and a husbandman who had
suffered strangers to enter his garden, and thus poeti-
cally summed up the melancholy detail — " The flowers
of the Hose have fallen, and the stalk, with all its
thorns, alone remains in my hand." A rose without
thorns could formerly scarcely be imagined ; and thus
MILTON, to depict the superior ambrosial pleasures
afforded by Eden, makes it abound with

" Flowers of all hue, and without thorn, the Rose;"
but in the present day many thornless species of rose
have been discovered, and decorate earthly paradises,
while instead of only one rose season, there are now
ever-blooming Roses, forming a perpetual garden of
sweetness throughout the year.

Before scientific botany gave precision to floral lan-
guage it was difficult to describe the parts of a flower
intelligibly, and thus VIEGIL has applied the term
leaves as well to the foliage as the petals of plants,
creating some confusion. Our English DEATTON, in
like manner, though a faithful observer of nature, and
a good describer too, yet being no botanist, and not
finding a word suitable to his purpose in use, calls the

JUNE.

227

stamens of the rose " yellows" in the following pretty
lines of his " Fairy Wedding" —

" I think for her I have a tire
That all fairies shall admire ;
The yellows in the full-blown Rose,
Which in the top it doth enclose,
Like drops of gold ore shall be hung
Upon her tresses."

A curious fact in the structure of the corolla of the
rose — that the five sepals of its pitcher-shaped calyx
have a particular arrangement, gave rise to an old
monkish enigma, implying the popular attention
given to the circumstance. We thus translate the
rhyming latin : —

Five brothers take their stand,
Born to the same command ;
Two darkly bearded frown,
Two without beards are known ;
And one sustains with equal pride
His odd appendage on one side !

If all enigmas like this induced the examination of a
plant, they would not be so excessively stupid, or
given up so readily as they usually are. In this case
the " five brothers" are the five sepals of the calyx of
the rose, where usually two are fully pinnate or
bearded throughout, two are simple or beardless, and
one is pinnate on one side only. This may be verified by
reference to a dog-rose in any hedge, but it hardly
applies to the Chinese or Indian roses.

In the East, roses have been ever especial favourites
from the earliest times ; beds of roses are no poetical
figure there ; and in Persia, according to Sir E,. KEB,
POBTEE, every garden and court is crowded with its
plants ; every room is fragrant with ever-replenished

Q2

228 WILD FLOWEES OE

vases of them, while full-blown flowers strew every
bath ; and in the delicious gardens of Negauristan,
the eye and the smell are not only regaled by the
most beautiful and fragrant roses, but the ear is
enchanted with the warblings of multitudes of night-
ingales, whose notes seem to increase in melody and
softness with the unfolding of their favourite flowers.
According to a recent traveller in Persia, the cele-
brated Roses of Shiraz are all single - - R. Damascena.,
and H. moscJiata, var. arborea.

FATHEE CATEON, in his "History of the Mogul
Empire" thus accounts for the origin of the cele-
brated Otto or Attar of B-oses, now so esteemed as an
indispensable appendage to a lady's boudoir. It ap-
pears that the PEINCESS NOTJEMAHAL, in the true
style of eastern voluptuousness, once filled an entire
canal with rose-water, upon which she made frequent
sailing excursions in company with the GEEAT MOGUL.
The heat of the sun causing the disengagement of the
essential oil from the rose-water, it was observed
floating upon the surface, and thus was made the dis-
covery of the essence of roses. Near Damascus is the
famous plain of roses, solely dedicated to the making
of the Attar or Uttr, which, for some miles, is thickly
planted with rose trees, of which great care is taken.
This " TJttr" is the most remarkable of all the prepa-
rations from the flower, and has the consistence of
butter, becoming liquid only in the very hottest wea-
ther. It is made almost in the way indicated by its
accidental discovery, only that the rose-petals are put
into a wooden vessel with pure water, first exposed to
a powerful heat which forces the oil to the surface,
when it is gathered, and then congealed by cold : but

JUNE. 229

so tedious is the manufacture of any quantity, that
half a drachm of the Uttr can scarcely be obtained
from a hundred pounds of rose petals.* The scent of
the minutest grain of the genuine essence, is however,
very powerful.

A French author who has written a work on the
" Histoire Naturelle de la Eose" lauds it as "1'orne-
ineiit de la terre, 1'eclat des plantes, 1'oeil des fleurs,
1'email des prairies, une beaute eclatante ; elle exhale
1'amour, elle attire et fixe Venus ; toutes ses feuilles
sont charmantes, son bouton vermeil s'entr'ouvre avec
uiie grace infinie, et sourit delicieusement aux zephyrs
ainoureux. - - De tout temps cette charmante fleur fut
le sujet des idees le plus flatteuses, des comparaisons
les plus douces, et des emblemes les plus volupteux."
So that as he truly observes — " Le nom seul de la rose
reveille dans notre ame tant d' idees agreables, d'images
interessantes, de comparaisons aimables, de souvenirs
delicieux, qu'on aurait pu accuser 1'auteur d'un defaut
de gout, s'il n'avait pas rappele a ses lecteurs les vers
immortels que la rose inspira aux Sapho, aux Anacreon
et a tant d'autres poetes anciens ou modernes, dont le
nom ne perira janiais." A few roseate ideas and in-
teresting observances connected with the rose, can

* A traveller in Cashmere thus describes the manufacture of this pre-
cious essence, which he says GHOOLAB SINGH has absorbed into his own
hands — " Uttr, and not Otto, is the proper term. The rose-leaves, care-
fully picked and fresh, are boiled in a large copper vessel, with a little
water, and the steam arising is condensed in a still. This forms the rose-
water, it is distilled three times, and then placed in an earthen vessel
during the night in a stream of running water. In the morning the Uttr
is found floating in small globules on the surface of the rose-water. It
takes five hundred weight of rose petals to produce one drachm by weight
of the best Uttr , it is however seldom procurable unadulterated, and that
sold in the bazaars of India owes its scent mainly to sandal-wood, from
which a cheap oil is easily procured. The best Uttr is preserved in small
bottles made of rock chrystal." — Lit. Gaz. Jan. 1850.

230 WILD FLOWERS OF

scarcely then be avoided, with the name upon our
lips and the bright perfumed flower in our view.
Summer has her lap now full of garlands, and we may
say with Persius —

" Quidquid calcaveral hie, rosa fiat ! "
So let poetical roses ornament our present path.

In an odour-breathing little volume entitled " Me-
moirs of the Hose" it is observed — " The Hose, you
are aware, is not only the flower of love and the
emblem of beauty, but is also considered the symbol
of secresy. A kiss is often taken and allowed ' under
the Hose'* A belief that two young companions
have become lovers is a suspicion whispered — ' under
the Hose.' The certainty of arrangements for an
intended marriage often transpires — ' wider tlie
Hose;'' and whenever I greet the full-blown impres-
sion of your exquisitely engraven seal, with its
appropriate motto ' Sub-Eosa,' I always anticipate
beneath it, if not a poetical kiss or a lover's secret,
yet expressions of kindness and feelings of friendship,
which are sacred and inviolate."

As to the origin of this secresy, " under the Rose,"
mythological legend states that Cupid> on some occa-
sion, bribed Harpocrates to silence by the present of
a Eose (a golden effigy of one it is to be presumed) ;
and hence, at banquets, it was formerly the custom to
suspend a Eose over the table, as a hint that things
might transpire over the convivial board not to be
repeated elsewhere. The Eose was always considered
a mystical emblem of the Catholic Church, probably

* None but a cynic, forgetful of life's early flowers, can object to this,
and it forms the undisputed privilege of a " Botanical Looker-out," who,
\yith his red Rose at Midsummer, and Mistletoe at Christmas, may be
fairly engaged at all seasons.

JUNE. 231

from the mention of the " Eose of Sharon" in Scrip-
ture ; and there was formerly a ceremonial of blessing
the rose at Rome, on a day denominated " Dominica
in Eosa," on which occasion golden roses prepared for
the occasion received the benediction of the Pope, and
were then sent to the princes of Christendom as
marks of high distinction. The Eose was a very
common ornament in Gothic architecture, and, as a
badge of royal houses, is frequently seen in old stained
glass. Lands have been frequently held from a feudal
superior by the acknowledgment of a rose at Christ-
mas, which in mediaeval times was not so easily
procurable as it is at present, nor at so low a rate ;
for it appears by a MS. in the Eemembrance Office,
signed by King Henry the 7th, that in his reign a red
rose actually cost two shillings — a considerable sum
at that time.

The Eomans delighted in their amphorae being
garlanded with roses at their banquets, and being
themselves crowned with their flowers, so that the
great demand for them required roses to be cultivated
to blow as well in winter as in summer. This sur-
prised the Egyptian deputation, who arrived at Eome
during the reign of Augustus, with bouquets of roses
for the emperor at Midwinter. But they found plenty
of roses in full bloom at Eorne, and MAETIAJL, who
alludes to the circumstance in one of his odes, says
that the streets of Eome at that time were so brilliant
with garlands of fresh roses, that they equalled the
glory of the fields of the Psestum, famous of old for
their twice flowering roses. " Thou, O Nile J" says
the poet, " must yield to the fogs of Eome. Send us
thy harvests, and we will send thee roses." So might

232 WILD FLOWERS OF

Britain almost say at the present time, so numerous
are the groups, forms, and varieties of roses now in
cultivation.

" What were life without its rose ?"

A very brief botanical reference to the numerous
species and varieties of Hoses must here suffice, more
especially when in fact the different supposed species
so approximate to each other, that it is often difficult
to draw the line of distinction between them ; and
LiNisr^us was of opinion that nature herelf had, in
this genus, prescribed no certain limits. The lovers
of Eoses may, however consult Dr. LINDLEY.'S cele-
brated Monograph on the genus ; Miss LAWRENCE'S
work, where ninety kinds are figured ; the various
Moras, where they are enumerated ; LOUDON'S Arbo-
retum; or the splendid French work of M. REDOTJTE,
containing descriptions of eight hundred various
kinds. More than that number are now cultivated
in England in the various nurseries ; and, according
to M. DESPORTES, the French can boast no less than
2,533 named varieties.* LOTJDON has, however, only

* The curious and whimsical names imposed by cultivators upon the
constantly increasing varieties of roses, is thus descanted upon by Mr.
DOWNING, in the Horticulturist, a transatlantic publication.—" Undoubt-
edly there is an embarass de richesse* in the multitude of beautiful varie-
ties that compose the groups and subdivisions of the rose family. So
many lovely forms and colours are there dazzling the eye and attracting
the senses, that it requires a man or woman of nerve as well as taste to
decide and select. Some of the great rose-growers continually try to
confuse the poor amateur by their long catalogues, and by their advertise-
ments about ' acres of roses.' Mr. PAUL, an English nurseryman, pub-
lished, in June last, that he had 70, 000 plants in bloom at once. This is
puzzling enough, even to one who has his eyes wide open, and the sorts
in full blaze of beauty before them. What, then, must be the quandary
in which the novice not yet introduced into the aristocracy of roses,
whose knowledge only goes up to a ' cabbage rose,' or a ' majdens's blush,'
and who has in his hand a long list of some great collector — what, we
say, must be his perplexity when he suddenly finds himself amidst all the

JUNE. 233

particularly described seventy - seven kinds in his
Sorttis, but then many of these include multifarious
varieties.

The late Professor DON has given descriptions of
205 supposed distinct species of roses in his General
System of Gardening and Botany; — he says, "Botanists
are not agreed as to the number of original species of
this genus, and, notwithstanding the labours of many
scientific men, the genus still remains a chaos, from
which it can never be extricated." He further re-
marks, that " Varieties are raised from seed on the
continent, where the seed ripens better than in this
country. New varieties are raised in Erance and
Italy annually. M. L. YILLAEESI, royal gardener at
Monza, has raised upwards of fifty varieties of R.
Indica, some of them are quite black, and many of
them highly odoriferous." The Centifolia group, in-
cluding the Damask, Province, and French roses, has
always been most esteemed ; this comprises the favou-
rite Moss Roses, dark, white, striped, and crested.
The yellow Eglantine Hose (JRosa luted], makes a
conspicuous show in gardens, as well as its fiery
variety sub-rulra, while the modest Sweet-briar is
familiar to every body from the grateful scent of its

renowned names of old and new worlds' history, all the aristocrats and
republican heroes and heroines of past and present times — Napoleon,
Prince Esterhazy, Tippo Saib, Semiramis, Duchess of Sutherland, Princess
Clementine, with occasionally such touches of sentiment from the French
rose-growers as Souvenir d'un Ami, or Nid d' Amour (nest of love), &c.
In this whirlpool of rank, fashion, and sentiment, the poor noviciate rose-
hunter is likely enough to be quite wrecked ; and instead of looking out
for a per feet rose, it is a thousand to one that he finds himself confused
amid the names of princes, princesses, and lovely duchesses, a vivid pic-
ture of whose charms rises to his imagination as he reads the brief words
' pale flesh, wax-like, superb,' or ' large, perfect form, beautiful,' or ' pale
blush, very pretty,' so that it is ten to one that duchesses, not roses, are
all the while at the bottom of his imagination ! "

234 WILD FLOWERS OF

leaves. The Chinese Roses (JR. indica et semperflo-
rens), have been extensively cultivated in the present
day, from their hardiness and long continuance in
flower, and are now to be seen in almost every garden.
The " Tea-Roses," as they are called, are exquisite in
their way. Rosa BanJcsics, or LADY BANKS' s Rose,
distinguished by its long graceful climbing shoots and
unarmed branches, is a beautiful shrub ; its pale yel-
low or white flowers are drooping, numerous, small,
round, and very double, on long peduncles, resembling
in form those of the double cherry, or a small ranun-
culus, more than those of the generality of roses. It
has a weak but very pleasing scent, and is a native of
China. Several other Chinese roses agree with it in
character. The yellow Chinese Rose, with double
large cream-coloured flowers, is very beautiful, but
without scent. It is var. ocJiroleuca of It,. Indica.

But it is for the florist rather than the botanist to
select a wreath of roses, and every one will have their
particular favourites — but the old red Moss will still
be ours, and what can be more beautiful ? — it is love-
liness in hermit attire. " If," says a competent judge,
we were to have but three roses for our own personal
gratification, they would be Souvenir de Malmaison,
Old Red Moss, and General Dulourg. The latter is
a Bourbon rose, which, because it is an old variety,
and not very double, has gone out of fashion. We,
however, shall cultivate it as long as we enjoy the
blessing of olfactory nerves ; for it gives us all the
season an abundance of flowers, with the most perfect
rose scent that we have ever yet found ; in fact the
true attar of rose." *

* Mr. DOWNING, in the American Horticulturist.

JUNE. 235

The Rose, in some form or other, is generally
diffused throughout the northern hemisphere, both in
the old and new world : the species are, however, less
plentiful in the latter ; for while North America pro-
duces only fourteen, Europe has twenty-five. Tem-
perate climes are most suited to numerous kinds of
roses, for four species only are seen wild in the south
of Europe and north of Africa, but then the individu-
als are more luxuriant ; for while in the north wild
roses have generally only single flowers, in Italy and
Greece it is not uncommon to find them with double
flowers, growing spontaneously in the woods and
meadows. No rose has ever been found in South
America or Australia. Sir ~W. J. HOOKER has
described nineteen species of roses as natives of
Britain, of which perhaps the most beautiful are R.
spinosissimct, R. villosa, R. c&sia, R. Sabini, and R.
Doniana. Some of the latter, in their prime of per-
fection, streaked with white and red, might well
inspire a poetical mind to utter the following beautiful
sentiment, which coincides with the motto with which
we opened this chapter ; and thus, insensibly, we shall
glide back into the same strain of thought with which
we commenced.

" O gin my love were yon red Rose,

That grows upon the castle wa',
And I mysel a drop o' dew

Into her bonnie breast to fa' !
Oh, there, beyond expression blest

I'd feast on beauty a' the night ;
Seal'd on her silk-saft faulds to rest,

'Till fley'd awa' by Phoebus light."

WITHERING has observed, that " not less emble-
matic of beauty and loveliness than the myrtle itself,

236 WILD FLOWEUS OF

the Eose most aptly designates the tender passion,
by its gradual advance from the bud to the full-blown
flower; and in its different stages was wont to be
mutually presented, and if favourably accepted, was
deemed the pledge of future felicity." It also aptly
symbolizes the young virgin cut off before arriving at
connubial happiness, and thus appears on the grave
of maiden purity. —

" It doth bequeath a charm to sweeten death."

EVELYN mentions a churchyard in Surrey, that is
filled with rose-bushes.* CLEMEJSTCE ISATJRE, a lady
of Toulouse, who lived in the fifteenth century, and
who had often presided at the celebrated Eloral Games
of that ancient city, presented the citizens with mag-
nificent markets, erected at her own cost, on condition
that the games should be held in future within the
hall which formed part of her donation, and that Roses
should l)e strewed upon lier tomb. Her statue now
adorns the Hall of the Academy of Eloral Games in
Toulouse, and is annually crowned with brilliant
flowers.

The Eose only appears in its perfection of beauty
when Summer has called forth all the glories of crea-
tion, and the leafy month of June presents its umbra-
geous woods sleeping in the fervid rays of noon.
Hence the Eose is connected with our most delightful
feelings, our earliest excursions, our long -desired
holidays, our tenderest recollections ; and hence

* According to ancient authors, among the Greeks and Romans, their
tombs were often environed with roses, which, on certain occasions, were
garlanded about with their fragrant flowers by surviving friends and
relatives. Those in poorer circumstances had merely a stone with the
inscription— " Sparge, precor, rosas super mea busta, Viator;" (Oh!
passenger, scatter roses, I beseech thee, upon my monument !) — equiva-
lent to the " Orate pro anima" on the tombs of mediaeval times.

JUKE.

237

the " Coleur de Rose" with which I have attempted
slightly to tinge this chapter, has become proverbial
for that happy and exhilirating state of feeling, which
can see no imperfections, and trace no dark shadows
within the scope of its imaginings.

" Long, long be my heart with such memories fill'd,
Like the vase in which Roses have once been distill'd ;
You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will,
But the scent of the Roses will hang round it still."

With this sentiment of MOORE'S I pause on my
flowery excursion — for I can gather no other flowers
on the same day with the Rose !

A condensed Synopsis of the British Species of tlie
Genus Rosa, may be useful as well as interesting, and
is here subjoined.

ROSA. ROSE. Nat. Ord. Rosacece.. Icosandria Polyg. Linn.
Fruit of numerous dry hairy akenia or nuts, enclosed by but
merely attached to the inside of the fleshy tube of the calyx.

I. Roses tcith shoots bearing setce, or glandular bristles.

1. R. SABINI. Sabine's Rose. Prickles scattered, unequal
strait, very crowded together. Sepals somewhat pinnate. Fruit
globose, covered with setae. Flowers mostly white. — Thickets
about forest ground, but rare.

|3. Doniana. Leaves very hairy on both sides. Sepals almost
simple. Stem densely setose and prickly. Thickets in hilly spots,
rare. Flowers mottled with red.

7. gracilis. With falcate prickles. Cumberland.

(R. involuttty Smith, found in the Highlands, is probably a
mountain variety, smaller, with simple leafy sepals.)

2. R. RUBELLA. Red-fruited Spinous Rose. Prickles few
nearly equal, uniform, slender ; setse very numerous. Leaflets
naked (larger than in R. spinosissimd). Fruit urn-shaped. On
the sea coast, but very rare. " Northumberland." A little north
of Aberystwith. Fruit pendulous, bright red, not pulpy. (Accord-

238 WILD FLOWERS OF

ing to HOOKER and ARNOTT,* R. Hibernica and R. Wilsoni
probably belong to this species.)

3. R. SPINOSISSIMA. Black-fruited Spinous Rose. Prickles
numerous crowded very unequal, strait. Leaves of many sharp-
cut leaflets. Sepals entire. Fruit nearly globular, (in maturity)
purple-black. Sandy heaths. Excessively plentiful but dwarf,
on the coast. Flowers cream-coloured, very fragrant.

II. Roses with non-setigerous shoots.
i. With glandulose leaves.

4. R. VILLOSA. Clothy-leaved Rose. Leaves hairy, woolly
beneath, turpentine-scented. Sepals entire, persistent. Fruit
more or less setose. Hedges and thickets, very abundant in
Wales. The petals are of a very deep red colour.

N.B. Varieties occur with globular smooth fruit and larger
leaves, similar to R. mollis of Eng. Bot.

5. R. TOMENTOSA. Resinous-leaved Rose. Leaves hairy,
turpentine-scented, sepals copiously pinnate. Fruit rather ob-
long, mostly setose. In hedges and woods, but not very abun-
dant.

6. R. INODORA. Slightly-scented-leaved Rose. Leaves doubly
serrated, whitish with pubescence beneath. Sepals doubly pin-
nate. Fruit elliptical. — Hedges and thickety commons, but not
frequent.

The leaves of this species have a very slight resinous scent, are
silvery beneath, and quickly curl up after being gathered. The
ramuli are devoid of setae, the peduncles setose, and the flowers
very pale pink. Fruit elliptical, the neck generally lengthened,
with a few setse at the base only.

7. R. RUBIGINOSA. Common Sweet-briar. Leaves very
sweet-scented from the numerous rusty glands beneath, doubly
serrated hairy, rounded at the base. Not uncommon in bushy
places.

The common wild Sweet-briar has a much rougher and strag-
gling aspect than the garden form, but is less prickly, especially
the radical shoots. The leaves are dark green and smooth above,

* Britiih Flora, by Sir W. J. HOOKER, and Dr. ARNOTT, 6th edit.

JUNE. 239

more or less abundantly covered with glands below, though
sometimes entirely smooth, except the midrib. Flowers aggre-
gate, elevated on long smooth general stalks supporting a leafy
bractea and several bunches of flowers, the exterior ones of which
are elevated on smooth stalks with smaller bractsea in a similar
manner. The real peduncles are very setose, as is the tube also,
though occasionally almost quite smooth even on the same gene-
ral umbel. Flowers varying in the bunches or umbels from 2 to
to 14. Scent fragrant.

8. R. SEPTUM. Bushy Sweet-briar. Leaves slightly sweet-
scented, their leaflets broadly ovate, hairy beneath, the petioles
and midribs of leaflets excessively crowded with glands. Calyx
persistent, and reclining on the half-ripe almost globular setose
fruit, the sepals elongated, with leafy points. This is a rare local
species. It is mentioned in HOOKER'S Flora, as found only in
Warwickshire and Oxfordshire. I have gathered it at Little
Malvern, Worcestershire, and in Caernarvonshire.

The broad leaflets crowded together, and numerous flower-
stalks give this rose a very different aspect to rubiginosa, its
nearest affinity.

9. R. MICRANTHA. Small-flowered Sweet-briar. Leaflets
small, acute, doubly serrated, hairy and glandulose beneath.
Fruit small elliptical, with extended neck, slightly setose, the
sepals glandulose, deciduous. Abundant on limestone or chalky
hills.

The smaller flowers and more delicate aspect of this sweet-
briar well distinguish it at sight from R. rubiginosa, and the
fruit is also characteristic. Vars. occur with smooth peduncles
and fruit.

ii. With leaves generally deficient of glands.

10. R. CANINA. Common Dog-rose. Leaves naked scentless,
the sepals pinnate deciduous, fruit quite smooth. Plentifully
diffused.

Numerous varieties of this rose occur which certainly deserve
distinction, but it may be questionable whether as species or not.
Typically the leaves of canina are quite naked, but in the vars.
dumetorum and Forsterl, they are more or less hairy. These

240 WILD FLOWERS OF

with surculosa, which seems chiefly characterized hy its numerous
cymes of flowers, I would unite with canina, separating the fol-
lowing. The R. bractescens of Woods is considered by HOOKER
and ARNOTT, " a mere variety" of canina.

11. R. SARMENTACEA. Sharp-leaved Dog-rose. Leaves very
smooth, their leaflets sharply pointed and doubly serrated, pale
or glaucous beneath, their serratures as well as the petioles,
peduncles, and sepals fringed with glands. Fruit mostly naked,
but sometimes setose. — On hilly ground, and the borders of
woods.

Vars. of this rose occur with the fruit excessively setose, while
the foliage is very smooth and glaucous beneath. This deserves
to be named hispida, if it be, as is probable, the same with the
u hispida" mentioned by DON under canina, in his Gen. Syst.
of Sot. and Gard. and quoted from DESV. Journ. Bot. 1813,
p. 114. This hispid rose with glaucous foliage is however of rare
occurrence.

12. R. C^ESIA. Highland Dog-rose. Leaves downy beneath,
their leaflets doubly serrated. Cal. sparingly pinnate. Fruit
elliptical, smooth. Thickets in the Highlands.

iii. With exserted styles.

13. R. SYSTYLA. Long-styled Dog-rose. Leaves simply ser-
rated, slightly hairy beneath, their petioles prickly, inconspicu-
ously hairy and glandular. Flower-stalks weakly setose, sepals
with long taper points, the pinnse fringed with a few glands.
Styles united in a smooth furrowed column, very prominent after
flowering. — Bushy places, but rare.

The flowers of this rose are aggregated in numerous clusters,
but unless closely examined as it is going out of flower, it may
be easily passed over as a var. of canina.

14. R. ARVENSIS. Trailing Field Rose. Branches very long
trailing, glaucous. Leaves simply serrated, glaucous beneath.
Flower stalks glandular, calyx sparingly pinnate, deciduous.
Styles united, hairless, very prominent, and persistent on the
smooth globular fruit. Very common except in mountainous
districts.

This species trails excessively in woods, where its light green

241

entangled stems may be noticed forming dense coverts even in
the winter season. The flowers are distinguished by a peculiar
smell not so agreeable as in other roses, and they continue in
sheltered spots even to October. The fruit is often abortive,
when ripe perfectly globose.

•

" Gather you rose-buds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower, that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying."

WILD FLOWEBS OF JUNE.

(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. XIV.

FLOWERING OF PLANTS COINCIDENT WITH FESTIVALS —
ELDER AND SHEEP-SHEARING — SEASONAL RETARDATIONS
THUS NOTED— THE YEW, THE BIRCH, AND THE HOLLY
IN CHURCHES — HABITATS AND SELECTIONS OF PLANTS —
INFLUENCE OF LIME-STONE — VEGETATION OF THE GREAT
ORME'S HEAD — LOCAL AND WANDERING PLANTS — PIM-
PERNEL AND OTHER METEORIC FLOWERS.

" In every copse and sheltered dell,
Displayed to the observant eye,
Are faithful monitors, who tell

How pass the hours and seasons by.

The green-rob'd children of the Spring
Announce the periods as they pass,

Entwine with leaves Time's feather'd wing,
And deck with flowers his silent glass.

And thus each flower and simple bell,

That in our pathway scattered lie,
Are Flora's monitors that tell

How fast the winged moments fly.

Time will steal on with ceaseless pace,

Yet lose we not the fleeting hours,
While thus their fairy steps we trace,

As light they dance among the flowers."

In the last chapter I presented my readers with a
bed of Hoses, to which I hope no objection can be
made ; but while we have been reposing upon it, I

WILD FLOWEES OE JTJITE. 243

find so many flowers have sprung up around us, that
unless numbers are altogether neglected, it is abso-
lutely necessary to recount more of those that belong
to the delightful month of June.

I .may here mention a subject not previously dilated
upon — the coincidence of the flowering of certain
plants with particular days or festivals. Rustic ob-
servers, men without books, having often observed
particular flowers appearing almost constantly when
they were engaged upon some ever-recurring employ-
ment, or on some holiday they delighted in, at length
associated these flowers with the anniversaries refer-
red to, and conceived that the times of their obser-
vation had not legitimately arrived, if the flowers
were not apparent in their beauty. In this way St.
George's day became associated with the ~blue-lell, on
account of its being generally in flower at that time,
hence the old lines —

" On St. George's day, when blue is worn,
The hare-bells blue the fields adorn."

The Gruelder Eose (Viburnum opulus), or " Snow-
ball-tree" of the gardens, is always associated with
"Whitsuntide, and hence its silver globes are called
" "Wliitsun bosses" by the rustics, and it is seldom
they are not fully expanded by "Whitsun Sunday.
The latter end of May is indeed their correct flower-
ing time, though in full perfection the first week in
June.

D YEE has made sheep-shearing to correspond with
the flowering of the Elder (Sambucus nigra).

" If verdant Elder spreads
Her silver flowers, if humble Daisies yield
To yellow Crowfoot and luxuriant grass,
Gay shearing- time approaches."

E2

244 WILD FLOWEES OF

This, according to FOESTEE, as marked in the ephe-
meris of nature, should be about the 5th of June, and
in average years the Elder is often in flower by that
time fully; but in the ungenial season of 1838, I
observed no flowering Elder till June 23d, and even
in the year 1839, although not quite so bad, no Elder
was in flower until June 14th. In the very warm
season of 1848, it flowered as early as May 16th.
The Elder is one of those domestic trees seldom seen
far from the houses or cottages of man, and therefore
particularly suited for the purposes of a rustic calendar.
Though now pretty widely dispersed by birds, it is
rarely observed in primitive woodlands, and has pro-
bably followed human immigration, being planted not
only for its utility, but from superstitious motives.
The Elder, in fact, was accounted of old one of the
antidotes to sorcery, as precluding the access of sor-
cerers and defeating their art. Hence it has been
said that the gardens and houses of our ancestors
were protected from witchery by the Elder-tree.*
BOEEHAAVE, the celebrated physician of Leyden, is
reported to have held this tree in so great veneration,
that he seldom passed it without taking off his hat,
and paying reverence to it !

Poor CLAEE, the Northamptonshire poet, in his
Shepherd's Calendar, mentions a curious custom as
still existing at the termination of the sheep-shearing
at farm houses, and probably derived from long anti-
quity— when a damsel presents every shepherd, who
has been employed in the work, with a bouquet of
flowers — commonly called " clipping posies." As
CLABE mentions several flowers that appear in the
selection, I shall quote his homely strain.

* DALYELL'S Superstitions of Scotland.

JUNE. 245

" And now, when shearing of the flocks is done,
Some ancient customs, mix'd with harmless fun,
Crown the swain's merry toils. The timid maid,
Pleas'd to be prais'd, and yet of praise afraid,
Seeks the best flowers ; not those of woods and fields,
But such as ev'ry farmer's garden yields —
Fine cabbage-roses, painted like her face,
The shining pansy, trimm'd with golden lace ;
The tall topp'd larkspurs, feather'd thick with flowers,
The woodbine, climbing o'er the door in bowers ;
The London tufts, of many a mottled hue,
The pale pink pea, and monk's-hood darkly blue;
The white and purple gilliflowers, that stay
Ling'ring in blossom summer half away ;
The single blood-walls, of a luscious smell,
Old-fashion'd flowers, which housewives love so well ;
The columbines, stone-blue, or deep night-brown,
Their honeycomb-like blossoms hanging down,
Each cottage garden's fond adopted child,
Though heaths still claim them, where they yet grow wild;
With marjoram knots, sweet briar, and ribbon-grass,
And lavender, the choice of every lass,
And sprigs of lad's-love — all familiar names,
Which every garden through the village claims.
These the maid gathers with a coy delight,
And ties them up in readiness for night ;
Then gives to every swain, 'tween love and shame,
Her ' clipping-posies,' as his yearly claim."

This custom is fully developed in the beautiful scene
in SHAKSPEARE'S Winter's Tale, where Perdita pre-
sents her father's guests with characteristic flowers,
according to their various ages —

" It is my father's will, I should take on me
The hostesship o' the day : — You're welcome, sir!
Give me those flowers, there, Dorcas. — Reverend sirs,
For you there's Rosemary, and Rue ; these keep
Seeming and savour, all the winter long :
Grace, and remembrance be to you both,
And welcome to our shearing !"

246 WILD FLOWEES OF

It was also an ancient practice to scatter flowers
upon the streams at shearing time, and this is still
done in some secluded spots in the present day.

Anciently, the flowers of the woods, fields, and
gardens, were intimately associated with the festivals
of the church, and when the style was altered in the
last century, many people who had slips in their
gardens from the celebrated Holy Thorn of Glaston-
bury, said to flower only on the eve of our Saviour's
nativity, boldly appealed to it to solve their doubts,
and as the thorn, true to its usual time, could not be
persuaded to accelerate its budding, Old Christinas
Day was long kept in defiance of the Act of Parlia-
ment, and even now, in secluded parishes, is honoured
as alone worthy of hallowed respect. The old rhyming
anthology says — alluding to the longest day being-
then associated with the feast of St. Barnabas —

" When St. Barnaby bright smiles night and day,
Poor ragged Robin blooms in the hay ;

and certainly we may rest assured that Summer is
not come till this plant, Lychnis flos-cuculi, shows its
ragged red petals in the grass. Another plant, still
more true to the first summer days of June than the
Bagged Robin, is the Silver- weed (Potentilla anserina),
which, distinguished by its creeping argenteous leaves
and brilliant golden flowers, now burnishes the sides
of roads and heathy spots. At this time, too, the
Yellow-Battle (RJiinantJius Crista-galli), abounds in
the grass of meadows, and when its seeds rattle spon-
taneously in their capsules, like dice in a box, the
grass is then said to be ripe for cutting, and Hay-
harvest commences.

The St. John's "Wort, (ILypericwi,} bears its title

JUNE. 247

from flowering on or about June 24th, the day of the
celebration of the feast of John the Baptist ;* at this
time, too, Griow-worms begin to be luminous, if the
weather is fine and warm,* and are seen by road sides
and under hedges, &c. whence their German name,
Johannis-wurchen, or St. John's worms. Facts like
these furnish an incentive for a botanist to " look-out,"
and by examining the appearance of well-known
plants, he is soon able to know whether the season is
forward or backward, and even by how many days it
is so.f

It must be recollected, however, that no deduction
of this kind can be drawn from the appearance of the
primaveral flowers, as such plants with a warm aspect
may flower in particular spots without the majority of
their brethren, as every body knows who has met with
a primrose or cowslip by the woodside, or on a south-
ern bank. In mild autumns, too, it is not uncommon
to find the primrose or dog-violet ante-dating its usual
period of flowering by a couple of months ; in these
cases the first frost of course destroys the too hasty
adventurers. But a reference to the solstitial flowers
is decisive as to the progress' Vegetation has actually
made. I have noticed for many years that the Yellow
Iris or Flag (Iris pseudacorus) almost always unfolds

* In some parts of Wales this solstitial flower is placed upon door-posts
as a defence against evil spirits— a custom, perhaps, derived from Druid-
ical times. Some of the early medical writers, who fancied that the St.
John's Wort was a specific in hypochondriacal disorders, gave it the
fanciful term of fuga damonum (devil's flight,) and this being literally
interpreted, caused the plant to be gathered on St. John's Day with great
ceremony in France and Germany, that the people might hang it up ia
their houses, as a charm against storms, thunder, and spirits.

t The precise time of the flowering of plants from their first appearance
to their seeding, has been but little attended to by authors of systematic
floras, although as indicative of climate it is of considerable importance.

248 WILD FLOWEES OF

its brilliant corolla on May 31st, or June 1st ; the
latter date is given by FOESTEE in his Rustic Calendar,
and I remember but few seasons in which the marshes
were not yellow with some of its flowers on the 1st
of June. But in 1837 I observed no flower of the
Iris expanded before June 19th, and not till June
17th in 1839, so that in those two ungenial springs
there was a general seasonal retardation, in the one
case of eighteen, and in the other of sixteen days. On
the other hand, in 1848, there was a considerable
acceleration in the flowering of plants, from the singu-
larly hot and early summer of that year.* The Yellow
Iris was then in full flower on May 24th. The Rosa
spinosissima usually commences flowering from the
20th to the 25th of April, but in the former of the
years mentioned, it did not expand, to my observa-
tion, till June llth, while Rosa canina almost always
showing some flowers by June 1st or 2nd, presented
none before June 19th, and then very partially. In
1839 the wild Eose did not show its flowers until the
20th of June, while the 20th of May, 1840, exhibited
a floral aspect at least a month in advance of the
former year. The high temperature of the early part
of the summer of 1848 brought out the Dog-Eose as
early as May 17th.

The association of the green boughs of the season,
in connection with church festivals, is very pleasing,
and fraught with poetical imagery. I have frequently
been charmed to behold rustic churches plenteously
adorned with the green pledge of renewed spring, or
the evergreen promise of immortality. I remember
in a spring ramble, some years ago, being overtaken

* In the Phytologist of that year I have examined the subject in detail.

JTTNE. 249

by a thunder-storm, when I hastened to shelter in the
porch of Shrawley church,* whose adjacent wood,
famed for botanical rarities, I have visited oft and
again. It was the day before "Whitsunday, and find-
ing the church door open, I walked into the edifice.
The old clerk was busily engaged in decorating the
interior with birchen branches just come into leaf —
the "gay green birk" — sacred to joy and Whitsuntide.
The old man observed that this was an ancient cus-
tom, the origin of which he did not know ; but the
Yew at Easter, the Birch at Whitsuntide, and the
Holly at Christinas, was used to be of old time beyond
memory. This is alluded to in the following quaint
lines, which have reference to the four festivals of
Christmas, Candlemas, Easter, and Whitsuntide,
which wrere each distinguished by their peculiar
frondal ornaments.

VERSES FOR CANDLEMAS EVE.

Down with the Rosemary and Bayes ;

Down with the Mistletoe ;
Instead of Holly, now upraise

The greener Box for show.

The Holly hitherto did sway,

Let Box now domineere
Until the dancing Easter Day,

Or Easter Eve appeare.

Then youthful Box which now hath grace

Your houses to renew ;
Grown old, surrender must his place,

Unto the crisped Yew.

* About eight miles north-west of Worcester.

250 WILD FLOWEKS OF

When Yew is out then Birch conies in,

And many flowers beside ;
Both of a fresh and fragrant klnne,

To honour Whitsontide.

Green Rushes then, and sweetest Bents,

With cooler Oaken boughs,
Come in for comely ornaments,

To re-adorn the house.

It has been supposed that the sombre funereal Tew
that appears in most churchyards, and often of im-
mense size and great age, was originally planted in
such situations from its use in connexion with the fes-
tivals of the church. But it is remarkable that Holly,
equally wanted at Christmas, should seldom or never
be found there, to say nothing of Birch ; and it is
most probable, that as the Cypress was the symbol of
immortality with the Pagan nations of antiquity, so
the Tew was selected by the Christians in northern
countries as equally analogous in this respect ; and
typical, not only of the immortality of the soul, but
of the perpetual endurance of that Church, against
which the gates of hell were in scriptural terms never
to prevail.

By the middle of June, in dry stony localities, the
little Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca), often displays
its scarlet fruit, which fairy-like as it appears, yields
not in flavour to the largest horticultural variety.
Often, indeed, when sinking wearied on the turf after
a toilsome exploration, have I seen its little pitted
globes with joy, and refreshed my parched tongue with
its grateful and fragrant moisture.

In a former chapter I alluded to the localities of
plants, and I may here add that the habitats they

JUNE. 251

affect are equally curious, and form a great charm in
tempting the exploring foot of botanical research.
It may be said in general that some plants are found
in woods, some on precipices, and others in bogs — but
where are these woods, precipices, and bogs ? — they
must be sought and explored, for the same plants are
not universally diffused alike, but have their particular
partialities to places and aspects adapted to their
growth, where only they fix their abode or extend
themselves from.

In glancing at the vegetation of England we per-
ceive species that affect only northern stations, as
Twisted-podded Whitlow Grass (Draba incana), Wood
Stichwort (Stellaria nemorum), Bird Cherry (Primus
Paclus), White Mountain Avens (Dry as octopetala) ,
Northern G-alium (G. Boreale), Bird's-eye Primrose
(Primula farinosa), Alpine Bistort (Polygonum vivi-
pary/ni), &c. Others are more peculiarly allocated in
the West, as the Mona Cabbage (Brassica Monensis),
Sea Mallow (Lavatera arbor ea), Wood Bitter Vetch
(Vicia Orobus), Wild Madder (Rubia peregrina), Tel-
low viscid Bartsia (JB. viscosa), &c. A few are confined
to spots in central England that seem most congenial
to their growth, amongst which are the Horse-shoe
Vetch (Hippocrepis comosci), Crimson Grass Vetch
(Latliyrus Nissolicf), Hyssop-leaved Loosetrife (Ly-
tlira liyssopifoliuni), Great Hartwort (Tordylium max-
imwn), and Downy Woundwort (Stacliys Germanica) .
Among the species on our southern coasts and not
disposed to progress further, may be noticed the
Linear-leaved St. John's Wort (Hypericum linari-
folium), Yellow Wood Sorrel (Oxalis corniculata) ,
several Trefoils and Vetches, Sand Strap wort (Cori-

252 WILD FLOWERS OF

yiola littoralis), Grlabrous Hup ture- Wort (JTerniaria
fflabra), Whorled Knot-grass (Illecebrum verticilla-
tiim), Summer's Lady's Traces (Neottia cestivalis),
Butcher's Broom (JRtiscus aculeatus'), and various others.
The Eastern counties of England possess many plants
peculiar to that side of our island, as the Scarlet
Horned Poppy (Glauciivm PJicenicewn), Smooth Sea
Heath (FranJcenia Itevis), Spanish Campion (Silene
Otites), Yellow Sickle Medick (Medicago falcata),
Eield Medick (M. arvensis), Mossy Tillaea (T. muscosa),
Field Southernwood (Artemisia campestris), Fen Hag-
wort (jSenecio paludosus), Purple Cow-wheat (Melam-
pyrutn arvense), Water Soldier (Stratiotes aloides), &c.
The geographical botanist tracing these plants to their
continental centres (for the Flora of Britain is almost
entirely derivative), is enabled to place them with
larger assemblages, and thus provinces of plants on an
extended scale (perhaps centres of creation) are esta-
blished. By such observations the boundaries of
philosophic botany are enlarged, while the observer
perceives a new interest investing the habitats of
plants, eliciting constant enquiry and inciting to ever
renewed investigation.

I remember showing a friend the rare British Woad
(Isatis Tinctoria), growing on a red marl cliff close to
the Eiver Severn, above Tewkesbury ;* but if my good

* This tall plant, which has a very splendid aspect when in flower, is of
rare occurrence in a wild state, but flourishes somewhat profusely on the
precipitous marl cliff at the Mithe Tout, an ancient Biitish Tumulus by
the side of the Severn, above Tewkesbury. At the time alluded to in the
text, when with the friend referred to, I gathered several noble specimens,
six feet in height. Some had double stems and above twenty compound
branches in each panicle of flowers. Most of these branches had more
than twelve branchlets, each having about eighty blossoms, so that these
magnificent adornments of the native Flora of Britain, each bore nearly
twenty-four thousand single flowers! The authors of Floras and Cata-

JUNE. 253

friend were compelled to clamber up every cliff and
hill within the kingdom of England, dominion of
"Wales, and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, day by day,
till another brilliant Isatis met his view, I fear his
ascents and explorations would produce many an ad-
venture in

'' th' imminent deadly breach,"

ere he effectually accomplished his purpose. On ano-
ther occasion a brother botanist and myself were
nearly a whole day hunting among marshes and ditches
for the beautiful "Water Violet (Hottonia palustris),
which we failed to find, though a thousand " Adders'
Tongues,' which we had not dreamt of, presented
themselves across our track — yet only two or three
days after, a fair maiden brought to my house a bunch
of these self same Water Violets, which my friend and
myself had so long looked for in vain. And these
lovely gems of intermingled lilac, white and yellow,
abounded in one watery ditch only in my neighbour-
hood, while a thousand excursions had failed to present
them ever to my view before. So the beautiful Wood
Vetch (Vicia sylvatica), whose blossoms marbled with
deep purple veins, might, as Sir WALTER SCOTT says,
" canopy TITAMTA'S bower," in some woods revels most
profusely, and, covering the bushes and trees makes
a delightful show, while in others it might be sought
for in vain.

The beautiful Bastard-Balm (Melittis Melissopliyl-
lum), so long retaining its fragrance in the herbarium,

logues persist in marking this as an introduced plant, but as it was used
for tinctorial purposes by the painted Britons, it seems likely enough to
have been indigenous in then- day. It may always be found at the locality
named, where I have known it more than thirty years, and never failing

* Ophioglossum vulgatum.

254 WILD ELOWEBS OP

is mostly confined to Hampshire and the south-west
of England. It was therefore with high delight that
I formed one of a botanical party when once visiting
Cheltenham, to see and gather this rarity in a wood
called Puckham Scrubs, among the heights of the
Cotteswolds.

Many of the Orchidiae are very local — the beautiful
Bee- Orchis (0. apifera), generally only occurs on or
near limestone ; the Frog Orchis (Platwfhera viridis)
in moist pastures ; and the singular Lizard Orchis,
has been hardly ever met with any where else in
Britain than near Dartford, in Kent. Those who live
in the vicinity of the chalk formation may find many
beautiful plants confined to such habitats, as the
Brown- winged Orchis (O.fusca), Military Orchis (0.
militaris), Monkey Orchis (0. teplirosantlws), and the
very singular Green Man Orchis (Aceras antliropo-
phorci), whose flowers, when closely examined, have
such a strange anthropomorphous aspect, as to seem
like little men or monkeys. Indeed, scarcely a range
of hills or mountains exists which has not some plants
either peculiar to them, or more abundant there than
in other places — and in glancing at my herbarium I
have just met with a fine specimen of the purple Milk
Vetch (Astragalus hypoglottis) , which I well remember
to have snatched with joy from the rugged brow of
Bredon-hill, "Worcestershire, many years ago.

The angular -leaved Solomon's Seal (Qonvallaria
polygonatwii), is another of those beautiful plants that
restricted to privileged though truly natural localities,
so often rise up to the imagination of the really en-
thusiastic field botanist, to tempt his wandering steps
and promote his mental enjoyments. This, with the

JUNE. 255

curious Monotropa, or Yellow Bird's Nest, and the
dark poisonous Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Bella-
donna), we have gathered in many delightful rambles
with our acute friend, Professor BTJCKMAN, among the
Cotteswold woods and wilds in Gloucestershire.*

In some places the Knobby-rooted "Water-Drop-
wort ((Enantke pimpinelloides) , cannot fail to attract
attention, where, as in "Worcestershire and Glouces-
tershire, it fills whole upland meadows with its white
close-flowered umbels in the month of June, just
before the time of cutting the grass. It is well dis-
tinguished by its root of many widely- spreading round
or ovoid scaly tubercles on lignose stalks, terminating
in fibres. The radical leaves extend in a remarkable
horizontal manner, bi-pinnate, the pinnuUe broadly
elliptical. An allied species, flowering in May, and
considered by HOOKER and ABNOTT as the (E. silai-
folia, Bieb. (peucedanifolia Sib. and Smith,) has the
tubercles of the root elliptical or pyriform, and always
sessile, often suddenly swollen and graduating into
fibres. In the latter plant the radical leaves scarcely
differ from those of the stem, and it affects marshy
spots and the vicinity of rivers. (Enantlie LacJienaliij
which is the commonest of the three, flowers a month
later than the others with a lax umbel, and delights
in maritime or salt-water marshes. Its root consists
of many long slender fusiform tubercles, its radical
leaves are simply pinnate, their leaflets broadly lance-
olate, entire, blunt. The fruit of this is small, inversely
conical, without any callosity at the base.f

* See Professor BUCKBIAN'S Botany of the Environs of Cheltenham.

t See the Phytologist for Dec. 1845 (vol. ii. p. 354 et seq.) for figures of
the roots and detailed descriptions of these plants.

256 WILD FLOWERS OF

The round-headed Rampion (PJiyteuma orbiculare) ,
which flowers in June, is a rare inhabitant of chalky
soils, chiefly in Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. The Field
Fleawort (Cineraria campestris), is almost entirely
confined to the chalky downs in the middle and south
of England; the dwarf Nipplewort (Lapsana pusilla),
is also very sparingly distributed, and many other
plants have equally curious limitations. So that the
wandering herbalist may fairly hope to gain some-
thing new to him in every fresh progress he takes.

In general, limestone rocks, or a calcareous soil, is
more favourable to the vegetation of a variety of
plants than almost any other : and thus while an un-
observant person might hunt a level meadow tract in
vain for any botanical rarities, the experienced collec-
tor, versed in a knowledge of the habitats affected by
plants, will know where he is most likely to collect a
number in the smallest space. Certain localities are
extraordinary in this respect. I remember rambling
a few years ago, when out on a tour, from Conway to
the Great Orme's Head, overlooking the Irish sea.
In this distance of five or six miles, I had not met
with a single specimen of interest ; but scarcely had
I commenced scrambling up the promontory, when I
literally stumbled upon the following plants, all within
a few feet of each other.

Spiked Speedwell, Veronica spicata.
Lesser Meadow Rue, Tlialictrum minus.
Nottingham Catchfly, Silene nutans.
Bloody Cranesbill, Geranium sanguineum.
Common Dropwort, Spiraea filipendula.
Vernal Cinquefoil, Potentilla verna.
Intermediate Whitebeam, Pyrus intermedia.
Mountain Catsfoot, Antennaria dioica.

JUNE.

257

Autumnal Gentian, Gentiana amarella.

English Clary, Salvia verbenaca.

Hoary dwarf Rock-rose, Helianthemwn canum.

Marjoram, Origanum vulgare.

Lady's finger, Anthyllis vulneraria.

Welch Golden-rod, Solidago Cambrica.
Taking in the whole promontory a very long list
might be enumerated. I did not at this first visit
meet with the Cotoneaster vulgaris, well known as an
inhabitant of the cliffs of the Ormeshead, its only
known location in Britain, for being alone, and scaling
the wildest and most desolate-looking rocks, evening
found me among them involved in gloom. At a sub-
sequent time the plant was pointed out to me. It
grows indeed almost in the last place a stranger might
expect — on a limestone ledge descending in easy steps
just behind a farm house called Tau-y-Coed, some dis-
tance above Llandudno village, but looking inland ;
the summit may be between 400 and 500 feet high,
but the western part of the head is higher. The easy
descent of this ledge causes numerous shrubs to grow
there, as privet, holly, spindle-tree, and even much
hazel. There is some quantity of the Cotoneaster^
though growing dwarf out of the cracks of the rock.
It has ripe fruit in August, and then many of the
leaves are beautifully tinged with scarlet. The lime-
stone ledge, whose escarpment now faces inland, yet
appears as if at no distant period it had been a great
bird rock, washed by waves that have now retired
from its base. An instance of the changes that may
occur in the vegetable aspect of a district, is observ*
able on the Ormeshead, now almost entirely denuded
of foliage, and covered with broken masses of time-
worn stones. But clumps of verdant Juniper appear

8

258 WILD FLOWEBS OF

on many of the rocks to the very summit westward,
though now procumbent on the limestone, the bois-
terous gales not permitting its upward growth. Yet
as most of the roots are large, and of great age, it is
easy to imagine that the now " white pow" of the
promontory had in earlier times a more verdant if not
grove-like aspect. The original upright junipers have
evidently been cut down at some former period,
though when scattered in verdant masses, as in druid-
ical times, must have rendered the upper stories and
stone circles nestled on the cliffs far more sheltered
places of observation than they are at present. In-
deed on a curious isolated hill near Gloddaeth, called
Cadir-y-Nain, or " my Grandmother's Chair," some
upright clumps of Juniper still remain rising to a con-
siderable height. Yet so completely were the woods
that once clothed Anglesea destroyed, that when
DAVIES published his Welch Botanology, describing
the plants of that island, in 1813, he could then find
no Juniper at all there, and he only says, " I venture
this as once an inhabitant, from the name of a place,
Cefn-y-Terywen, the juniper bank."

Besides the Great Orme's Head and its attendant
minor prominences, many other calcareous heights
may be mentioned as favourite botanical localities.
Box Hill, in Surrey, famous for its box groves, nurses
also various uncommon OrcJiidice, and the very rare
cut-leaved annual Germander (Teucrium Botrys).
Numerous local species are also found on the chalky
cliffs in the vicinity of Dover, and other parts of our
south-east coast. Brean Downs, in Somerset, and St.
Yincent's rocks, near Bristol, have been long noted
in botanical story for their many rarities, as well as

JUNE. 259

Craig Breidden, in Montgomeryshire, and such places
are always most productive in specimens of interest.
Among the maritime rocks in the vicinity of St.
David's, South Wales, several plants grow rarely met
with elsewhere in Britain, as the elegant Cyperus
longus, and Genista pilosa. The practical botanist,
then, should be prepared for many a long ramble, if
he would enjoy the pleasure of plucking the golden
apples of the Hesperian gardens for himself, but even
failing in the object of his quest, the many romantic
scenes placed before his view, are, in themselves a
sufficient reward.

Several plants puzzle the botanist from their runa*
gate disposition— always shifting their positions, and
hence never to be found precisely in their former
abodes. Such is the pretty little Deptford Pink
(Diantlms armeria), that coyly opens only one of its
speckled blossoms at a time, then closes it and unfolds
another, thus retaining her beauties as long as possi-
ble, and offering a lesson of economy.

The Highland Cudweed (GnapJialium sylvaticum),
frequently flies off from the spot of its birth;— I
gathered a specimen of it on the North Hill, Great
Malvern, in 1830, but for years could not again find
it there until 1841, when several hundreds again
occurred, but higher up the hill. Since that time I
have searched the spot in vain for the plant. Reseda
fruticulosa is a casual wanderer, very likely to lead
the botanist astray, if looked after in its place of
growth the following year. So I once gathered St.
Barnaby's Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) , among the
sand hills on the shore at Barmouth, North "Wales
but though I have several times since been at the

s 2

260 WILD FLOWERS OF

spot, I could never again detect it there. The narrow*
leaved Pepperwort (Lepidium ruderale), in like manner
shifts its quarters very capriciously. The beautiful
crimson Grass- Vetch (Latliyrus nissolia), is another
wanderer, that rarely presents its crimson flowers to
the charmed eye in bushy places, where it would be
totally inconspicuous without such adornments, as its
leaves simulate those of grass. The botanist, then,
must let no ramble escape him without improvement,
or he may lose opportunities never to occur again, for
it often happens that various contingences are re-
quired for the flowering of a plant, which may not
again soon happen for many years : thus, when an
undergrowth of wood is cut down in a coppice or
forest, that season the ground being more open to the
influence of the sun, plants arise and blossom before
unknown there, which, as the trees grow, sink again
into profound repose — and, as in the tale of the
"Sleeping Beauty of the Wood," remain absorbed in
deep slumber, till the sun, like a liberating hero, once
more pierces into the broken labyrinths of their
prison, and rouses them to renewed life and joy.

A few very rare species seem singularly restricted
to narrow bounds, from whence, like Prometheus
chained to his rock, they are unable to escape, and so
may always be met with in the places indicated.*
Thus ILelimihemim Breweri, has been found only on

* A plant that is singularly confined to one spot, as the Origanum
Tournefortii, never met with except on the island of Amorgos, in the
Archipelago, may become by accident altogether lost to the earth $ and
this appears to be the case with the Smooth-podded Vetch (Vicia leevigata),
described by SMITH, and figured at p. 483 of English Botany. It grew on
the pebbly shore of Weymouth, Dorsetshire, " the only station recorded
for it in the whole world," say Messrs. HOOKER and ARNOTT, in the last
edition of the British, Flora, " and there it is now lost."

JUNE. 261

Holy head Mountain, hi Anglesea ; Dianthus ccesius
on the Cheddar Cliffs, Trinia glctberrima on St. Yin-
cent's Rocks, and their vicinity, Seseli Libanotis chiefly
on the Gogmagog hills, Cambridgeshire, and Cornish
Bladderseed (Phytospermum Cornubiense), only in
bushy "fields about Bodmin. Other plants might be
mentioned having special limitations, or contracted
bounds, as the Tuberous Plume-thistle (Cnicus tube-
rosus), recorded as only growing in the Great Ridge
"Wood, on the Wiltshire Downs ; but since found in
another locality on the cliffs between St. Donat's and
Dunraven, Glamorganshire, by Mr. THOMAS WEST-
COMBE, of Worcester.

There are several plants that bear the name of
" meteoric," so denominated by LIKCOETTS, as being
more subjected than others to the influences of the
weather and atmosphere, or, at all events, more sensi-
tive to these influences. The pretty Arenaria rulra,
that opens its purple petals wide before the mid-day
sun, closes them instantly as soon as plucked, or folds
them close should a storm obscure the welkin with
dark clouds. The Daisy "goes to bed," as it is said,
before the sun goes down, but the bright Yellow- wort
(Chlora pfirfoliatci), closes the flowers before 5 P.M.,
and the yellow Goafs-beard (Tragopogon pratensis),
so common now in upland meadows, even before noon
— hence its colloquial name, " Go-to-bed-at-noon."*

* Modem botanists have made two if not three species of Tragopogon
(Goafs-beard) out of the original T. pratensis of LINN^US. T. minor,
of FRIES, is described as having its involucres twice as long as the corol-
las, and T. major, a larger plant, was considered as a " good species" by
the late Professor DON, though Mr. BABINGTON has reduced the latter to
a synonym of T. minor- If size only were to guide us, undoubtedly a
plant four or five feet high seems entitled to a major's commission, while
one of barely three or four inches in altitude can be nothing but a minor.

262 WILD FLOWEES OF

Some flowers on the other hand continue their ex-
pansion throughout the hours of gloom, silvering the
robe of contemplation ; or like the Evening Primrose
(^Enotliera biennis), prefer to open their beauties when
all things are sobered by twilight, as if anxious only
for the gaze of pensive melancholy, or incitative of
poetical thought. So BEENAED BARTON writing to
the Evening Primrose says — •

" I love at such an houi* to mark

Thy beauty greet the night breeze chill ;
And shine 'midst gath'ring shadows dark —
The garden's glory still."

The little Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) sullenly
keeps its scarlet petals closely shut on a cloudy or
a rainy day, and this so constantly and certainly, that
it has been called the " Shepherd's Weather Glass ;"
for whatever the barometer may indicate, if the red
Pimpernel has its flowers expanded fully in the morn-
ing, there will, to a certainty, be no rain of any
consequence on that day, and the umbrella and the

Both such I have found, and in meadows at Cleeve, near Cheltenham,
where the Goatbeards were almost as abundant as the grass itself, have
met with the three kinds growing in proximity. The majority were good
pratenses, some were minors, and in the shade by the hedge side towered
in lofty pride two or three majors. From the observations I made, it ap-
peared to me that the alledged differences in the length of the involucres,
formed no diagnosis to be depended on. For in the numerous plants in the
pasture alluded to, very considerable differences appeared in the length of
the involucres, some in this respect being pratensis, others minor. But, in
fact, the very same plant exhibited variations in the length of the involu-
cre, and I much doubt if a Tragopogon can be found in Britain which at
the first opening of its corolla, has not the involucral bracteas nearly
twice as long as the florets. If the corolla has opened and closed more
than once, then the bracteas are shortened in appearance, and the florets
are elevated by the growth of the fruit, so that by the time the pappus is
ready to expand, the florets and bracteas are exactly equal, and in this
state the plant must be referred to T. pratensis. No other discriminating
marks are given, and T believe there are none, so that T. minor can
scarcely be considered even a variety of pratensis, but is identical with it.

JUNE. 263

macintosh may be safely dispensed with. The fol-
lowing lines were composed in illustration of this
circumstance.

TO THE PINK-EYED PIMPERNEL.

*

" Clos'd is the pink-eyed Pimpernel."

Dr. JENNKH»

Come, tell me thou coy little flower

Converging thy petals again,
What gives thee the magical power

Of shutting thy cup on the rain ?

While many a beautiful bow'r

Is drench'd in nectareous dew,
Seal'd up is your scarlet-ting'd flow'r,

And the rain peals in vain upon you.

The cowslip and primrose can sip

The pure " mountain dew" as it flows,
But you, ere it touches your lip

Coyly raise your red petals and close.

The rose and the sweet briar drink

With pleasure the stores of the sky,
And why should your modesty shrink

From a drop in that little pink eye ?

As churlishly thus you deny

A pledge to the flow'rs of the plain,
May I ask if your brilliant pink eye

Frowns on others as well the rain ?

If a drop is too much for your head,

That thus you the nectar exclude,
When the sun gleams the rainbow to spread,

You must think e'en the sunbeams too rude !

But no ! 'tis not so, calm and bright

The tempest has fled from the skies,
The sun has illumin'd the height,

And Miss Pimpernel opens her eyes !

264 WILD FLOWEKS OE

And thus 'tis in vain to o'erpower

A maiden with flatteries and pelf;
For true love, like the Pimpernel flower,

Is best when it opens itself.

Plants that observe particular hours for opening
and closing their petals, become horologues, and this
is the case with many of the syngenesious tribe. The
Garden Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) opens at seven a.m.
and shuts at ten, the Mouse-ear Hawkweed closes at
half-past two p.m., while the HypocJiceris continues
expanded till three. Exotic plants are still more
remarkable in this respect — as the "Four o'clock
[Flower" that commences expanding at that time, and
the Night-blowing Cereus.

The meadows are now in their glory with towering
grasses, soon destined to fall before the scythe ; but
ere they are cut down in their pride, several beautiful
flowers are seen sparkling amidst the golden butter-
cups, and one characterized by its large purple corolla
— the Meadow Crane's Bill (Geranium pratense), can-
not fail to be often noticed, as well as the tall rough
Cow-parsnep (Heracliwn sphondiliwri) ; while here and
there the Birds'-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), the
long-rooted Cat's-ear (Hypochceris radicatd), and seve-
ral other composite flowers, form glowing patches of
gold, finely contrasting with the argent masses of
Daisies and Anihemi* or the bright pink clusters of
the E/est-harrow and Clover.

" The grass is thick with flowers on crisp stalks
Full of the juicy virtues of the place;
The spiky thistle, blue cranesbill, gorgeous heath,
And globed clover full of honey-dew,
And sweeter than the cowslip."

* Anthemis inodorus, A. cotula, and other allied composite flowers,

JUNE. 265

In some romantic hollow lane, overrun with Fox-
glove (Digitalis purpurea), studded with many an old
wizard-like pollard with bare extended arms, and high
overbowered with wild roses and honeysuckle, day at
last closes upon our observation, and the cold per-
fumed breath of evening fans our forehead. The
streamlet that forms a deep gulley in the bottom, has
begun a patter among the pebbles that was almost
unheard amidst the din and hum of day — and the
bat, careering among the wytch elms high in air, is
seen at recurring intervals in fine relief upon the bril-
liant ruby that tinges the evening sky. And now,
as the road begins to appear obscure, up starts the
glow-worm's "ineffectual fire" to cheer our path and
stud the deepening gloom. In our next chapter we
must " look out" for new adventures.

EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE JUNE.

As many of the beautiful tribe of Orchidice are to be
found in full perfection this month, it may be useful
to the neophyte to give a hint how to preserve them
in perfection. Their stems abounding in nutriment,
the moisture remains a long time in them after being
gathered, and thus the ovaries increase in size, and
the flowers proceed slowly to wither, as if still grow-
ing in the open air. Some of them, too, certainly the
Bee Orchis (Oplirys apiferce), ripen their seeds even
in this artificial state, the carpels elongate, distend,
burst, and finally scatter their minute and almost
innumerable seeds within the sheets of paper in which
they are placed. I have calculated that a single luxu-
riant Bee Orchis may produce more than ten thousand
seeds. They probably remain a considerable time in
the soil before they vegetate, but in favourable seasons
this takes place very profusely, as I remember once
gathering with two botanical friends, more than
seventy plants within the space of a few square yards.
However, from the circumstance I have mentioned,
unless the vitality of the withered plants are quickly
destroyed, the flowers lose all their beauty, and be-
come entirely shrivelled up. This difficulty is to be
obviated by the application of a knife and a moderately
hot iron. First, an incision should be made in the
ovary, and the seeds carefully extracted, even those
of the unexpanded flowers. The plant is then to be

EXPLOBATORY NOTICES FOB JUNE. 267

placed on some soft paper, with several folds of waste
paper both above and below it, and the hot iron placed
on, being gently shifted as occasion requires. Great
care must be taken that the iron be not too hot, or
the specimen will be at once totally spoiled ; but if
due 'caution be observed, and the degree of heat
properly regulated, the juices of the orchis will be
speedily dried up, and the colours of the corolla
beautifully preserved. In short, the result will be
productive of specimens of superior appearance and
value.

The long-living Sedum tribe, and the Heaths ( Galluna
et Erica), should be immersed in boiling water soon
after gathering, which will prevent their leaves drop-
ping off. If for curiosity, any species of Sedum be
preserved or hung up, it will continue to grow for
years. A specimen of Sedum rupestris, I gathered in
1839, on the cliffs at Chepstow, and then carelessly
left in a damp room, actually put forth flowers in
December, six months afterwards.

WILD FLOWEKS OF JULY.

CHAP. XY.

CHARMS OF ASSOCIATION CONSIDERED — DRUIDICAL OAK IN
THE FOREST OF DEAN — PLANTS IMMIGRATING FROM
ROCKS TO RUINS — A SCENE ON THE WYE — STONECROPS
AND OTHER SPECIOUS PLANTS OF THE ^ESTIVAL FLORA
— SOLITARY MUSINGS — THISTLES, DROPWORTS, &C. —
CERRIG CENNEN CASTLE AND CHEDDER CLIFFS — PINKS
ON CRAIG DIGANWY — PLANTS GROWING ON RUINS — AD-
VENTURE AT OYSTERMOUTH.

" Time, Time, his withering touch hath laid

On battlement and tow'r ;
And where the banner was display 'd
Now only waves a flower !"

Whether presenting a bouquet of flowers with cour-
teous smile to his lady-love, or moralizing as he hangs
over the top-most turret of some princely ruin, to
pluck a sweet gem that smiles amidst the desolation
there, like an iridean tinge upon a dark cloud, the
Botanical Looker-Out is ever at home. The charm of
association is one of the most delightful links in the
concatenation of life, and they know nothing who
think the real lover of plants in their wild habitats,
merely desires to arrange a flower among the "orders"
of LINN^US, or domesticate it in the "families" of
JUSSIEU or DE CANDOLLE. The searching botanist
has the love of picturesque scenery in him perhaps
more than most other persons, and the incitations of

WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 269

his loved pursuit impel him to the wildest and grandest
scenes. Nor does he less than the architect ponder
among ruined abbeys and castles, and the plants he
gathers there remind him in after days of his excur-
sions, and even in the herbarium inspire poetical ideas
and -revive dormant images. The poet CAMPBELL un-
derstood this, when he apostrophized the "wildings of
Nature" in one of his inspiriting lays —

" Of old ruinous castles ye tell,
Where I thought it delightful your beauties to findj
When the magic of Nature first breathed on my mind,

And your blossoms were part of her spell."

"We all allow the raptures of the classical scholar as
he fancies he treads upon the site of Troy, or paces the
silent halls of the Caesars in the " eternal city ; " we
admit the enthusiasm of the antiquary, who picks up a
rusty spear-head, or, from some imperfect letters on
an old green coin, would lead us back to the days of
Carausius and the Antonines — and the mere tourist
who really aims only to varnish all things with plea-
sure, still feels a glow or a thrill, as the great names
of olden days echo upon his ear in the wild hall or
dark cloister, where he is leading his tittering party.
Nor is the botanist without feelings when he contem-
plates

" Trees that have outliv'd the eagle,"

or treads within the recesses of those Silurian woods
which Professor PHILLIPS states are, " perhaps, as old
as Caractacus," and within whose precincts are trees
which we can prove to be older than his day. Not
long since a Druidical oak met our view within the
precincts of the forest of Dean — yes, Druidical ! for
its immense dark hollow bole measured in girth

270 WILD FLOWEKS OF

nearly 60 feet ;* on our way to it we had passed on
the brow of the Cy Maen t huge overthrown masses
that had once been Cromlechs, and the neighbouring
parish of Stanton (stone-town), pointed out the tradi-
tion. High in the midst of an oak wood, but totally
concealed from a stranger, yet stands that tottering
stone of judgment (the Logan-stone), J beneath whose
awful shadow the Druid brought the unwilling crimi-
nal— and we fancied as we passed on either side the
" broad-stones" where still exists a sacred well, that
we formed one of the procession, till, in imagination,
we saw the priest dip his hands in the pure water in
the hollow bole of the stone, and descend the nine
steps that still remain to the overhanging Logan,
which trembled in the eyes of the judges on their
stony seats as the Druid solemnly raised his hands.

The antiquary who paces round and round the en-
trenchment on the cloud-capt hill, seeks in vain for
something to connect his mind with the people who
formed it — but the botanist still sees on the green
turf the same flowers that met the gaze of the wild
aborigines, and they give out the same sweets to the
pure morning air now, as they did when the " iron
hoof of war" relentlessly tore up the soil on which
their prostrate beauties reposed. Even the castles
and the abbies, now abandoned and overgrown, bear
but the ivy, shrubs, and plants of the neighbouring
woods and rocks upon them that have advanced to a
new dominion, and know not the feudal tower on

* This king of the woods, the " Newland Oak," stands in a field in the
parish of Newland, Gloucestershire, about five miles from Monmouth.

i The Kymin Hill, near Monmouth.

t It now bears the appellation of the " Buckstone," probably from some
buck out of the neighbouring forest that may have sheltered there.

JULY, 271

whose battlements they have clambered, from the
mural precipice, washed by the fierce torrent below,
from which they have immigrated.

Such reflections twined about us, as stepping from
our boat in the declining ruby light of evening, we
gathered a branch of the Pyrus aria from the lofty
ruined arches of Tintern, and after feeling the bottom
of the stony Wye in its rapid wiers, where we were
caught by the ebbing tide, found ourselves within an
hour of midnight engulfed as in a dark cavern, within
the abyss, where the woods and rocks of Percefield on
the one side, and the bare cliffs of Llancaut on the
other, frown over the darkened river. None but the
solitary heron, whom we disturbed in his fishing
avocations, regarded us, as in silence and gloom we
were vainly " looking out" at each turn for Chepstowe
— and gluttonous as we are in the rambling way, it
was not without pleasurable feelings that at last the
grey spectre of Chepstowe Castle appeared high on
its beetling cliffs, and the light on the bridge offered
us the aid of its friendly beacon. We used to smile
at the zeal of a geological friend, for whose researches
no day was too long, and who scarcely ever tempted
us out with him without there being double tolls to
pay, from the impracticability of returning home
through the turnpike gates before midnight. Alas !
we ourselves have now oft touched upon the " little
hour" beyond midnight ere we could return from our
wanderings.

Morning saw us before the castle barbican, adorned
with the same flowering banners as now hang upon
nearly every castle in South Wales. Abundance of
the bright red Valerian (CentrantJius niber), and the

272 WILD FLOWERS OF

pink flowers of the great Snap-dragon (Antirrhinum
majus), at a little distance gave to the towers a bright
ruby tinge, finely contrasting with the masses of
yellow Lichen that had spread widely over the grey
limestone rock, and time-stained its battered face.
This is the month for castles, ruins, and rocks-
dreary, desolate, and horrid as they often seem when
the wind and the tempest roar about them, or the
sheeted lightning blazes for a moment upon their
crumbling fabrics — Nature, as if to solace their harsh
fate, this brilliant month, smiles upon them in her
most inviting manner, and lights up fcheir abandon-
ment with a floral illumination.

Can aught be brighter than the golden flowers of
the various Stonecrops (Sedum acre, glaucurn, reflexum,
fyc.) that now glare upon every precipice like so many
mimic suns ? relieved where the pure white Sedum
album lifts up its argent corymbs on the stony glacis,
while on the sea shore whole rocks are beautifully
silvered with the brilliant stars of the English Stone-
crop (Sed/wn, anglicum). Now, on the limestone cliff,
whose massy bulk stretches far along like a line of
mighty fortresses, the beautiful Geranium sanguineum
presents its deep crimson flowers, the perfoliate
Yellow- wort (Clilora perfoliata) opens its bright
petals upon the mid-day sun, the Marjoram (Origa-
num vulgare) presents a waving line of dark or light
purple ; masses of still brighter hue mark the habitat
of the scented Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) ; and the
Ploughman's Spikenard (Conyza sqitarrosa), with a
multitude of tall yellow Hawkweeds, and the dense
golden tufts of the Golden-rod (Solidago virgaurea),
embellish the escarpments far and wide. How often

JULY. 273

at this season, with steaming brow and panting heart,
have I stood midway upon the burning precipice, and
forgotten care and disappointment in the flowers
around me ; how often, on some rustic seat, in the
deep woods, has the "hum of noon" tingled in my
ears, as far from the haunts of men I was resting in
oblivious luxury with the delicate Winter-green (fy-
rola) in my hands, or some other plant found for the
first time, and long sought in vain, while pools, visited
only by the coot or wild-duck, gleamed mistily before
my eyes, and the rustle of the squirrel, high in over-
hanging forest trees, alone met my ears. When the
great Bell-flower or Throatwort (Campanula latifolia),
first met my admiring gaze on the red sand cliffs of
Shrawley, how dashed I down its steeps to clasp the
prize — and I have guided neophytic friends to bogs
dotted with the flossy Cotton-grass (Eriophorum) t
whose enthusiasm would scarcely allow any but them-
selves to gather it. But these are dreams of botanical
delight for ever past !

Contemplate we now the JEstival flora in its charac-
teristic splendour. It is not till midsummer has fairly
revealed itself, that the beautiful tribe of St. John's-
worts (Hypericum)* present themselves with their
bright flowers and curiously perforated leaves ; the
Dogwood (Cornus sanguined), with its congregated

* This is a very showy family, distinguished in most instances by their
curious perforated leaves, whence the French name, " le millepertius,"
or many-pierced, from the leaves exhibiting minute or glandular perfora-
tions, when held up to the light.

" Hypericon was there, the herb of war,

Pierc'd through with wounds, and seam'd with many a scar."
The leaves of the Tutsan were formerly applied to fresh wounds, whence
it derived the French name of " la toute-sain." The St. John's Worts, so
called from their commencing flowering on the Baptist's day, in June, are
generally set down in Floras as belonging to July only.

T

274 WILD FLOWERS OF

umbels of white petals, marks the same event, and
next the Mallow (Malva rotundifolia) offers its invi-
ting blue flowers by every road-side to unnumbered
bees, while the yellow Vetchling (Latliyrus pratensis) ,
sparkles amidst the yet uncut grass, and the tufted
Vetch (Vicia cracca) lifts up its violet clusters high
on the hedge amidst masses of scented honeysuckle.
It is not till the height of summer that the numerous
prickly race of Thistles (Cnicus et Carduus^) lift high
their bright but guarded flowers, the scented Musk
Thistle (Carduus nutans), and the lofty Cotton Thistle*
(Onopordium acantkiuiri), meriting especial attention
amidst the group — the Meadow Plume Thistle (Cnicus
pratensis), in wet alpine pastures, offers also a spec-
tacle far from inelegant. In marshy spots the various
species of Ragworts (Senecio) now begin to present a
specious aspect with their yellow disks and radiant
florets, and the common and greater Knapweeds (Cen-
taur ea) lift their purple "hard-heads." The rosy-
tinted Drop wort (Spiraea filipendula), abundant on
downs near the coast, and, like the " temple-haunting
Martlet," always scenting the purest air, now delights

* It is stated by Sir W. J. HOOKER that the great Cotton Thistle, which
when in flower is a truly magnificent plant, from six to eight feet high, is
cultivated in Scotland as the Scotch Thistle ; but GARDINER, in his Flora
of Forfarshire, says that the common Spear-Thistle (Cnicus lanceolalus),
is the real Scottish Thistle.

" When roam'd the rude Celt through our island of yore,
And the old Druid worshipped beneath the oak tree,
And bleak was the aspect of Caledon's shore,
With no flow'ret's soft beauty adorning her lea, —
What plant was it then,
That as stern as her men,

While it braved the wild blast pricked the foot of the foe ;
And bloomed in her dells,
On her steep rocky fells,

Where burns wimple clearly and dark rivers flow ?
'Twas the THISTLE, that ne'er but 'mong freemen did grow !"

JULY. 275

the eye of the summer wanderer ; and wherever a tiny
rill or grass-grown spring weeps among the meadows,
the Queen of the Meads (Spircea ulmaria) lifts up an
array of pale sulphur flowers, and fills the air with a
cloud of fragrance.

That pink! ah how lovely! its sight, its scent recalls
me to flowers more beautiful, that I had almost for-
gotten. It places me at once before that old wall at
Llanbedie, in South Wales, where I gathered so many
of the wild Pheasant 's-eye Pink (Dianthus pluma-
rius*) for my own herbarium and those of others. I
was then on my way to Cerrig Cennen Castle ; burn-
ing was the day and oppressive in the extreme : I
stopped to rest beneath the refreshing shadow of a
huge spreading oak ; nor shall I soon forget the re-
freshing draught of butter-milk sent to my parched
lips by a kind pitying "Welsh-woman. " Pleasure,"
said a cynic of experience long ago in my hearing, " is
the hardest work done!" — how often have I found it so;
and I found it oil that day when I scaled the heights
of Cerrig Cennen to gather its plants, and wound
midway beneath its fearful crags, where the stunted
yew clasps the crumbling rock, with eagle grasp, as if
fearing to fall, and brilliant golden Cisti, or little sun-
flowers, bright blue Bell-flowers (Campanula), the
Kidney- vetch (Anthyllis miner aria), and various

* This I have also gathered on the walls of Conway, North Wales. It
has been confounded with the Carnation (D. caryophyllus], which grows
on the ruined castles of Deal, Sandown, and Rochester, in Kent. The late
DAVID CAMERON, of the Birmingham Botanic Garden, who cultivated
both plants together, besides the satisfactory specific distinction presented
by the different division of the petals and the serratures on the margins of
the leaves, remarked that they have a different period of flowering, the
flowers of D. plumarius appearing in June, while D. caryophyllu« only
commences flowering at the latter end of July.

T2

276 WILD FLOWERS OF

beautiful Heaths (Erica), wreath the interstices and
brow of the precipice.

Some years since, I purposely journeyed to scale the
cliffs of Cheddar, Somersetshire, for the beautiful Pink
(Diantkus ccssius,} that adorns the brows of its tre-
mendous crags. But I was too late to see it in flower.
Still I was well rewarded in the sight of this pass of
grandeur which I walked through, while new beauties
and new sublimities called for my admiration at every
step I took. Ivied rocks, battlemented turrets, totter-
ing peaks, and impregnable buttresses rose in stern
and frowning pomp before me ; nor could imagination
tint a picture exceeded here by the reality, Not un-
accompanied by care and anxiety, mourning for the
past and prophetically looking to the future with tear-
ful glimpse, I yet here paused upon my career. I came
only, indeed, to gather a plant, and strayed out of my
way to do so; but as I looked up to the tempest-riven
crags above me, I seemed to be hurried back to days
of old when, perhaps, the sea rolled upon or broke
through these lofty rocks. I gazed with awe upon
such sublime monuments of past revolutions, and fan-
cied the admonition of the Great Supreme warned me
to be stedfast and hnmoveable to the assaults of vice,
as these time-worn precipices that rose land-marks of
his power.

Every species of Pink is interesting and beautiful,
and even rare in the present day, when extended cul-
tivation leaves so few wild tracts to the botanist. A
pink-strewed hill is now a page of poetry, and I shall
not easily forget the interesting aspect of Craig Di-
ganwy and Bryn Grosol hills, near Con way, when I saw
them, in company with some fair companions in 1849,

CHEDDAR CLIFFS,

Somersetshire,

Habitat of the Cheddar Pink (Dianthus coesius).

JULY.

277

braided as it were with the exquisitely delicate blos-
soms of the Maiden Pink (DiantJms deltoides).

I have found an OrobancJie or Broom-Rape with pur-
ple stem and light brown flowers, on many of the walls
of the castles of "Wales and Monmouthshire, which
seems a curious habitat for it, since it is supposed to
grow parasitically only on the roots of other plants, as
the clover, &c. ; and as its seeds are not winged, it
seems difficult to account for its location there.* But
the subject of the migration of plants demands more
attention than it has received. No sooner now is a
mansion or tower abandoned, than all the plants of
the neighbourhood hasten to possess it, and those that
can fly (as the seeds of the syngenesian tribe) have of
course the best chance — but birds carry many seeds
and berries, and thus in a few years a ruined castle
assumes the semblance of one of the rocks around —
peopled with most of their plants — but none different.
So numerous do these sometimes become, that Profes-
fessor SEBASTIANI has published a " Flora Colisea,"
containing a list of more than two hundred plants
growing on the Coliseum at Rome. If we may sup-
pose our own rocks to have been clothed in a similar
manner from other pre-existing ones, it would be
curious to trace, if possible, some central point from
which all originated, unless, as contended by some
botanists, there were many centres of creation, and

* I gathered this plant on the top of Martin's Tower, Chepstowe Castle,
in 1839, and I have seen it also growing among ivy on St. Catharine's Isle,
Tenby, as well as on the rocks of the Great Orme's Head, Caernarvon-
shire. In fact it occurs on many ivied ruins in Wales and Monmouthshire,
perhaps parasitical on the roots of ivy. It must therefore be the O. Hederte,
Duby, though but little different in aspect from O. minor. According to
HOOKER and AKNOTT, it is chiefly distinguished "by its yellow stigma cleft
only two-thirds down instead of to the base."

278 WILD FLOWEBS OF

thus a distinguishing feature given to characterize the
floras of particular parts of the earth from the earliest
times. If we admit with geologists a " Grlacial
Period," when only the summits of our present
mountains were elevated above the waters, and the
plants now upon these mountain summits then grew
upon the shores of a widely extended ocean, it can
have been only by degrees and in a long period of time
that other plants have appeared by successive immi-
grations to clothe the hills and plains as they became
fitted for vegetable growth. Hence some plants may
have appeared at a much later period than others,
even though disseminated by Nature. On this point
I shall not, at present, dwell farther, but it is certainly
interesting to the practical botanist to mark those
plants that seem cosmopolites winging in every direc-
tion, while others, from peculiarity of structure or
habit, seem fixed to that locality where the first beam
of light dawned on their opening foliage.

The epiphytical plants of an old tower or ruin are
frequently curious, and they serve to invest the moul-
dering arches with an adornment that renders them
doubly interesting to the view of the artist, the poet,
and even the botanist. For, besides the beauteous
ivied tracery that almost invariably robes the broken
wall, the ash saplings and wild roses that are sure to
dangle there, and the wallflowers that perfume even
the damp dungeon now exposed to the inlet of day, I
have often met with wandering plants that gave a
peculiar feature to the pile where they had taken up
their abode. I remember Buildwas Abbey bright
with the yellow flowers of the Barberry ; the majestic
turrets of Pembroke are overgrown with the silver

JULY. 279

corymbs of the fragrant Alyssum (Koniga maritime?) ;
Newport Castle, Pembrokeshire, has all its walls
bristling with the rigid spinous gorse ; the ruined
palace of St. David's glows with the crimson flowers
of the Wall Germander (Teucrium diam&drys) ; the
gate of Battle Abbey, bears the solemn Night-shade
in preference ; and, odd enough, the topmost pinnacles
of the fine gothic tower of Newland church, Glouces-
tershire, wave with a cluster of Cherry-trees ! The
rare Arabis turrit a has never been found in England
except on the old walls of Trinity and St. John's col-
leges, Cambridge, and Magdalen college, Oxford ; and
the inelegant E/agwort (Senecio squalidus) always
affects ancient walls, as those of collegiate Oxford,
and the rude buttresses by the old water-gate of the
castle at "Worcester.* Dr. BROMFIELD has intimated
that Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis,) is perfectly and
abundantly naturalized on the ruins of the beautiful
and romantically situated Abbey of Beaulieu, in the
New Forest, Hampshire, particularly on the walls and
in the area of the cloisters ; now as fully established
and permanent as the wall-flower, calaminth, pellitory,
and other mural plants that flourish on the picturesque
remains of that once "proud abbaye."

The common Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum),
perhaps from having been cultivated as a pot-herb in
the absence of better things, often presents itself on
the mounds of ruined castles, as on those of Shrews-
bury and Caermarthen, where I have observed it, as

* Although living1 for many years in the immediate vicinity of this spot,
the plant had escaped my notice till kindly pointed out to me by the ob-
servant eye of the Rev. ANDREW BLOXSOM, a gentleman well-known for
his acumen in the records of botanical exploration. I regret to say that
from a reparation of the wall in 1848, the plant has almost disappeared
from the locality.

280 WILD FLOWEBS OF

well as most abundantly about the ruins on Craig
Diganwy, near Conway ; and the narrow-leaved Mus-
tard (JDiplotaxis tenuifolia), almost invariably shows
itself on the fortifications of other days, as if it poeti-
cally clung to the recollections of the past. Those
who have seen the walls of Southampton, Tenby, or
Chester, must recollect its conspicuous aspect there,
and it occurs in great abundance on every old wall at
Haverfordwest, even on the fronts of houses, where its
growth seems to be encouraged by pieces of wood
hammered into holes of the wall. It may have been
introduced by the Memings, who colonized this part
of South "Wales. I was once detained by continued
rain for some hours within the ruins of Oystermouth
Castle ; but the time that might otherwise have been
tedious, was agreeably beguiled in examining the
pretty CocMearia danica, which, in the most luxuriant
manner, festooned the walls of the almost sole re-
maining perfect apartment, — that over the entrance
gateway.*

This incident recalls my recollection to " the Mer-

* Sir JAMES SMITH, in his Tour on tfie Continent, has well observed
that " a plant gathered in a celebrated or delightful spot, is like the hair
of a friend, more dear to memory than even a portrait, because it excites
the mind without presuming to fill it." On this account I never fail to
gather some plant as a memorial of the spot I have visited, recalling as it
does treasured ideas in after days; and with almost equal pleasure I
receive specimens gathered by dear friends in distant places.—
" I send the lilies giv'n to me,

Though long before thy hand they touch

I know that they must wither'd be,

But yet reject them not as such ;

For I have cherish'd them as dear,

Because they yet may meet thine eye,

And guide thy soul to mine ev'n here,

When thou behold'st them drooping nigh ;

And know'st them gathered by the Rhine,

And offer'd from my heart to thine." BYRON .

JULY. 281

maid" at Oystermouth. Ah! twice has "the Mermaid,"
at Oystermouth, received me within her dripping
embraces. Once I was alone — the second time with
two lady campanions : both times, alas ! overwhelmed
in a deluge of rain after mounting the heights in front
of the Mumbles Lighthouse. On these rocks several
of the rarer plants grow in wild profusion, as the
Asperula cynancJiica, Juniper a communis, Euphorbia
portlandica, Sedbiosa columbaria, Rubia peregrina, the
hairy-leaved variety of Cistus Helianthemum, Carex
pauciflora, and the Scaly Hart's-tongue Pern (Gram-
mitis GeteracTi.) "We had scarcely got among these
plants, and were engaged in gathering them, when a
mist began to spread along the surface of old ocean.
It increased to a cloud — the sea scowled, and became
of a deep purple hue, while the wind swept along a
rhimy shower to the heights we were patrolling. For
some time we defied this, till the rhime increasing to
positive rain, we were forced to shelter within the
keel of a ruined boat that served as a signal station
on the crest of the range of cliffs. Here we contem-
plated the darkened scene and mist-covered sea, with
the oscillating vessels below, for some time in security ;
but our turned-up boat was not so water tight as
comfort required, and big drops beginning to distil
upon us, with not the slightest prospect of any truce
or armistice on the part of the rain, we made up our
minds to a sally from our position, and retreat, as we
best could, to " the Mermaid." Meantime the paths
had become excessively slippery — the rain made us
anxious for the nearest cut, and, in defiling down the
rocks, to effect this wished-for consummation, some
of the party approached nearer to mother earth than

282 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY.

was quite consistent with stainless vestures. To be
short and expressive, we were all in a sad draggle-tail
plight ere we could shelter from the elemental out-
pourings within the literally sanded cells of " the
Mermaid," where all was cold and cheerless as the
chrystal mansions of the Nereids themselves. But
we soon contrived to raise the cheerful flame, and
drying ourselves and our garments, amused ourselves
with the pictured daubs upon the walls till the frugal
refreshment the Mermaid had in store for us was
placed before our view. This dispatched, we had
nothing to do but to gaze upon the gloomy sea, the
watery skies, the inundated ground, the faded prints
upon the walls, and some old books of long byegone
fashions forgotten except by antiquated " mermaids,"
till our Swansea vehicle drove up in the evening, and
rolled us over the intervening space to the spot from
whence with bright expectations, now sadly dimmed,
we had started in the morning. As we rode along
almost close to the sea, the waves in continued loud
resounding plunges burst furiously upon the beach,
as if even in our flight to remind us of the insecurity
attendant upon all maritime adventure.

WILD ELOWEES OF JULY,

CHAP. XVI.

" FURROW-WEEDS" AND BRAMBLES — HISTORY AND ECO-
NOMY OF THE LATTER — POPPY, CAMPION, AND OTHER
CORN-FLOWERS — WEEDS OF WASTE SPOTS AND BALLAST
HEAPS — OROBANCHES, DOCKS, &C. — INDICATIONS OF THE
DECLINE OF THE vESTIVAL FLORA — ACCOUNT OF THE
NETTLE — EVENING IN A GARDEN.

" Crown'd with rank Fumiter, and Furrow Weeds,
With Harlocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo Flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn." KING LEAR.

"We need not be quite so mad as Lear, but we must
so far assume a portion of his madness as to seize
upon some of the " idle weeds" placed by SHAKSPEABE
in his coronal, as well as their congeners, to indicate
the rank luxuriance of nature in her wild haunts, as
well as to mark that there are thorns and lurid hues
even amidst Flora's dominion, and that " the poison-
ous Henbane springs up amidst sweet flowers," as
sorrow, anguish, and disappointment, must of neces-
sity furrow the fair field that youthful anticipation
sees expanding before its delighted view. We have
previously expatiated upon Boses — but from direful
experience we know full well that the brambly thicket
is not to be escaped, nor as impartial observers could

284 WILD FLOWERS OP

we with propriety omit to indicate its existence ; for
as PETER PIFDAE, has shrewdly remarked in one of
his serio-comico epistles —

" In our journey through life, my dear Joan, I suppose
We shall oft meet a BRAMBLE, and sometimes a Rose !"

And as to the truth of this supposition there can exist
very little doubt. It must be admitted that there are
too many Brambles in society, ever ready to apply a
check to our progress ; but all that concerns us on the
present occasion is to put the best face we can lotani-
cally upon the thorns and weeds that now in such
profusion beset our path. Before we assume a crown
of "furrow weeds" it becomes necessary to "look
out" for the brambles now abundantly flowering and
spreading out their little spinous arms in every hedge;
for, without caution, undoubtedly we shall have a
detainer lodged against us ; or at the least a deodand
will be levied on the luckless garment that by any
accident comes in contact with the stern and surly
Hook-bearer.

" Ferat rulus asper amomum,"

says Yirgil — the rough bramble shall bear spices — but
we have not as yet arrived at that wished-for consum-
mation. Still it may be possible perhaps to mitigate
the sharpness of its thorns, by considering that it has
a few redeeming claims upon our attention, and
though we may not be altogether inclined to submit
to the diet of " apricocks and dewberries" (the latter
being the blue fruit of the creeping Bramble, Rubus
ccesius), assigned by the Queen of the Fairies to
Master Puck, yet a leaf of fine Raspberries, a rasp-
berry and currant tart, (not forgetting the cream,) or
even a dish of raspberry jam, is by no means unpalat-
able.

JTTLY. 285

In Sweden a rich wine is prepared from the fruit of
the Dwarf Crimson Bramble (Rufais arcticus), which
is preserved for the tables of the nobility ; and Liff-
KEUS, in his Flora Lapponica, speaks with gratitude
of the refreshment the berries had often afforded him.
In our own country the humble Blackberry is by no
means unsought or unvalued by the peasantry, and in
the autumnal season numbers of children may be seen
with hands all smeared with bloody stains, joyfully
plucking the blackberries — a pleasing rustic employ-
ment, the remembrance of which may delightfully
recur to them in after years of care. The blackberry,
indeed, seems associated with truantizing in wild
tangled lanes and heaths covered with furze and
underwood, and what country boy is there but who
has been tempted by it when sun-burnt Autumn
scattered hips and haws plentifully in the hedges, to
start out on a blackberrying excursion ?

" When the fair apple, red as evening sky,

Doth bend the tree unto the fruitful ground ;
When juicy pears and berries of black die
Dance in the air, and all is glad around.3'

Even now the idea calls up pleasurable thoughts, and
is not without botanical expectations. COWPEE gives
a capital picture in his own person of a truant boy,
urged by love of nature and hope of adventure, to
pass his bounds and make a day of it in blackberry-
hunting.

" For I have lov'd the rural walk through lanes
Of grassy swarth, close cropp'd by nibbling sheep,
And skirted thick with intertexture firm
Of thorny boughs ; have lov'd the rural walk
O'er hills, through vallies, and by rivers' brink,
E'er since a truant boy I pass'd my bounds,

286 WILD FLOWEBS OF

T enjoy a ramble on the banks of Thames ;
And still remember, nor without regret
Of hours, that sorrow since has much endear'd ;
How oft, my slice of pocket store consum'd,
Still hung'ring, pennyless, and far from home,
I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws,
Or blushing crabs, or berries that emboss
The bramble, black as jet, or sloes austere."

But the bramble has other claims upon our regard.
Even considered as a flower, the snowy corymbs of
the Rubus sub-erectus have a pleasing aspect in boggy
spots ; while in alpine localities there are species such
are It. Sprengelii, that blush with all the beauty of
fairy roses. The glandular brambles, especially, are
far from inelegant, and shrubs are sometimes found
bearing double flowers. Yet it must be admitted that
few poets, with all their love of nature, have looked
favourably upon the bramble, and ELLIOT almost
stands alone amongst bards, in extracting a pleasant
idea from it, as here subjoined.

" The primrose to the grave is gone,

The hawthorn flower is dead ;
The violet by the mossed gray stone
Hath laid her weary head !

But thou, wild Bramble ! back doth bring

In all their beauteous power
The fresh green days of life's young spring,

And boyhood's blossoming hour.

Scorned Bramble of the brake ! once more

Thou bidd'st me be a boy,
To gad with thee the woodlands o'er,

In freedom and in joy."

The bramble has its uses in the economy of nature,
perhaps more than even the beauteous rose, for it has

JULY. 287

been justly observed, that the bramble-bush is a vege-
table fortress to which the inhabitants of the air
resort as to a fenced city; — here they build their
nests in security, and rear their callow brood undis-
turbed within the intricate mazes of their thorny
citadel, whose remarkable mode of growth, by its
arching stem taking root at the extremities, soon
presents an intermingled mass of thorny branches
impossible to penetrate. The birds themselves often
propagate their friendly protector by carrying its
berries into pollards, whence, in time, a new briar
dangles in the air, or from semi-prostrate willows into
the water, producing a wild effect, not unworthy of
the artist's pencil.

" The untutor'd bird may found, and so construct,
And with such soft materials line her nest,
Fix'd in the centre of a prickly brake,
That the thorns wound her not, they only guard."*

In Mazunderan, a province of Persia, on the bor-
ders of the Caspian Sea, a particular gigantic Bramble-
bush abounds, according to Mr. FRAZER,t which is
honoured by the inhabitants from the perfectly imper-
vious jungle it forms, and which is considered the best
defence of the country from the inroads of an invader.
These brambles bear the appellation of " Pehlewanha
Mazunderanee," — that is, the heroes or guardians of
Mazunderan ; and well, says Mr. FRAZER, do they
deserve their title. Every peasant of Mazunderan
constantly carries a bill-hook of steel to cut his way
through the jungles, which even to the native would
be impassable, but for this weapon to cut down the
immense spinous arms of the guardian " Pehlewans"

* WORDSWORTH.

t FRAZBR'S Winter Journey in Persia, vol. ii.

288 WILD FLOWERS OF

or Brambles. Wherever the bramble fixes its position
it levies a tax on all passers — especially cattle and
sheep, whose hairs and wool often give a sad ragged
aspect to the hedge side, reflecting upon the slovenly
farmer. Yet in the economy of nature nothing is
thrown away, goldfinches, redstarts, linnets, and vari-
ous families of warblers resort to this magazine of
wool so providentially prepared for them ; and, in the
neglected " annals of the poor," even here a last sad
resource is presented, to save humble poverty from
actual starvation. CLABE, the Northamptonshire
peasant, has thus, in his homely strains, truly but
feelingly depicted the occupation of the wool-
gatherer : —

" In grief pursuing every chance to live,
That timely toils in seasons please to give ;
Through hot and cold, come weather as it will,
Striving with pain and disappointment still ;
Just keeping up expiring life's last fire,
That pining, lingers ready to expire ;
The winter through, near barefoot, left to pull
From bramble twigs her little mites of wool;
A hard-earned sixpence when her mops are spun,
By many a walk and aching fingers won."

The Bramble, indeed, is peculiarly adapted for the
poor man's use ; he cuts its flexile stems as binders
for his thatching, and it finally binds down that mound
beneath which he takes the long last sleep with his
rude forefathers.

In a botanical point of view the species or forms of
brambles are very difficult to discriminate, perhaps
with the exception of the Raspberry (_5J. Idcsus), the
Dewberry (JR. ccesius), and the common well-known
R.fruticosus, of English Botany, or discolor, as gene-

JULY. 289

0

rally now termed. Whoever examines into the
subject, will however soon find numerous brambles
not referable to either of these, and to draw more
general attention to the brambles, which they well
deserve, I here extract an analysis of the divisions of
the 'British Rubi, taken from Dr. STEELE'S Hand-
look of Field Botany. It will be thus seen that the
Fruticose Eubi are physiologically divisible into those
whose barren stems always root at the extremity and
those that never do so. If the student then examines
the barren stem of any bramble he meets with, he
will find it reducible to some one of the following
groups. To find the species he may either refer to
my descriptions given in STEELE'S Hand-Book, or to
the elaborate Synopsis of the Rubi, by Mr.

ANALYSIS OF THE DIVISIONS OF BRITISH RUBI.

I. SHRUBBY, with the barren stem

* ARCHED AND ROOTING at the extremity.

Ccesious; pruinose but not hoary ;\
with unequal prickles, and vari- V i.
able setae often denuded J

Glandulose; covered with nume-

landulose; covered with nume- "i

rous aciculi and setffi ... ..... } GLAKDULOBI.

Villous ; generally closely hairy, \
the setse, if any, hidden in the V iii. VILLOSI.
close pubescence ............. )

Pilose; sparingly or unequally) . PILOSI
clothed with spreading hairs. . . J

Hoary and Glaucous ,• the leaves }
in general hoary-white beneath. 5

Smooth and polished; generally}
devoid of hairs .............. J

** ERECT OR SUB-ERECT, not rooting.

Sub-erect; with 5-nate or 7-nate
leaves

Erect ; mostly with pinnate leaves,

Sub-erect ; with 5-nate or 7-nate >
leaves.. ....... f vii. 8UB-ERBCTI.

always white beneath $ T

U

290 WILD FLOWEB3 OF

II. HERBACEOUS. Here are located R. saxatilis, arcticus, and
Chamcemorus.

Recent botanists have greatly extended the number
of British Fruticose Brambles, which in STEELE'S
work above referred to, amount to 38, exclusive of
varieties ; nor does Mr. BABINGTON indicate a much
less number; Dr. BELL SALTEK has, in HENFKEY'S
Botanical Gazette, attempted to reduce them to 22,
but evidently without considering or alluding to seve-
ral described by me in STEELE'S Hand-Book. There
must always be this great difficulty in determining
species in Brambles, that the differences between varie-
ties and their types is in many instances quite as great
as between alleged species themselves. And perhaps
when the mode of growth of the fruticose E-ubi is
considered, this is hardly to be wondered at. Seedlings
which may vary in some degree from their parent,
are, by arching and rooting, perpetuated into a series
of bushes, which, if undisturbed, may spread far and
wide for a time, yet themselves according to soil or
aspect, light or shade, offering variations more or less
observable. In doubtful cases it is almost indispen-
sable to observe the living plant.

The herbaceous brambles with annual stems are
less variable in character, and are easily discriminated.
The Stone-Bramble (R. saxatilis^), which occurs in the
woods of the Cotteswolds, and in other stony localities
as far south as Lynmouth, in Devonshire, has very
minute pale yellow linear petals, and produces small
scarlet berries which assume very irregular forms, the
fruit only appearing where the plant creeps upon the
face of rocks exposed to the sun. R. Chamcemorus is
a dwarf species, only occurring on boggy heaths upon

JULY. 291

the mountains of "Wales and the north. GARDINER, in
his Flora of Forfarshire, says " the berries are called
by the shepherds Avrons ; at first they are red, but
when fully ripe of a yellowish colour, juicy and nutri-
tious.."

The bright furrow-weeds of the corn, flaring before
our view, have long demanded notice, and at length
we must turn to them. We have reached the middle
of July — the sun blazes in the heavens with intolera-
ble splendour, no friendly cumuloid cloud with its
fortress-like masses of vapour sails stately in the air,
and not a breath of wind is stirring to fan our stream-
ing and aching foreheads as we pass amidst the stately
glories of the corn-fields, now just faintly imbibing
their primary tinge, that will settle, in maturity, into
that auburn hue so delightful to the eye as the pledge
of plenty. There can be little doubt that Wheat had
its origin in the East, but in what particular region it
is now to be found in a wild state nobody can tell
with certainty, and perhaps it was always solely con-
fined to the care of man. But the " furrow- weeds" —
what a splendid show they make among the corn, and
how came they there ? It is most probable that many
have accompanied the corn in its progress from nation
to nation, still keeping up that companionship they
originally possessed. This is undoubtedly the case
with the specious scarlet Poppy, which from remote
ages has been associated with the worship of Ceres,
and sculptured upon the statues of the goddess. It
was an ancient custom, also, to offer Poppies to the
dead, and OVID represents the Poppy (Papaver somni-
ferum, probably,) as growing before the misty cave of
Sleep. The association of the Lethean Poppy with

292 WILD FLOWEBS OF

Corn seems certainly remarkable, if not unaccountable
on philosophical principles, whatever may have been
written by the poet or moralist. It has been sug-
gested by some authors as indicating that sound and
refreshing sleep, which is the usual accompaniment of,
and necessary restorative to, tired nature, oppressed
with the toils of cultivation. So it is apostrophised
by Mrs. CHARLOTTE SMITH —

" And thou, by pain and sorrow blest,
Papaver, that an opiate dew
Conceal'st beneath thy scarlet vest,
Contrasting with the corn-flower blue."

Taken in another light, it seems to exhibit the
contrast of great show with little results, amidst un-
ostentatious worth, ripening, almost unnoticed, into
universal utility. But economically considered, the
Poppy requires a manured soil for its luxuriant growth,
and thus the most splendid varieties flame in the
flower garden, while casual seeds scattered from these
upon its confines, produce very indifferent corollas
It thus providently follows cultivation, marking it
wherever it extends, and as mitigating disease and
closing the weary eye in slumber, the Poppies of sleep
may deserve qualified commendation. The curious
manner in which the unopened flowers droop towards
the earth and rise upright in expansion, has been fre-
quently noticed. HOMER has a simile from their
drooping in rain : —

"As brilliant Poppies overcharg'd with rain,
Recline their heads, and droop above the plain,
So sinks the youth."

The Corn-Marygold (Chrysanthemum segetum), is
another brilliant corn-flower, that where it prevails

JULY. 293

gives a most splendid effect to the furrowed fields
from the golden breadth of its rays (though rather
indicative of a lazy farmer, especially in Wales) ; nor
is the azure of the corolla of the Blue-bottle (Centau-
reajcyanus), another agrarian, to be exceeded in beauty
by any flower of the parterre. The bright pink of the
Saintfoin, the yellow racemes of the Melilot Trefoil,
the purple heads of the Lucern, the roseate hues of
various Clovers, the curious tall purple flowers of the
Corn Campion (Agrostemma Githago), overtopped by
the long segments of its hairy calyx, and the innu-
merable red flowers of the decumbent Restharrow
(Ononis)* all now decorate the " sustaining corn" or
its borders ; while spots left fallow are sometimes
excessively beautiful with the spotted stem and
changeful blue and purple hues of the Viper's Bugloss
(Echiwn vulgare), the caerulean eyes of the Borage
(B or ago officinalis), the paler blue of the star-like
Succory (Cichorium Int-ybus), the argent blossoms of
the Corn Chamomile (Antliemis arvensis), or the less
specious but remarkable inflorescence of the Hare's-
Ear (JBupleurum rotimdifolium). Occasionally rare
and beautiful plants gain a temporary entrance into
arable ground, as the small yellow-flowered Lathyrus
Aphaca, Galeopsis versicolor, or the fugitive Veronica

* There are two varieties of Restharrow, one (O. antiquorum) more
erect and spinose than the other. The flowers are rose-coloured, nume-
rous, and very beautiful, but it had best be only contemplated, for the
clammy feel of the plant, from its glandular exudation, is very disagree-
able. GARDINER, in his Flora of Forfarshire, has the following' just
observation upon this quality of the Restharrow : — " Though sometimes
scentless, it generally has a rank disagreeable smell. The flowers are so
handsome, that you are tempted to cull them for your nosegay ; but when
their nauseous odour comes in contact with the olfactory nerves, you
discard it with a sigh, regretting that so much beauty should be coupled
with so noxious a quality. But this, too,] reads a lesson." True enough*
the furrow-weeds of life had better be passed without handling.

294 WILD FLOWERS O?

Buocbawnii. Larkspur (Delphinium consolida), abounds
in the corn fields of Cambridgeshire, and the bright-
hued Melampyrum arvense, locally called " Poverty-
weed," in those of Norfolk and the Isle of "Wight.

Other common characteristic agrarian plants are
^Ranunculus arvensis, Spergula arvensis, the lofty Corn
Sowthistle (Sonchus arvensis,) with its sun-like flower,
Venus's-comb (Scandicc pecten), Lamiwn amplexicaule,
Antirrhinum spuria et elatine, the twining Knot-grass
(Polygonum convolvulus), as well as the Stinking
Chamomile (Anthemis Cotula)* "Wild Chamomile
(Matricaria Ohamomilla), the lowly Cudweed (Filago
Germanica), and the monstrous Cotton-thistle (Ona-
pordum Acanthimi).

The Fumiter, or Fumitory, mentioned by SHAK-
SPEARE, as occurring in LEAR'S coronal, is a plant
common enough in gardens and corn-fields, of humble
growth, and purplish ringent flowers. It was called
the "smoke of the earth" for like smoke, says an old
herbal, its sharp juice " maketh clere eyes and teres
to come furth." Another common but more charac-
teristic appellation for it is "Bloody-Man's Thumb,"
from the colour of the corolla. Several species occur,
the Hampant Fumitory (Fumaria capreolata), whose
flowers are paler, being the most remarkable. With
the fumitory may be associated in the furrow the pretty
little Sherardia arvensis, with its minute lilac crucife-
rous flowers, the blue Anagallis, Venus' s Looking-
glass (Campanula hi/bridd), the purple Bartsia Odon-
tites, and the little Spurge (Euphorbia exigua).

* Dr. BROMFIELD remarks, in his acute observations on the plants of
the Isle of Wight, (Phytologist, iii. 434,) that he has seen the standing corn
In many parts of the island so full of this agrarian nuisance, as " nearly to
hide the ground from sight,"— often nearly obliterating the corn crops.

JULY. 295

" Harlocks," or rather Charlock, a provincial name
given to another of the furrow-weeds, is doubtless the
Sinapus arvensis, or Wild Mustard, a plant far too
flaming and unprofitably gay for any useful purpose,
and detested by the farmer ; yet in turnip-fields its
golden streaks have often a fine artistical effect in
the landscape foreground, however blemishing to
agriculture in reality. The Black Mustard (Sinapis
nigra), an allied species, stalks upon the banks of
rivers a truly gigantic weed, yet not inharmonious
when combined with patches of the blue Vicia cracca,
or thick masses of the creeping Plume Thistle (Gnicus
arvensis), whose innumerable purple flowers are gem-
med with ringlet, copper, or peacock butterflies,
waving their wings in the sun. This creeping Thistle,
spreading in all directions, and a terrible infester of
the borders of corn-fields and roads, and which in the
sestival period lifts up its purple or white " touch-me-
not" heads so conspicuously, tempting, however, at
the same time, numerous flies and coleopterous insects
to alight upon it, is what CUETIS has emphatically
denominated " the cursed thistle" and with the rank
venomous spotted-stemmed Hemlock, now arrived at
its utmost luxuriance, might well have been added to
LEAK'S bitter emblematical crown.

A volume might indeed be made up solely from the
weeds of agriculture, so numerous are the vegetable
squatters that appear to dispute man's possession
wherever he turns up the ground. Some dodge his
footsteps even across the ocean, and domesticate
themselves upon his confines, so that weeds, like
troubles, are ever attendant at his side. How strange
that man, in his onward progress should break up the

296 WILD FLOWERS OF

beauty-spots of nature, and gather only noxious weeds
about his home, too symbolical of the

" Wilder'd spots choak'd up with sorrow's weeds,
That send around, alas, too many seeds ;" *

and which morally blight his hopes, and come up con-
trary to his expectations ! An American botanist has
observed that New England has become the garden
of European weeds ; so numerous do they swarm in
some of the counties of Massachusets, near the coast,
that the exotics almost outnumber the native plants, f
So in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, in South America,
a huge African Thistle (Car duns cyanoides), having by
some means crossed the sea and established itself
upon the plains, has now formed TJiistleries like
forests, extending for hundreds of miles, and in the
flowering season completely obscuring the roads.
When North America was first colonized, the Indians
remarked a plant new to them as occurring at every
white man's plantation, and to which accordingly they
gave the name of " Englishman's foot." This was
the common Waybread (Plantago major). So, in like
manner, in the present day, Sir T. MITCHELL states,
that wherever a sheep or cattle station is established
in Australia, the common Horehound is sure to spring
up in great abundance. Sir CHARLES L^ELL, also, in
his Second Visit to America, noticed many European
plants making their way even to the banks of the
Ohio, among which he notes the common Chamomile.
Doubtless the same law of vegetable immigration has
brought many alien plants to our own shores, to
which, according to the length of time they have been

* CLARIS

t Quoted in LVELL'S Second Vitit to the United States, vol. i. p. 5?.

JULY. 972

associated with our recollections, or recorded in our
Floras, they are considered as denizens, or by the too
credulous botanist who observes them, stated to be
"certainly wild." Of such undoubted exotic origin is
the Thorn-apple (Datura Stramonium,) often seen on
dung-hills, the rough-leaved Borage {Borago officina-
lis), Purple Goafs-beard (Tragopogon porrifolius),
Large-flowered St. John's- Wort (Hypericum calyci-
nunt), Caper Spurge (Euphorbia Lathyrus), Birthwort
(Aristolochia Clematitis), and probably many others
that now pass muster as British plants.

Ballast heaps and new embankments are almost
every year contributing some fresh importation from
abroad, or renewing some olitory herb that had been
forgotten, and perhaps buried for years. In 1843 I
observed a considerable quantity of Lepidium Draba
on an embankment raised in connection with the
new iron bridge just then erected over the Teme, at
Powick, near Worcester, though the plant had been
previously unknown in the neighbourhood, and it yet
maintains its new position. Mr. JAMES MOTLEY
discovered Malva verticillata in corn-fields, near Lla-
nelly, in Glamorganshire, in 1845, and in considerable
abundance. Various other instances might be adduced.
In the summer of 1850 I found a great quantity of
Atriplex kortensis, growing in the utmost luxuriance
on the embankment of the Oxford and Wolverhanip-
ton Railway, at Tallow Hill, near Worcester, though
I had never seen the species any where in cultivation
in the vicinity. From what distance the soil had been
brought I cannot exactly say, but as a tunnel and
cutting is not far removed, it could not have been a
very great way. Whether in these instances the seeds

298 WILD FLOWERS OP

of the plants had lain buried too deep in the soil for
vegetation, until freshly turned up, or Nature's wild
hand had thrown them hurriedly by a friendly wind
from far off, to take advantage of the new conditions
of fresh unexhausted soil thus presented to them, it is
perhaps too difficult to say positively. All we know
is that wherever new soil is turned up, and left ex-
posed to vegetable competition —

" the flowers of waste

Planted here in Nature's haste,"

spring up on all sides in the most luxuriant manner,
and soon make a rank bed of struggling crowded
overgrowth.

Various plants of waste ground assume a half
domesticated port, as if they had some claim upon the
attention of mankind even after they have been dis-
carded from his service, or forgotten by all but the vil-
lage doctoress. Such is the Vervain, which I have seen
in Wales, lingering near the abandoned Logan-stone,
and which is seldom, found far from habitations ; and
Catmint and Horehound are similar " way-faring"
plants. Alexanders (Smyrniwm olusatrum) is perti-
naciously attached to old ruins, or mounds anciently
inhabited, where it testifies to former colonization ;
and Wormwood is often profusely abundant about
villages or old farm yards, especially in Wales. Oli-
tory herbs may remain many years in abandoned
garden ground, or escape from their confines, and in
such cases it may be doubtful whether the plant be
indigenous at the spot or not. I never saw such a
rank growth of fennel any where as met my view on
the cliffs about Llandudno, Caernarvonshire, in 1849,

JULY.

299

bringing the lines of the American poet, LONGFELLOW,

to mind —

" Above the lowly plants it towers,
The fennel with its yellow flowers,
And in an earlier age than our's
Was gifted with the wond'rous powers

Lost vision to restore ;
It gave new strength and fearless mood,
And gladiators, fierce and rude,
Mingled it in their daily food,
And he who battled and subdued,

A wreath of fennel wore."

Nature herself presents occasionally lurid places of
obsceneness, and such weedy slums of defilement, as
almost to realize an abode of the furies, or a spot
where Ceberus might have poisoned the ground with
his froth — such rampant ugly burdocks and foul-smel-
ling hound' s-tongues crowd the darksome glen. Such
a spot exists at Longwood Warren, near Winchester,
and is thus described most graphically by Dr. BHOM-
FIELD.* — " All the fetid, acrid, venomous, and un-
sightly plants that Britain produces seem congregated
on this blighted spot, a witch's garden of malevolent
and deadly herbs, ready for gathering into her cauldron,
which, for aught I know, may be nightly simmering
and seething in this lone spot, as fitting a rendezvous
for the powers of darkness on Hallowmas-eve, as their
favourite Blocksberg, in the Hartz forest, for a Wal-
purgisnacht commemoration. Beneath and around
the clumps of ragged moss-grown elder and hoary
stunted whitethorn, the first in some respects itself a
plant of power, meet shelter for the noxious brood it
gathers about it, rise thickets of tall nettles and rank
hemlock, concealing the deadly but alluring dwale

* P/iytologist, vol. Hi. p. 597-

300 WILD FLOWERS Or

(Atropa Belladonna), the fat dull henbane, the gor-
geous foxglove of life-depressing faculty, the rampant
nightshade, gifted with fatal energy in popular imagin-
ings, and one at least of an uncertain and treacherous
race, if free itself from the stain of blood-guiltiness ;
whilst, scattered over the thriftless soil, appear the
black mullein with its lurid leaves, the caustic and
grotesque arum, or wake-robin, the stinking black
horehound, and the drastic mandrake (Bryonia dioica),
which trails its gray-green cucumber-like shoots in
singular abundance over the naked and stony surface.
The smell on a hot summer's day from such a multi-
tude of ill-favoured weeds as these, and more which
might be mentioned, is far from refreshing, and quite
overpowers the fragrant honeysuckle, the only sweet
and innocent thing that lives to throw a charm over
what else is but dead, dreary., and baleful." — Even
nature has desecrated spots, abandoned to grief, con-
tagion, and dejection.

A curious parasitical plant may sometimes be no-
ticed in the summer in clover-fields, which merits
attention, though seldom numerous enough to be
considered an agricultural pest. This is the OrobancTie
minor, which, like all its congeners, appears at a little
distance like an old withered plant, though sufficiently
palpable and fleshy when examined closely. The
flower in perfection is of a pale primrose colour,
tinged and veined with purple, turning brown only in
decay ; the upper lip of the blossom as well as the
calyx, taper-pointed bractea, and upper part of the
zig-zag purple stem, is bearded with glands that exude
a bright amber-coloured clammy but scentless juice.
Similar glands cover the base of the stamens, while

JULY. 301

the style is smooth. The long pointed curling bracts
have frequently an accessory segment of varying
length. The species of this genus are rather difficult
to discriminate, and O. larbata, or liederce, which in
"Wales is often seen on ruins parasitical upon Ivy,
though taller, may possibly be only a variety of 0.
minor. I have seen it growing among ivy most abun-
dantly on the rocks of St. Catharine's Isle, near Tenby,
South "Wales. Another tall and very conspicuous
Orobanche (O, major or rapte,) grows parasitically upon
the roots of broom or furze, especially the former,
rising high as the bush itself, with a singular aspect,
and bearing many close-set flowers, often as many as
seventy. The stem is swollen into a great juicy bulb
at the base, and covered with brown scales, which are
more distant higher up, and finally become bracts.
The lower part of the stem is deeply tinged with
brown, the middle pale straw colour, upper of a lurid
purple. The corolla is purplish-brown, plaited, hairy-
glandular on its exterior, upper lip almost entire, the
lower in three wavy-plaited pointed segments, the
middle one longest. The calyx is deeply divided,
hairy, with long pointed segments, and the bracts are
woolly, lanceolate, rusty, at length reflex. The germen
is quite smooth at its base, the upper part only hairy-
glandular,* as is the style and two-lobed stigma. The
filaments are smooth at the base, but hairy-glandular
close under the stamens. The style is at first con-
cealed beneath the upper lip of the corolla, but is

* In June, 1836, 1 gathered several specimens of O. major, or "rapse,"
among broom on Rosebury Rock, Knightwick, Worcestershire, and every
flower was filled with ants, who seemed enjoying themselves on the sweet
liquor within the corolla. Perhaps they thus assisted in the fructification
of the plant.

302 WILD FLOWEBS OF

afterwards apparent, the lower flowers being first
matured. In this genus the styles are conspicuously
exserted at an early stage of the flowering, and the
broad disc of the minutely downy yellow stigma is
reflexed to come in contact with the stamens ; but
scarcely is this process accomplished, than the upper
lip of the corolla expands upon the stigma, while the
lower lip curls upward, thus drawing the curtains
upon the process of fructification, and enveloping the
delicate ovary in a brown wrapper till the ripened
seeds are ready to be evolved. I have observed the
same process in LatJircea. The seeds are very nume-
rous, and when examined with a lens appear vesicular,
like minute fragments of scoriae ; they thus adhere to
themselves and to the stem of the parent plant, re-
maining upon it often until the ensuing spring, unless
accident upsets and breaks off the old withering yet
persistent brown stem.

In some pastures, in June and July, the broad-leaved
Dock (Rumex oltusifolius), appears very conspicuous,
though generally with most of the other species of
this inelegant family, confined to waste ground and
puddly rushy commons, that seem like mendicants in
the rude rags of neglect, or patched with the refuse
of vegetation. There is nothing very tempting to the
eye in the stocks and posts of such anserine parian
places, where mud, knot-grass, and dirty discarded
plumage accumulates around the shallow, green, and
stagnant ponds, and rotting timber lies prostrate year
after year — so turn we from them, leaving all the
docks without any further docking on our parts. Yet
on the sides of sequestered ponds or slow rivers, the
great Water-dock (Rwmex Hydrolapathim), with its

JULY. 303

long taper lanceolate leaves, forms a fine attractive
object in connection with the tall yellow Iris, or Flag,
and the lofty Water-Plantain (Alisma plant ago) . The
Golden Dock (Rumex maritimus), also, when the mas-
ses of its petals are tinged with gold and auburn, is a
beautiful object, but it is not common, and chiefly
confined to marshes. The acetose Docks, or Sorrels,
are familiar to most persons from the common Sorrel
(It. acetosd), being marked out by children in the
meadows, who are delighted with its acid taste, and to
the grown-up wanderer its leaf in summer is pleasant
to regale upon. The smaller species or Sheep's Sorrel
(.S. acetosella), is a plant of hills and dry pastures
where it flourishes in abundance, its hastate foliage
becoming of a rich red colour as the summer declines.
The Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria)* a well-known
simpler 's herb, now exhibits its yellow spikes of flow-
ers in most pastures that have been left for grazing,

* Agrimony ?s very generally distributed, and its golden spikes appearing
after the hay-harvest, well mark the decline of the brightest period of the
year. It is much gathered for medicinal purposes, the leaves having a
slightly bitterish roughish taste, accompanied with an agreeable, though
weak, aromatic flavour. The flowers are in smell stronger, and more
agreeable than the leaves, and in taste somewhat weaker. They readily
give out their virtues both to water and rectified spirit. Infusions of the
leaves, which are not disagreeably tasted, may be drank as tea. Among
the " vertues of Agrimony," writeth TL-R.YER, in his black-letter Herball
(1562), " the herbe or seed dronken in wyne, delyvereth men from the
bloody flyxe, from the diseases of the liver, and the byting of serpentes."
It was also one of the magic herbs of power, and its wonder-working
influence is thus mentioned in an old English medical MS. published in
the Archeeologia, by the Antiquarian Society: —

" If it be leyd under mann's heed,

He schal sleepyn as he were deed,

He schal never drede ne wakyn

Till fro under his heed it be takyn."

The specific name, Eupatoria, refers to Mithridates Eupator, King of
Pontus, a great concoctor of remedies in his day, and famous for his anti-
dote to poisons.

304 WILD FLOWEBS OF

marking the commencing decline of the .^Estival Flo-
ralia after the finishing of the hay-harvest ; while the
Bindweeds (Convolvulus arvensis et sepium?) show their
purple and white bells, like fairy cups bearing dewy
nectar on every side, continuing far into September.
The field Convolvulus scatters its pink-stained bells
carelessly on the ground or upon sunny banks, but
the great Bindweed mounts high up into hedges and
willow trees, its large white corolla (flesh-coloured in
maritime spots) seen from afar even in the dusk, and
almost emulating tropical flowers in beauty.

But enough for the present of docks, plantains,
tares, vetches, darnel, and other " furrow weeds,"
though we cannot entirely omit allusion to the well-
known Stinging Nettle (TTrtica dioica). This is one
of those common and rough-looking plants generally
disregarded as unworthy of notice ; so that even the
late professor MAETIJST remarks, that " such vulgar
ill-humoured plants may forgive your passing them
by." But however dissightly the splenetic nettle
may appear, and however unpleasant the contact with
it may be, it is to be remembered that upwards of
fifty species of insects, including a great number of
caterpillars, derive their entire sustenance from this
apparently useless plant; and as these insects in their
turn provide for a variety of birds, and send forth nu-
merous brilliant butterflies to adorn the face of nature,
it is absolutely necessary that the plant they feed on
should be able to afford them ample protection, and
surround them with a castle of defence. — " "Watch
the beauteous Vanessa Atalanta butterfly, lovely as
the rose over which she flutters — see her sporting in
the balmy air as if she had derived her origin from

JULY. 305

heaven, and was returning thither, But when she has
to provide for her future progeny, does she deposit
her eggs on the brilliant flowers where she spent her
bridal ? — JSTo ! she retires to the nettles, and there
safely leaves the infant embryo of a future race secure
amidst the armature of the urticce. Thus a host of
insects are sustained by an apparently useless weed,
which is itself kept within due bounds by the cater-
pillars that feed upon it." .* The economy of the
Nettle, then, merits the closest investigation. Its
stings, as they are called, are extremely curious, and
there is a striking analogy between them and the
fangs of poisonous serpents. In both cases the
wounding instrument is hollow, and conveys the poi-
son by a channel from the secreting gland to the
wound. In the serpent, indeed, the channel does not
run to the point of the fang, but opens at some dis-
tance behind it ; while in the nettle the perforation
extends through the very point. A microscope of
moderate power will show the stings to be highly
polished and exquisitely pointed transparent setae,
furnished at their base with a kind of bulb, cellular
and spongy within, in which the acrid poison is con-
tained. Thus, when the point of the sting comes in
contact with any object, its base is pressed down upon
the spongy pedestal, the venom instantaneously darts
up the tube, and pours its contents upon the unwary
assailant. This " points a moral" not unworthy of
notice. Touch the nettle ever so gently it stings
with its usual acrimony ; but grasp it stoutly, and no

* Quoted from a Lecture on the Analogies and Harmonious Associations
of Plants with Animals, delivered by the Author before the Worcestershire
Natural History Society ; and published when he was Honorary Curator
to that body, in 1834.

X

306 WILD FLOWERS OF

injury is sustained. Act upon the same principle
with the nettles of life, and all petty annoyances will
lose their power of mischief. " Grapple with difficul-
ties," says WITHERING, " and thus overcome them" —
as indicated iu the following lines :-

"Tender-handed, stroke the nettle,

And it stings you for your pains ;
Orasp it like a man of mettle,

And it soft as silk remains !
So it is with human natures,

Use them kindly, they rebel ;
But be rough as nutmeg-graters,

And the rogues obey you well !"

Probatum est. The popular idea, however, may be
thus philosophically explained. The poison is ineffec-
tive unless introduced into a wound. The extreme
tenuity of the sting catches the flesh of the hand,
however gently it may attempt to touch the nettle ;
but a rough unfriendly grasp disturbs its delicate
mechanism, and ruptures the poison-bags; — the venom
is therefore unable to flow along the orifice of the
sting, and no injury is sustained.

The stalks of Nettles may be employed, like flax,
for the manufacture of a coarse kind of linen, and this
seems to have been formerly done to some extent, for
" Nettle-cloth," made from nettles, is mentioned by
Lord BACON", in his Sylva Sylvarum. It is perhaps
still manufactured in a homely way in some parts of
Scotland, for CAMPBELL, the late author of the Plea-
sures of Hope, has asserted that he had dined from a
nettle table-cloth, and slept on nettle sheets. Nettles
are also mentioned as an ingredient in spring salads
in an old MS. ballad entitled Lenten Stuffi, in the

JULY.

307

Ashmolean Museum, and published by the Shakspeare
Society.

" Of Nettels lykwyse there be store

In sallets at thys season ;
For men be nettled more and more
With palltryse passynge reson."

Even now in the north of England it is common to
make nettle broth in the spring and early summer ;*
and the following anecdote in exemplification of this,
as well as the castigatory powers of the Nettle, may
amuse those who may perhaps shrink from examining
too closely the plant itself, The incident occurred
sometime in 1839, at Bolton, in Lancashire. — A me-
chanic of that town having been out for a walk,
seduced by the luxuriant aspect of a patch of very
fine tall nettles, had filled the capacious pockets of
his fustian jacket with them, intending to surprise
the eyes of his wife with so alluring a present, and
treat his household with Nettle broth. In his pro-
gress homewards, however, he encountered a police-
man, no doubt fresh from the green island, who struck
with the bulk of the pockets, collared the poor herbal-
ist, and listening to no explanations, roughly dragged
him into a shop, and commenced a search by diving
somewhat precipitately into his pockets. He soon
found there was something there that ought not to have
leen there, or at least rather different to what he
expected to meet with ; so finding a warmer reception

* In DOVASTOS'S account of Bewick, in London's Magazine of Natural
History, he describes the naturalist and engraver as collecting Nettle-tops
in his handkerchief, " which, when boiled, he ate in his soup, methought
with very keen relish." Nettle-tops are considered to purify the blood
when boiled in milk. A kind of Beer may be brewed from the young
sprouts of Nettles boiled in water, adding to the liquid half a pound of
sugar or treacle, with a little ginger for each gallon.

308 WILD FLOWEBS OF JULY.

than lie thought for, he felt the expedience of acting
upon the principle of "paws off";" —somewhat quickly
withdrew his hands covered with blisters, amidst the
laughter of the bystanders, and truly feeling rather
nettled, hastily retired from his first lesson in bota-
nical exploration !

In Ireland, according to Mr. and Mrs. S. C. HALL,*
the last day of April, in each year, is called Nettlemas-
night ; on this evening boys parade the streets of
Cork with large bunches of Nettles, stinging their
playmates, and occasionally bestowing a sly touch
upon strangers who come in their way. Young and
merry maidens, too, not unfrequently avail themselves
of this privilege to " sting" their lovers — and the
laughter in the streets is re-echoed even in the
drawing-room !

But now, after this weedy, not to say blistering
discussion, in the burning sun, too, we may surely be
allowed a quiet turn in the garden ; but it must be in
the cool of the balmy evening, when the air is redolent
with the fragrance of the Sweet Pea, the Honeysuckle,
and the Jessamine ; — when the last streak of ruby
alone tinges the western sky — when all the sounds of
garish day are hushed to repose — when even the flut-
tering swift has ceased its vesper scream, while the
satin-winged moths are careering about the Eed Vale-
rians and Sweet Williams in ceaseless gyrations, and
the tall Evening- Primrose, with its yellow campanu-
late wide expanded flowers, seems to offer a pale light
to the noiseless footsteps of meditation.

* Ireland, by Mr. and Mrs. S. C. HALL, vol. i. p. 25.

EXPLOEATOET NOTICES POE JULY.

In this month many Botanical Explorators are
located upon the margin of the stormy ocean, and
many a fair foot paces to and fro upon the sandy or
pebbly beach, inhaling with delight the invigorating
breezes, or viewing the expanse of ocean with a
thoughtful and melancholy gaze. To such, a slight
notice of* the SEA- WEED TEIBE, so easily preserved,
and so beautiful when perfectly expanded, may not be
unacceptable.

The organic structures generally called Sea-Weeds,
are all of a cellular nature, belonging to the Algae, in
the Cryptogamic division of the .Vegetable kingdom.
The Algce, or Flags, include all those aqueous produc-
tions, whether of fresh or sea-water, which have their
fructifying sporules included within their frothy,
slimy, or leathery fronds, or articulated filaments,
from the flaccid rootless green scum that floats upon
the surface or seems veining stagnant waters, to the
enormous sea-tangle or fucus, with its woody stem,
broad flapping frond, and roots whose curling fibres
often enveloping fragments of shell and minute peb-
bles, float majestically along upon the bosom of the
flowing;; tide. After a storm numbers of sea-weeds of

o

the most brilliant colours and delicate texture often
strew the stones of the shore, or may be found in
neglected coves where they have been forced by the
violence of the waves. To collect and preserve these

310 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR JULY.

is a most interesting and exciting occupation, and
many a wet day may be thus profitably past in their
examination, which might otherwise have moved on
leaden wings, exciting only mournful emotions or
wearysome sensations. Patience is, of course, abun-
dantly necessary in the careful laying out of the
pectinated Fiorina tribe after gathering, and finally
fixing them upon their papers, and it must be borne
in mind, that every specimen except the most fragile
are to be carefully rinced in fresh water posterior to
their collection on the shore. After this process, they
in general preserve exceedingly well in the herbarium.
The sea is in no climate free from algoM produc-
tions, though they abound on some shores much more
than others. Many species as the well-known com-
mon inflated Enteromorpha intestinalis, abound in
fresh water, and in mineral springs — the sulphureous
streams of Italy as well as the boiling springs of
Iceland, having their peculiar forms. Very few exist
out of water or not exposed to its drippings, but they
often luxuriate upon damp walls. Thus extensively
scattered throughout the globe the species are exceed-
ingly numerous, and present a greater variety in form
and size than is observable in any other tribe of
plants whose structure is so similar. Some are so
exceedingly minute as to be invisible except in masses
to the naked eye, and require the highest powers of
the microscope to ascertain their structures ; while
others revel in the depths of the ocean with stems
exceeding in length the trunks of the tallest forest
trees, some having leaves almost rivalling in expansion
those of the palm. "We must refer the student to
HARYEY'S excellent Manual of the British Marine

EXPLOEATOBT NOTICES FOE JULY. 311

Algce, from which the following extract may be inte-
resting.—

" In colour the Algae exhibit three principal varie-
ties, with, of course, numerous intermediate shades,
namely, grass-green, olivaceous, and red. The grass-
green is characteristic of those found in fresh water,
or in very shallow parts of the sea, along the shores,
and generally above half-tide level ; and is rarely seen
in those which grow at any great depth. But to this
rule there are exceptions sufficiently numerous to
forbid our assigning the prevalence of this colour
altogether to shallowness of water. Several of the
more perfect Confer vece and SipJwnece grow beyond
the reach of ordinary tides ; and others, as the beau-
tiful Anadyomene, are sometimes dredged from, very
considerable depths. The great mass, however, of the
green-coloured species are inconsiderably submerged.
The olivaceous-brown or olive-green is almost entirely
confined to marine species, and is, in the main, cha-
racteristic of those that grow at half-tide level, Algae
of this colour becoming less frequent towards low-
water mark ; but an olivaceous vegetation frequently
occurs also at greater depths, in which case it is very
dark, and passes into brown or almost black. The
red, also, is almost exclusively marine, and reaches its
maximum in deep water. "When red sea-weeds grow
above half-tide level, they assume either purple, or
orange, or yellow tints, and sometimes even a cast of
green, but in these cases their colour is sometimes
brightened by placing the specimens for a short time
in fresh water. The red is rarely very pure much
within the range of extreme low- water mark, higher
than which many of the more delicate species will not

312 EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE JULY.

vegetate ; and those that do exist degenerate in form
as well as in colour. How far below low-water mark
the red species extend has not been ascertained, but
those from the extreme depths of the sea are of the
olive series in its darkest form."

The olive series most abounds in the tropical seas,
the red luxuriates in the temperate zone, while the
majority of the vegetation of the Polar seas is green.
The lowest forms of the latter, however, (the Ulvce,)
are equally distributed through all. Mr. HAEYEY
observes, that — " Owing to the large size and strictly
social habit of our common Fuci and LammaricB, a
hasty observer might assume that in the British seas
the olive series predominates, and such is undoubtedly
the case if we look to individuals and not species.
But he will be surprised to find on examination that
our submarine meadows are composed, in the main, of
not more than ten species of. this race ; while the 300
or 400 others, of which the marine Flora consists, are
scattered like weeds, and often occur in such small
quantities as to escape the notice of any but a botanist.
When we speak, therefore, of different types charac-
terising different latitudes, we mean merely variety of
form, not abundance of production."

WILD FLOWEBS OF AUGUST.

XVII.

LOVE OF ADVENTURE INHERENT IN MAN — HIS EQUAL

DEVOTION TO THE LOVE OF NATURE PLEASURES OF

BOTANICAL HUNTING, WITH AN EPISODICAL STORM AT
LAKE LLYNSAVADDON — CHARACTERISTIC WATER-PLANTS
— NOTICE OF THE WHITE WATER LILY, LOTUS, AND
VICTORIA REGIA — CONTRASTED ASPECT OF THE HYDRO-
CHARIS.

" Look on these flowers !

* * * ******

They are from lone wild places, forest dingles,
Fresh banks of many a low and hidden stream ;

Where the sweet star of eve looks down and mingles
Faint lustre with the ivater-lily's gleam."

MRS. HEMANS.

I remember hearing of a Phrenologist who unfolded
to a very intelligent friend of mine, the momentous
secret that he was fond of travelling ; and, when he
was informed in reply, that the fancied wanderer sel-
dom left home, he sagely remarked that he would do
so under other circumstances than those in which he
was placed at present. But the fact really is that the
love of enterprize and exploration is inherent in the
breast of mankind generally. This it is, and not
merely the abstract love of science, that has prompted
men to engage in the various expeditions of survey
and discovery that have been undertaken, with a con-
tempt of all danger. This reconciles the soldier and
the sailor to the perils of their respective professions ;

314 WILD FLOWEKS OF

solaces the youths who are leaving the home of their
fathers to broil beneath a tropical sun : and the very
emigrant who, with panting heart and tearful eye, is
watching the last indistinct vision of his native shores,
yet as he progresses towards

" Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray,
Aud fiercely shed intolerable day ;
Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,
But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;" *
fondly conjures up pictures of adventure and explo-
ration, whose novelty shall help to erase the remem-
brance of his toils and sorrows. So it is in everyday
life, from the truant school-boy, seduced to a ramble
in the woods from the acquisitive love of spotted and
marbled eggs, to the grown-up child, who, with his
patent rod and morocco book of gorgeous artificial
flies, sallies out to wade amidst brooks and babbling
streams from morn to dewy eve — rewarded, perhaps,
with a solitary lite or a glorious nibble ! But no ! if
this were all, " might we not laugh, my friend," as
HORACE says ; — but is there no joy in tracing the
windings of the silver stream — now placid as if stilled
to devotion — now fro ward, wild, and turbulent, as if
the passions from. Pandora's box were struggling in
its liquid folds — with or without a rod and line?t

* GOLDSMITH'S Deserted Village.

t So Mr. SCROPE, in his Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing, says — " If
a wilder mood comes over me, let me clamber among the steeps of the
north, beneath the shaggy mountains where the river comes raging and
foaming everlastingly, wedging its way through the secret glen, whilst
the eagle, but dimly seen, cleaves the winds and the clouds, and the dun
deer gaze from the mosses above. There, among gigantic rocks, and the
din of mountain torrents, let me do battle with the lusty salmon till I drag
him into day rejoicing in his bulk." Why to such a scene among the
steeps of the north we would gladly go, independently of doing battle
with the lusty salmon, which we would leave to Mr. SCROPE to provide
for us, while we botanized, or transferred the exciting scene to the pages
of our sketch book.

AUGUST. 315

Ah ! it is the love of nature that burns within our
bosoms ; the instinctive admiration of those woods,
dark in shadow or hallowed by the coloured iris ; those
cliffs now lit up in gold, or gray in twilight; those
ravines whose depths are hidden in foliage, and into
which the river plunges with sullen roar ; those land-
scapes with all their waters and all their inhabitants,
that solemnly robed in the mists of morning, or splen-
didly revealed before the setting sun of evening, with
all their associations, and all the thoughts and reflec-
tions they create and absorb, that charm, enchant, and
enchain us. "Whatever our avocations may be, what-
ever may be the object or the pretence with which
we set out, when once under the open canopy of
heaven, we are free ; that machinery spreads before
us in its simplicity and complexity, that requires no
sighs, groans, or anguish, to keep up its movements ;
and that pure brisk air which the country only knows,
is in motion to fan our foreheads, fill our lungs, and
excite us to hope, thought, and inspiration ! The love,
then, of nature in her wild aspects, is common to all
minds, and penetrates, more or less, to all breasts,
the rude Indian of the Missisippi feels these emotions
in his hunting grounds, and they instil delight to his
untutored soul; nor does the English fox-hunter,
arrayed in his scarlet uniform, who gallops twenty or
thirty miles without ever seeing the fox he is pursu-
ing, return for all that bootless, or without a flying
glimpse of nature's changing pictures flashing upon
his view — to say nothing of the music of the yelping
hounds, the glories of a teazing fence, or the excite-
ment of a flop into some cooling and meandering
stream.

316 WILD FLOWERS OF

Now I am a botanical hunter, and have had my
falls, taken my leaps, been wet to the skin many a
time, and — received the grinning felicitations of my
friends! This is all right; I am myself no crying
philosopher (except when in a moody temper), I am
by no means afraid of a scratch, literally or metapho-
rically, seize the Rose with its thorns — take the en-
joyment with its responsibility, as the Americans say ;
but as poets universally admit that there are flowers
wasting their sweetness on the desert air, it seems an
assigned duty to me to gather them.

But where are we? I am perambulating the eastern
base of the mighty Breconian Van, or Cadair Arthur,*
and yet I see it not but as in a vision, for wreathed
in the cloudy folds of a tempest, its haughty brow is
involved in reeking vapour, which extends even to
the pebbly verge of the Usk — it seems to stalk along,
a vast and awful cloudy pillar ! The opposing heights
of the valley are worthy of their name — the Black
mountains, for with their summits turbaned by
rolling vapour, and their declivities black as midnight,
they frown terrifically upon the misty and obscured
waters of the lake Llynsavaddou, now wrapt in slum-
ber at their base. Thunder growls and echoes amidst
the hollows of the mountains, the clouds curtain the
sombre scene still more, and now as the moaning
wind creaks the old oak boughs, and pauses — patters,
sweeps, and tumbles the descending deluge. But a
primitive Welsh cottage has sheltered me in its stony
vestibule, whose hospitable entrance could not very
easily exclude the " houseless stranger," as wanting
that barrier to intrusion known in English as a door ;

* In Breconshire, about four miles south-east of Brecon.

AUGUST. 317

and I had, therefore, a few fowls, pigs, &c., as my
companions in this shelter, though there was indeed
an inner sanctum to which I was careless to penetrate.
— But what a beautiful scene has succeeded to the
transient tempest ; the sun has burst- from the ob-
structing barrier, the rising clouds ascend the rugged
heights of Talgarth, and in hoary masses fringe his
purple brow — the vapours leave the misty lake, now
they shroud — now they leave Skethrog's high arching
hill, now they glide over huge Dervaddon's brow, and
then slowly and sulkily they bend towards head quar-
ters about the crest of the moody Van, who demurs
to their further retreat. Suddenly the lake seems
poured out in molten silver, lines of excessive brilliancy
chase each other over its waters beneath the old tower
of Llangorse, and pass gracefully as if in review order:
the brilliant radiance spreads — scuds — flies ; and now,
at last, the fair expanse, calm as a mirror, with one
lone green islet on its bosom, shines in mild and
placid beauty, while active parties of swallows are
swiftly and continuously sporting over its waters.

Let us approach its margin which teems with plants,
lovers of the marshes and the waters. Here in pro-
fusion rises the tall and rare Great Spearwort (^Ranun-
culus lingua), distinguished by its t ongue-liJce leaves,
and whose golden flowers, elevated so high, give it an
aspect different from every other kind of ranunculus
or buttercup known to the botanist. Here, too, grows
the elegant flowering Hush (Butomus umbellatus),
whose bright pink umbels, where they abound, (as
they do by Avon's immortal stream), are a greater
adornment to the banks of our rivers than any other
wild British plant ; beauteous though the margin of

318 WILD FLOWERS OF

old father Thames is in Oxfordshire and Berkshire,
with the floating yellow blossoms of the fringed M.eny-
antJies wympJiceoides. How finely do the brown shaggy
heads of the Cat's-tail, or Typlia, marshalled in batta-
lions, like grenadiers with hairy caps of the olden day,
contrast with the coloured beauties of the Butomus,
the spreading patches of bright blue from one or two
species of Myosotis, or Forget-me-not, and the expanse
of glowing red that undulates upon the rippling sur-
face of the water, where a friendly troop of Polygoni
(P. amphibium), or Water Arsmart, have boldly
launched out their floating leaves and pretty flowers
far out upon the lake, and as boldly many a dark
humble-bee is booming about them, and peeping within
their roseate petals. This Polygonum is a curious
plant, it will grow readily enough any where, and
spread forth its broad lanceolate leaves profusely ; but
it seldom flowers unless near water ; and if it can any
way get down to the pool, in it goes without hesita-
tion, and covers the waters with its terminal rosy
spikes of flowers, as if it legally claimed dominion
there, and would maintain its claim. But the dark
brown mace-like clubs or catkins of the Typlia, or
Heed-mace, so characteristic of most of our fens, lakes,
and marshes, and gracefully undulating with the
breeze their shaggy heads and ribbon-like leaves, as
in the narrower-leaved species, merit a closer inspec-
tion.* The singular conspicuous brown catkin is, in
fact a mass of fertile flowers, which, in maturity,

* These pistillate flower-spikes, conspicuous persistent objects in lakes
and shallow pouds, are often erroneously called " Bullrushes" by country
people, and are a favourite object of attraction to truant boys. In the Isle
of Wight, according to Dr. BROMFIELD, they are vulgarly called Black-
puddings, Blackamoors, Black-heads, and Bacco-bolts, from their resem-
blance to rolls of tobacco, and the other elegant articles enumerated.

AUGUST. 319

becomes a flossy mass of down, occasionally used for
stuffing cushions ; and on closely examining this
down, it will be perceived, that amongst it is a count-
less number of seeds, each with a distinct feathery
appendage, to waft it safely over those waters where
it had its origin, and wing its way, through fields of
air, to settle, and in due time adorn other waters in
the same ornamental manner as its parent. The bar-
ren florets are yellow, placed above the fertile ones,
and in the maturity of the plant disappear.' The
manner in which Providence has arranged the disper-
sion of the seeds is most remarkable, design being
ever apparent that they shall not be easily destroyed
after they have arrived by a long process at maturity.
This is often particularly observable in plants growing
in watery places. "We have before noticed the "globose
wig" of the Dandelion, and the Willow-herbs (Epilo-
Hum), present a varied structure illustrative of the
same mode of dispersion. The seeds, however, are
primarily concealed, and protected within long cap-
sules, which it might be thought was sufficient for the
purpose — but no ! within the capsule and adjusted
with the utmost elegance, each seed is seen provided
with a plume, so close pressed that they present in
the aggregate the rnoniliform aspect of the antennae
of a Capricorn beetle ! JSTo sooner do the four valves
of the capsule split at the summit, than the silken
plumes distend, spread out their delicate tufts like
rays of light, and instead of being immersed in the
waters on whose margin they grow, either float about
like buoys on the surface, or are raised aloft at the
impulse of the gentlest breeze.

In thus dilating upon botanical phenomena, I have,

320 WILD FLOWERS OF

for a moment, lost sight of the beauteous lake of
Llynsavaddon. But I must again glance at it as its
waters breast its lone green islet, and bend round to
shelter beneath the woody ramparts of Skethrog, at
its western termination. Here scrambling down the
wooded bank into the level of that below, I saw, for
the first time, in its native loveliness, and almost
oriental splendour, in its peerless stainless beauty,
and countless argent globes, filling the air with a
peculiar fragrance as they floated gracefully upon the
waters — the WHITE WATEB-LILY, (Nymphcea alba),
and so vivid was the impression, so lovely did the
spectacle appear, as the breeze ever and anon visiting
the tangled recesses of the llyn, kept flapping the
huge heart-shaped leaves of the lilies, that the remem-
brance of the scene has ever connected the Water-lily
in my mind with poetical imaginings.

TO LAKE LLYNSAVADDON WITH ITS LILIES.
Silent and tranquil as a sheet of ice
Bas'd on an emerald meadow rich and fair,
As seeming bright and cold thy surface lies,
And save those solitary firs, as bare ;
For all is lonely, not a boat is there
To skim along the waters ; — but how bright
In long extending lines they wave and glare,
Beneath Skethrog and huge Dervaddon's height —

The sulky Van still keeps his forehead out of sight.

So Llynsavaddon, on thy shores I gaz'd
In one bright interval from Llangorse tow'r ;
The landscape sinil'd with beauty, the sun blaz'd
With double splendour, I enjoyed his power;
So, lately wearied with the pealing show'r,
I stood; delighted to enjoy the beams
Of that divine exhiliratiug hour ;
When rose the Lily on the lake : — who seems
All lovely as she is, the fairy of the streams.

AUGUST. 321

Up rose the Lily, the white water Lily,
And the mild zephyr fann'd her emerald wing ;
Along the water's undulation hilly
She pois'd her snowy turban, murmuring,
Half sleepy, and half loath so soon to bring
Upon the wave her whiteness, sad she stood,
A bridal half unwilling offering,
Smiling and pouting in her dark green hood,
While the broad drifting leaves upheld her lassitude.

But the sun calls, and she obeys her sire,
And her white rays in negligence profuse
She opens wide 5 — complete in her attire,
The orb of day with admiration views
The white-rob'd beauty that his rays produce ;
Around her, 'midst the leaves that flap and play,
A bevy of half-opening lilies chuse
Their various stations, clad in green and gray, —
Her train, like orbs of gold,* glide o'er the watery way.

Bright lake ! thus beautiful with sunbeams chas'd,
As on a darksome cloud a gleam of light :
And with thy myriad silver lilies grac'd,
Mimicking Ocean in his surgy might,
When white arid green his waves dance on the sight —
I view thee as a scene in life's dull play ;
An ornament, a moment to requite
The tedious toils that now beset my way,
The ills that have been borne, the griefs that must or may.

Graceful and majestic on the waters as the swan
among birds, the white "Water-lily cannot be exceeded
for beauty among British aquatics, and its loveliness
is heightened when, as the morning mist slowly rolls
away, the globose flowers are disclosed opening with
coy reluctance before the overpowering rays of the
exciting and fervid sun. Indeed, truly as poetically,
these charming flowers expand only in bright weather,

* The Yellow Water-lily (Nuphar lutea').
T

322 WILD FLOWEBS OF

and under the influence of the unclouded sunbeams,
closing towards evening, when they either recline on
the surface of the water or sink entirely under it.
Hence the author of the Moral of Flowers, has thus
apostrophized this silver-crowned naiad : —

" Yes, thou art Day's own flower — for when he's fled,
Sorrowing thou droop'st beneath the wave thy head ;
And watching, weeping through the livelong night,
Look'st forth impatient for the dawning light;
And, as it brightens into perfect day.
Dost from its inmost fold thy breast display.
Oh ! that e'en I, from earth's defilement free,
Could bare my bosom to the light like thee ! "

As the rose is the queen of the bower, so, undoubt-
edly, is the Nymphaea the empress of the lake, and
thus reclining on her liquid throne she is well entitled
to her Indian appellation " Cumada," or, " Delight of
the Waters;" — but there seems something so emble-
matical of purity about this lovely plant, that the
warning of SHAKSPEAEE not to paint it is singularly
appropriate, and I shall not soil the petals of the fair
flower by dilating farther upon its praise. The petals
are excessively multiplied by the stamens becoming
petaloid, and thus every gradation is visible between
the fertile stamen, the narrow and the full-sized petals.
Sir J. E. SMITH has stated the flowers to be destitute
of scent, but I have often noticed the air to be laden
with a peculiar brandy-like fragrance where numerous
Water-lilies abounded. The carpel disappears after
flowering, sinking to the bottom of the water, where
the seeds lie scattered among the mud to rise and
vegetate the next year.

The white Water-lily is not of common occurrence
in the midland counties, though in the still waters of

AUGUST. 323

the south it often abounds as much as in the bays and
inlets of pellucid Alpine lakes. I have never seen it
in greater perfection than at Llynsavaddon, and
entirely filling some of the inner pools of Cromlyn
Morass, near Swansea, where the morning air is
loaded with its fragrance. —

{t Know that the lilies have spread their bells
O'er all the pools in our forest dells ;
Stilly and lightly their vases rest
On the quivering sleep of the water's breast,
Catching the sunshine through leaves that throw
To their scented bosoms an emerald glow."*

Many of the pools in Shropshire are beautiful with
the white "Water-lily, and the tributaries of Father
Thames himself, in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, rejoice
in its adornment, and even nearer London the sleepy
Brent in its retired windings about Perivale, can show
spots of lilied beauty under arching boughs, charming
as any fairy could desire to sport in.

The yellow Water-lily (Nuphar luted), though not
assuming the magnificence of her sister and sovereign,
yet, as I have observed above, is often in her train,
and even when seen alone in retired brooks, spreading
its golden orbs upon the dimpling wave, forms by no
means an unattractive object ; but is really beautiful
when associated with the light purple flowers of the
curious Arrow-head (Sagittaria sagittifolia) , the co-
rymbs of the great Willow-herb (JEpilobium hirsutum),
or the rich masses of deep purple formed by the
spikes of the purple Loose-strife (Lytlirum salicaria).

The Lotos or Water-lily of Egypt (Nymphcea lotus),
was anciently much celebrated in the East, and was
consecrated as the peculiar flower of the sun, who was

* Mrs. HBMANS.
T 2

324 WILD FLOWERS OF

styled "lord of the Lotos." With its light foliage
and large poppy-like rose-coloured flowers it is stated
by recent travellers to spread itself over the city lake
in the famed valley of Kashmir, presenting a spec-
tacle of singular beauty. Its flowers and leaves are
never covered by water. Mr. WEBNE speaks of the
Lotos as adorning the White Nile, shining with great
luxuriance like a double lily. Its stellated flower
opens with the rising of the sun, and closes when it
sets. The same traveller remarks that the leaves —
" dark green above and red brown below, with a flat
serrated border, have a magnificent transparent vein ;
but become so shrivelled, even during the damp night,
that in the morning I scarcely recognized those which
I had overnight laid close to my bed on the shore.
The ancient Egyptians must therefore have been quick
in offering up the Lotos."

The blue Lotos (Nymphaa cosrulea), with "azure
skirts and vases of gold," a native of Kashmir and
Persia, has also been often sung in eastern hyperbole,
as a fit couch for the repose of the gods; and in China
and Japan, various beautiful species of this favourite
genus are cultivated in the tanks and ponds, for their
beauty and delightful fragrance.

In the present day a new and interesting member
of the tribe of Water-lilies has been brought before
botanical notice, of extraordinary beauty and of
dimensions previously unheard of in the vegetable
kingdom except in the family of Palms, the leaves
measuring above eighteen feet and the flower nearly
four feet in circumference. This is the celebrated
Victoria regia. HJEFKE was the first European bota-
nist who met with this vegetable wonder during his

AUGUST. 325

South American Travels, in 1801, and it is said that in
a transport of admiration he fell upon his knees and
fervently expressed aloud his sense of the power and
magnificence of the Creator in his works ! The ear-
liest mention of the plant in print was in 1832, in
Floriep's Notizen, where it was styled Euryale Ama-
zonica. Little attention, however, was paid to it, till
Sir ROBERT SCHOMBUEGH when investigating the
natural productions of British Guiana, again met
with it in the river Berbice, in 1837, and addressed a
glowing account of it with drawings and specimens to
the London Botanical Society. He says — "we arrived
at a part where the river expanded and formed a cur-
rentless basin. Some object on the southern extremity
of this basin attracted my attention, and I was unable
to form an idea of what it could be ; but animating
the crew to increase the rate of their paddling, we
soon came opposite the object which had raised my
curiosity, and — behold, a vegetable wonder ! All cala-
mities were forgotten; I was a botanist, and felt
myself rewarded ! There were gigantic leaves five to
six feet across, flat, with a broad rim lighter green
above, and vivid crimson below, floating upon the
water ; while in character with the wonderful foliage
I saw luxuriant flowers, each consisting of numerous
petals, passing in alternate tints from pure white to
rose and pink. The smooth water was covered with
the blossoms, and as I rowed from one to the other I
always found something new to admire. The flower-
stalk is an inch thick near the calyx, and studded with
elastic prickles about three-quarters of an inch long.
"When expanded, the four-leaved calyx measures a foot
in diameter, but is concealed by the expansion of the

326 WILD FLOWERS OF

hundred-petalled corolla. This beautiful flower when
it first unfolds, is white with a pink centre ; the colour
spreads as the bloom increases in age, and at a day
old, the whole is rose-coloured. As if to add to the
charm of this noble Water-lily, it diffuses a sweet
scent."

It now appears that this imperial flower occurs in
all the great rivers tributary to the Amazon, often
covering the waters with its gigantic foliage, compared
by an observer to enormous floating tea-boards, (from
the margin being turned up all round) to the extent
of many miles, its large boat-shaped leaves forming a
resting-place for the numerous tribes of aquatic birds
that frequent those humid regions. It has also been
observed on the still waters of the La Plata and
Essequibo. It has now been successfully cultivated
in England, both at Kew and Chatsworth, where, at
the latter place, it flowered in a tank purposely con-
structed for it, in 1849. Professor LINDLEY has thus
described the splendid corolla of the Victoria Lily. —
" The flower itself when it first opens, resembles the
white Water-lily, of a dazzling white, with its fine
leathery petals forming a goblet of the most elegant
proportions ; but as the day advances, it gradually
expands till it becomes nearly flat ; towards evening a
faint blush becomes visible in the centre, the petals
fall back more and more, and at last, about six o'clock,
a sudden change occurs ; in a few minutes the petals
arrange themselves in the form of a snow-white
hemisphere whose edge reposes on the water, and the
centre rises majestically on the summit, producing a
diadem of rosy points. It then constitutes one of the
most elegant objects in nature. Shortly after, the

AUGUST.

327

expansion of the central parts proceeding, these points
fall back ; the stamens unfold in an interior coronet,
the stigmas are laid bare, a grateful perfume arises in
the air, and the great object of the flower — the ferti-
lization of the seeds — is accomplished. Then fold
inwards the petals, the flower closes, the fairest of
vegetable textures becomes wrinkled, decay begins,
and the flower-stalk withdraws itself beneath the
water as if to veil the progress of corruption. But
out of this decay arises a new living body ; the fruit
curved downwards swells rapidly, and in a short time
a prickly seed-vessel is observed concealed beneath the
floating leaves." SCHOMBUEGH mentions leaves mea-
suring 6 feet 5 inches in diameter, with a turned-up
rim 5 inches deep, but the largest of the Chatsworth
leaves was about 5 feet in diameter. The flower-stalk,
leaf-stalk, and the ribs of the leaves are armed with
prickles, and contain large air-cells, by which the leaf
is rendered very buoyant. A leaf of the Chatsworth
plant supported a little girl nine years of age upon
the water. Both in the wild and cultivated state the
flowers exhale a very peculiar but most delightful
odour.

With the imperial naiad, Victoria regia, may be
contrasted the humble Erog-bit Water-lily (Hydro-
cJiaris Morsus-Rancs) of our own ditches and slow
streams, whose leaves are no larger than those of a
violet, and whose crumpled white flowers have only
three petals. Tefc the economy of this almost unre-
garded tenant of the waters is not unworthy of notice,
nor when closely examined is it devoid of beauty. Its
floating reniform leaves are purple beneath, and it
increases almost entirely by floating runners, so that

328 WILD TLOWEES OF AUGUST.

small retired pools are sometimes entirely covered with
the thick-set foliage, affording an impervious retreat to
thousands of lymnece and aquatic insects. The stain-
less flowers are of so delicate a structure that they are
injured by contact with the water, and instead there-
fore of floating on its surface, they are carefully pro-
vided with elevating stalks, around whose bases is a
pellucid protecting bractea. About wild commons
and shady untrodden lanes, little shield-like pools
often appeal', whose waters are entirely hidden, roofed
over with a verdant covering of the Hydrocliaris ; and
scattered about this emerald table appear the nume-
rous white and delicate tri-petalled blossoms, as if
Titania and her fairy court had there prepared a pic-
nic banquet in the shadowy retreat. On such a picture
I have gazed in the silence of a summer's evening,
when (as these silvery flowers are long conspicuous
in the twilight) the splendours of the broad rising
moon has increased and harmonized the illusion of
the scene.

WILD FLOWEES OF AUGUST.

(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. XVIII.

PILGRIMAGE TO TY DEW! AND RAMSAY ISLAND, ON THE
COAST OF PEMBROKE-- FOG AND PERILOUS PASSAGE
ACROSS THE STRAIT — ASPECT OF AND PROSPECT FROM
"THE ORGAN" — LITTORAL PLANTS — SEARCHES ON THE
SAND-HILLS — BOG-PLANTS — ST. DAVID'S HEAD — STUDIES
FOR A NEOPHYTE AMONG THE TOPPLING ROCKS — WINDY
ADVENTURE AT ABERYSTWITH — SUNSET.

" I dash'd into the surge ! — I pluck'd the Flowers
That on the sands in tufts are widely spread ;
The Yellow Poppy, bright amidst the show'rs
Of spray that hover o'er her lonely bed ;
The Arenarian sisters, green and red,
With glaucous Spurge, and Sedum's brilliant crown,
Silvering the gloomy ramparts high o'er head ,
Sea- Lavender's blue spikes o'erspread with down,
And Thrift's pink dainty tufts in rustic gardens grown."

MS.

THE botanical adventurer (more especially if under
my guidance) must be prepared for all weathers : stand
the brunt of brumal or imbibe the breath of Favonian
breezes — pant on the shivering mural precipice, with
ready hand, to seize its rarest, though, perhaps,
unnoticed gem — leap amidst the intricacies of the
quivering splashy bog — or dare the solitary sandy
wastes, that in wearisome extent, spread along the
verge of the ever boiling and pityless ocean. The

330 WILD TLOWEES OF

copying of the above quotation from a neglected MS.,
reminds me of the terrors of a companion, who once
accompanied me on a summer excursion into South
Wales. I was then paying my second pilgrimage to
the shrine of St. David, to reap the benefit of the
ancient declaration, that two journeys to Ty Dewi, the
hallowed home of the Patron Saint of leek-crowned
Welshmen;* should stand good in the heavenly ac-
count as equivalent to one to Eome ; and having got
this duly certified to my credit, I must needs also
make a further move, by way of securing an extra
indulgence, in visiting that island on the coast of
Pembroke (Ramsay), where, it is said, ten thousand
saints repose in their narrow cells !

This island being more than three miles from the
shore, of course some assistance was necessary to
reach it ; but the regular boatman being unable to go,
we accepted the offer of two young Cambrians to
convoy us, not being then aware that one of them had
never been on the island, the other only once, and
both very inexperienced in nautical affairs. But all
was bright, the sea calm and flattering, the air still ;
and the coast of Eamsay appeared over the blue
waters, as if almost within a stone's throw of us.
Off! was the word, then splash went the oars : the
ruined chapel of St. Justinian nodded as we receded
from it, nor did we, even in the ecstacy of excitement,
think of saying for a moment — " my native land good

* The old monkish rhyme ends thus —

" Roma semel quantum
Dat bis Menevia tantum."

Or to Anglicize it in equally bad verse —

Poor Menevia (St. David's) gives at twice
What at Rome you get in a trice !

AUGUST. 331

night!" I do not dislike boating, either on sea or
river, but, I must confess, I rather prefer the contem-
plative part of the business; and on the present occa-
sion, seated at my ease, calmed and soothed with the
easy gliding motion of the boat, gave way to the most
delicious sensations. This seemed really pleasure,
and I sank into a profound reverie. A sudden excla-
mation roused me, and I thought we were approaching
land ; but neither Eamsay, Pembroke, St. David's, or
any land, was at all visible — a dense fog had suddenly
settled down upon the ocean, and we were completely
enveloped in its folds. Eor a time we pushed rapidly
on, till our rowers pausing, confessed to our dismay,
that they were uncertain of their position, and feared
we were drifting out of our course. The fog became
denser and darker, with all the sullen gloom of a
November day ; breakers roared as if close to our bow,
and every moment we expected to strike upon some
black frowning rock, or without an atom of provision,
be hurried past the island towards Ireland ; or forced,
uncertain where to steer, to pass the coming night
cradled amidst the tumbling billows. Now and then,
like a dark minister of fate, an aquatic bird swept past
us on rapid wing : but, alas ! silent as the murdered
majesty of Denmark, that Horatio vainly abjured to
speak. No hope appeared, as the fog still more
densely and moodily darkened around us ; our young
rowers pulled off their coats, and prepared for the
worst ; vainly did my companion lament his rashness,
and call a thousand saints, only for that once, to res-
cue Mm — I seemed left to my fate. Now, in despair,
we raised the sail and went before the wind — then
paused and suffered our idle canvass to flap, lest we

332 WILD FLOWERS OF

should be swept off too far. It seemed an awful
moment, and it really was so : for all was uncertainty.
The continued fog robed the heaving waters in uniform
gloom, as now they rose up with the coming tide,
wildly screaming in our ears upon half sunken rocks,
while still we seemed progressing into a dark and horrid
vacuity, where some hideous form might in a moment
stand revealed, to bar our passage ; like the ^Enseas of
YIEGIL, in his progress to the infernal regions —

" Unseen, unheard, we took our destin'd way
Through horrid realms, waste, silent, far from day."

At last, when hope deemed dying in the socket, our
boat as suddenly emerged from the stratum of fog
about us, as it had suddenly entered it, and to our
extreme joy, the cliffs of Ramsay frowned still ahead
of us, though we had drifted far to the north, and just
escaped doubling the island among the black rocks of
the Bishop and his Clerks ; who, some old quaint
writer has remarked, " preach stormy doctrine," To
run no further risk I ordered land to be made forth-
with, and when I once again extended my feet on
terra firma, I never felt more pleasing sensations, or
" kissed the consecrated earth" with such devoted
fervour. Here, as a memento of my visit, I gathered
the rare and elegant Fern Asplenium Lanceolatum,
which grows in a crevice of the rocks a little south of
the only house on the island, and mounted Ramsay's
most precipitous cliff, the OEGAN — rent, as if by light-
ning, into clefts, peaks, and pinnacles ; stained by
lichens of a thousand years' growth, in broad patches
of white and orange, and bearded with dense masses
of green and grey TTsnece and Ramalince. Fearfully
low, the sea boils at the foot of the precipice ; and

AUGUST. 333

moans, and screams, and piercing cries, from a million
of Kittiwakes, Guillemots, and Gulls, forms that
mingled chorus with the dashing billows, to which the
name of OEGAN has been rather oddly applied. The
proud Peregrine Falcon dashed above my head — the
black sullen Cormorant flew past, to occupy the
apex of an isolated rock in the surge — and, screaming
in his circling flight, the pied Oyster-catcher kept
still gyrating around us, among the rocks ; while the
vast ocean stretched before our view, dotted with
black islets, in sombre magnificence. Turning towards
St. David's, its battered tower glistened in the rays
of the sun, and the sound between the mainland and
Ramsay, again shone as a verdant lake ; while the
headlands of Pembrokeshire stretched in long succes-
sion southward, guarded by the outlying isles of
Skomar and Stockam. "We snatched a hasty repast
at the sole house on the island, and again

" My boat is on the sea,"

amidst gigantic waving Fuci, oscillating with the bil-
lows, and flapping their long cold flabby fingers upon
the slaty rocks. This time we fortunately crested the
billows unalarmed and unscathed, and thus escaped
the unhappy fate of the late Mr. ADAMS, P.L.S., of
Pembroke, an unwearied botanist and conchologist :*
who, in an adventure along this same dangerous coast,

* This lamented gentleman supplied Sir JAMES EDWARD SMITH with
many rare plants, and his name is deservedly recorded in the classic pages
of English Botany. According to DONOVAN in his Excursions through.
South Wales, Mr. ADAMS perished in the sea, having ventured too far
from shore, dredging for shells ; and DONOVAN himself relates that while
out on this same unfortunate coast, a violent squall rent the cordage of
thejr vessel, and rendered it useless. " Thus," he says, •' for nearly an
hour, unable to make any shore, we lay exposed to the rage of the con-
tending elements in the open sea, expecting at every breath our little boat
would upset, and plunge us into the merciless abyss of the deep."

334 WILD FLOWERS OP

a few years ago, was unfortunately upset in his boat,
and perished with all on board.

And now, the dangers of the sea escaped, we may
contemplate at leisure the beauties that Flora scatters
around, even on the extremest verge of her dominion.
How inviting the gloominess of that cave, now left
dry by the surges : among whose cool and hallowed
recesses the Nereids might have sported, or Proteus
slumbered unmolested ! It is adorned with the deep
green fronds and polished purple stalks of the Sea
Fern (Asplenium marinuni), whose chestnut-coloured
sori nearly cover the alternate leaflets ; the Scaly
Hart's-tongue (Grammitis Ceterack) dots the recesses
of the rock with its curious foliage : — all scales on one
side, and light glaucous green on the other; and
amidst the rills that weep in the dampest parts of the
cavern, the light and truly elegant Maiden-hair {Adi-
antum Capillus Veneris) waves its slender and elegant
tresses. The precipice above, which boldly lifts its
impending brow above the retiring waves, is beaute-
ously overspread with a thousand tufts of the Thrift
or Sea Pink {Statice Armeria), whose aggregate rosy
flowers, varying in tint to purple and almost white,
descend among the declivities of the rocks to the very
billows; there, too, in dense masses the white flowers of
the Sea Campion (Silene maritima), nod ; the crimson
Geranium sanguineum here and there gladdens the
solitary spot; the Sea Sandwort (Arenaria marina),
trails its long succulent stems with stars of pale
purple ; and tracks of red and sparkling silver, mark
the resting place of the "White English Stone-crop
{Sedwm Anglicum). Here, also, often plentiful on the
very margin of the Pembrokeshire cliffs, the pretty

AUGUST. 335

little Vernal Squill (Scilla verna) lifts its scape three
or four inches high, sustaining a small corymb of deep
blue fragrant flowers, but getting into seed at this
late period.

To^ the beetling rock succeeds (as is often the case
on the Welsh coast) a waste of yellow sand, stretch-
ing far across the borders of the sea ; often lifted into
hills and rampires, matted and bound into consistence
by the fibrous roots of the Sea Lyme Grass (Elymus
arenarius), and the Sea Seed (AmmopJiila arundinacea),
— and in places depressed into huge hollows and deep
ravines — smooth, soft, and delightful to the tread,
where no sound but the distant murmur of the billows
at this time enters. But these sands are not waste
and devoid of vegetation as the horrid deserts of
Sahara ; they glow with vegetative beauty, now deve-
loped to its utmost brightness, as if to soothe and
cheer the wanderer who pants for the renovation of
the enlivening sea-breeze. Here the artist might not
vainly study the bright tints of nature's contrasts; in
one place islets of Thyme, of the richest purple, mantle
over the sand — in others brilliant spots of yellow are
formed by the clustering flowers of the Bird's-foot
Trefoil {Lotus corniculatus), while masses of primrose
tints mark the social domicile of the Sea Chickweed
(Arenaria peploides). "Within reach of the bitter spray
of the tide, wherever the rolling pebbles have been
chafed by the surges, the Yellow Horned Poppy (Glau-
cium luteum) quivers her specious though fugacious
petals, that soon strew the shore, quickly succeeded by
that curious long curved seed vessel, nearly a foot in
length, to which the colloquial appellation of horn has
been given ; close by her side the Prickly Saltwort

336 WILD FLOWERS OF

(Salsola Kali) lifts its rigid foliage ; the Sea Beet
(Beta maritima) trails upon the ground; the pretty
pink flowers of Sea Milkwort (Glaux maritima) rise
half concealed ; the Purple Sea Eocket (Kakile mari-
tima) boldly lifts up its bright lilac corymbose clus-
ters ; and beauteous above all, the Sea Holly (Eryngium
maritimutii) exhibits bright azure heads of armed
flowers, guarded by sharp spinous leaves, whose veins
of the brightest blue, present the most elegant aspect
imaginable.

What a maze we get into amongst the sand-hills —
occasionally immured in deep though dry cauldrons,
where only sand and sky are discernible, all waste and
dreary as an Arabian desert - - then up the ascent
again, sinking knee-deep, till the summit is attained,
crowned with rigid rushes, whence a long line of tumb-
ling billows break before the eye that long gazes with
pensive delight. Several rare plants may be found by
the Botanical Explorator in the hollows that occur
within the exterior line of sand-hills and the shore
itself, such as the Blue Fleabane (Erigeron acre), the
purple Sea-Stock (Matthiola sinuata), from whence the
beautiful garden varieties have been produced, the
white scented spiral-flowered Ladies' Traces (Neottia
spiralis), the yellow-flowered Viola Curtisii,* or the

* This might be properly called the Sea-Violet, being only found on
sandy wastes by the sea-shore, and very conspicuous with its yellow-
flowers, which seem to give it an affinity to the Mountain Violet (V- tutea)'
But HOOKKK and ARNOTT now place it with the common Pansy (V. tri-
color). I have observed V. Curtisii on the shore near St. David's, and
very abundantly on Braunton Burrows, Devonshire, as well as on the
sands at Barmouth, Merionethshire. Doubtless the Heart's-Ease (V. tri-
color), varies much in the size and colour of its flowers even in a wild
state, and under cultivation assumes a splendid and even regal aspect
from yellow to the most intense purple, or beautifully mottled with various
colours on its velvet petals. COWLBY has descanted on its splendor but

AUGUST. 337

Senecio viscosus, its glandular hairy stalk studded with
agglomerated particles of dirt or mould, making it
appear with its expanded golden radiant flowers very
like an African Mesenibryanthemum.

Farther on, the sandy ridges are darkened with
miniature thickets of the Burnet Rose (Rosa spinosis-
sima), whose bright red fruit, now abundantly conspi-
cuous, vainly tempts the eye, for its taste is insipid ;
amidst these pigmy bowers the glaucous Sea Spurge
(Euphorbia esula), raises its light green umbels, singu-
larly graceful, and its sister, the Portland Purge (E.
Portlandica), appears with crimson-dyed stalks; these
are relieved by the minute but dense masses of yellow
flowers of the Yellow Bedstraw (Galimn verwn) ;
while the pale clusters of Cynanchy-Wort (Asperula
Cynancliica) * the beautiful pink Dwarf Centaury
(Eryttircea pulcliella), as well as the broad-leaved
variety, the purple and white hemlock-leaved Cranes-
bill, and the broad dingy purple bells of the Sea Con-
volvulus ((7. Soldanelld), are strewed about the sand
as if dropt playfully by a bevy of sea-nymphs from
their chrystal vases, ere they entered sportively the
depths of the green ocean.

It not unfrequently happens that where the border

want of odour, in his Poemata Latino, Plantarum, which may be thus

rendered : —

Fairer than the sweet Violet of the spring,

Three colours in one blossom offering;
t Silver, and gold, and purple, tinge her vest —

Happy had perfume join'd but with the rest !

But here floricultural art fails, and Nature alone gives or denies that fra-
grance that makes the country air so exciting and delicious to imbibe.

* It is remarkable that Sir J. E. SMITH, in the English Flora, affirms
that the Asperula Cynanchica is not found in Wales, though I have my-
self met with it abundantly both in Pembrokeshire and Glamorganshire.
It grows on the lime-stone cuffs opposite the Mumbles Lighthouse.

Z

338 WILD FLOWEES OF

of the sands amalgamates with the green meadows of
the interior country, that a pond of fresh water
spreads its liquid mirror in tranquil beauty, strangely
contrasting a calm unruffled surface with the angry
billows that thunder in its environs. Here another
race of plants appear, revealing the power of Nature
to nourish new forms with the slightest change of
aspect or circumstance. Amidst the shallow water
sits the Long-leaved Sundew (Drosera longifolid) with
viscid drops upon each leaf of purple woof ; the Eose
Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella) displays extremely
elegant blossoms of white or pale red ; the marsh St.
John's Wort (Hypericum elodes) glistens in the mois-
ture as if frosted with silver, showing faintly its
curled corolla of gold ; and the fairy-like "Wild Eose-
mary (Andromeda polif olid), retiring as bashful beauty,
blushes and shrinks amidst the humid mosses. This
last, named by LiirarjEUS from the fair Andromeda of
antiquity, is a most beautiful and interesting plant,
whose bright red or deep green narrow-pointed revo-
lute leaves, glaucous beneath, and drooping roseate
campanulate flowers, fix the eye of the wandering
botanist upon it with rapt devotion.* Like every
other hidden treasure it, however, requires to be
sought after, being seated on mossy tumps among
rushes and mud, where the botanist will scarcely
obtain his prize without a shoeful of water. In the
same habitat trails the Silver "Willow (SalixArgentea),
sparkling from afar, and bushes of the Dutch Myrtle

* When the corolla of the Andromeda drops off the stamens accompany
it, and if opened, these appear like minute insects on its spotless surface,
their curious structure (the anther two-lobed, each lobe terminated by an
awn crossing each other,) giving them this singular aspect, combined
with their deep chocolate colour. Although set down in the Floras as
flowering in Jane, the Andromeda continues in bloom to September.

AUGUST. 339

(Myrica gale) scattered in profusion around, fill the
air with their cinnamon scent. In the wettest spots
rises the princely Flowering Pern (Osmunda regalis),
and on the surface of the water itself float the pale
yellow flowers of the "Water Milfoil (Vtricularia
minor), and the argent three-petalled blossoms of the
Floating "Water Plaintain {Alisma natans).

In moody grandeur on the most westerly point of
the mainland of Pembrokeshire, rises the trappoid
crest of St. David's head. A curious outwork of
greenstone tumuli range in a line between it and the
more level country, like watch-towers in front of a
fortress. The base of the gloomy head itself is
covered with broken stones and ruined cromlechs ; a
stormy sea boils beneath, and amidst these deserted
ruins of the past no other voice is heard but the wail
of the blast and the harsh cries of flocks of choughs,
who build in the interstices of the rocks. On this
dreary crag I now stood alone, while the sun went
down on the misty ocean. But though man had
deserted it, and the Briton and the Roman, had alike
disappeared from old Menevia, it was not untenanted
by plants that had probably flourished here even
before the Druidical sway. The topmost crags were
yellow with the flowers of the Genista pilosa, in great
profusion ; several rare Carices were apparent among
the bushes, and on the edge of a rivulet weeping down
the declivity of the hill, I gathered Alisma rammcu-
loides, A. rejpens, A. natans, and the very curious
creeping Pepper-grass (Pilularia globullfera^ Here,
also, the rare and local Ch/perus longus has been found.
Lifting my eyes from the herbage fringing the rivulet,
and gazing from the protruding rock, the lone pool of

z2

340 WILD FLOWEES OF

Gowrogg appeared glimmering on a wide extent of
flat heath, like a phantom in the twilight. In this
direction all appeared waste and denuded and deserted,
only grey stones and patches of water — a perfect
Ossianic scene — " a rock in the desert, on whose dark
side are trickling of waters, when the slow-sailing mist
has left it, and its trees are blasted with winds." And
yet, on penetrating to the borders of the lake, all was
not barren, but many a curious and beautiful flower
rewarded my research. Gowrogg Pool is a chrystal
gem in the waste around St. David's, where grey tem-
pest-battered stones alone mitigate the barren treeless
scene that extends far and wide. On its placid sur-
face the silver flowers of the Alisma are scattered, and
its margin is beautified by extensive spreads of the
Bog St. John's Wort, fresh and bright as the keen
winds and pure dews can make them.

In these sketches I have generally treated the sub-
ject playfully, as calculated to attract in a path often
thought rugged and uninteresting. Yet within sight
of the majestic ocean it is scarcely possible for any
one to pluck a flower without feeling in some degree
the kindlings of devotion within him. But on this
subject a hint may suffice. A modern poet has well

observed that

" The raging sea has music for all ears , "

and, certainly, were I called upon to inculcate a devo-
tional lesson to an ardent neophyte, I should lead him
to the margin of the mighty deep ; — thence I should
direct his steps to the massive headlands where the
Sea Lavender loves to wave its azure spikes bright as
the blue upon the wing of the Kingfisher — I should
lead him on over shingles and pebbles, to pyramidal

AUGUST. 341

crumbling rocks awful as those that shadow Llyn Cae,
or seem to tremble in air, inaccessible to the most
daring foot, about the chapel of St. G-owan's on the
coast of Pembroke.* There, as we threaded a laby-
rinth .of rocks over narrow ridges and slippery paths
still growing steeper and more abrupt, where the lone
Samphiret hangs over frightful abysses, the Sea Cha-
momile (AntJiemis inaritima) throws its silver star on
the slippery edge of dismal cauldrons where the sea
shrieks out of sight in chorus with the fiend-like yells
of congregated sea-fowl of various species — or the
Samphire-leaved Plea-bane (Inula critlimoides) crests
the crumbling rock with a crown of gold — I should
still advance to some point where an arch (such as
lately met my view on the "Worms-Head promontory),

* See the annexed woodcut, for a representation of the singular isolated
craggy peak in the same vicinity, with the boiling ocean at its base, which
is adorned with numerous tufts of the velvet-leaved Sea-Mallow.

t The Samphire (Crithmum maritimurn), is remarkable in its maritime
habitat — always on rocks overhanging the sea, yet generally some thirty
or forty feet above the boiling surge, so that it is often very difficult for
the botanist to scale the cliffs high enough to obtain it. Its pale succulent
leaves make an aromatic pickle formerly so highly prized as to induce
cliff-men to make a "fearful trade" of its collection :
" Nor untrembling: canst thou see
How from a craggy rock, whose prominence
Half overshades the ocean, hardy men
Fearless of rending winds and dashing waves,
Cut samphire, to excite the squeamish gust
Of pamper'd luxury." phillips's Cider.

Samphire or sampire (probably a corruption of Saint Pierre, to whom
this plant was dedicated, perhaps from its growing constantly on rocks),
forms, as Dr. BROMFIELD has remarked in the Phytulogist, a yearly expor-
tation from the Isle of Wight for pickling. " The plant is collected, at
great personal risk, by people called cliffsmen, who used to pay an annual
tribute (now remitted) to the lord of the manor of Freshwater, for the
privilege of taking both this and the eggs of sea-fowl, that breed in vast
numbers in the stupendous chalk cliffs, which rise, like impregnable ram-
parts, to the height of 600 feet, at the extreme south-west corner of the
Isle of Wight."

342 WILD FLOWEBS OF

broken through the rampart by some freak or convul-
sion of Nature, admitted by its romantic portal a
grand and unbounded view of the extent of ocean
advancing to the shore in magnificent array, crested
with snowy foam. There, with my disciple, I would
take my seat without a word ! — But amidst our con-
templations the heavens are blackened with clouds, a
deluge sweeps down upon our devoted heads, the
winds thunder and rave about us — the surge beats
over us, the rocks topple around us before the hurri-
cane; we are surrounded by the tide, and the shadows
of eternity spread before our trembling view !

And now a truce to terrors ! — fly we from them on
the wings of the first favouring sea-breeze to rest
on the eternal mountains whose majestic but tempest-
worn forms rise boldly on the deep purple sky, while
the last gleam of sunset gives a momentary but
deceptive splendour to their topmost peaks.

Such a gale as I once had to wing my papers some
years ago, might perhaps serve me now ; and, there-
fore, as an incident connected with my botanical
wanderings, I may state it. I was at Aberystwith,
and having got together a host of plants from bog,
mountain, shore and morass, I was engaged at my
lodgings in drying them, and as plants give out much
moisture in this process, I had been changing the
papers in which the plants lay. I had no small
quantity of wet sheets, and noticing that a breeze had
sprung up, I fastened my papers as I thought at a
corner of the window, and left them to flap in the blast
while I penned my observations. Flap they did for
some time securely, but at length the wind increased
its fury — a thundering sound and loud exclamation

AUGUST. 343

suddenly roused my attention, and looking up, I per-
ceived all my papers flying to the four winds of
heaven. Vain was any effort to recall them — they
literally filled the street from end to end, and for half
an hour amused the visitants of Aberystwith in chasing
them about the town. It so happened that they were,
for the most part, printed post folio sheets of speeches
at a railway meeting at Manchester, which had fallen
into my hands, and consequently excited greater
attention as they fled about ; while a gentleman in
pursuit of some of them, which he was knocking down
with his stick, was heard to say that he supposed
some member of the Society for the Diffusion of Use-
ful Knowledge had visited Aberystwith, though he
thought he had hit upon a somewhat novel mode of
lilling the town. For my own part, when I thus saw
my bills flying in all directions over the houses, and
heard the shouts and laughter raised in the chase
after them, I at once gave them up for lost, and at-
tempted no rescue — away they dashed as if suddenly
gifted with life — some went out to sea, others started
in the direction of Plinlimmon and Cadair Idris, and
for ought I know some may be circling in the air even
now ; I had thus the pleasure of unintentionally
adding to the circulating medium — and had no re-
turned lills !

A calm has succeeded to the angry furtive gale,
the surgy billows faintly break upon the beach, and
looking out upon the wide extent of the bay of Car-
digan from the summit of Constitution Hill, the dis-
tant verge of ocean is irradiant with reflected glory.
Long pencils of purple cloud rest like islet banks upon
old ocean, and above them a broad band of ruby light

344 WILD FLOWEES OP

stretches far into the heavens, lightening off into the
pure deep azure. The sun enshrined within a crimson
haze slowly descends to his curtained pavillion, and
his blood-red orb intensely brilliant sinks through the
haze of crimson till bisected by the long deep purple
stratus-cloud. Extending lines of topaz and ruby
gleam along the sea as the sun sinks behind the cloud,
and rests for a moment with his verge upon the
waves — the splendid pageant is gone !

In the intervals of our excursions stray we for a
moment to the garden, to note some of the glories of
the advancing summer floral reign there, thus temper-
ing the ardour of investigation, resting thought, even
amidst floral sights, and preparing for new excursions.

Before our view the White Lily (Lilium candidum)
still appears the most conspicuous flower, and like a
queen of beauty reigns supreme over the parterre,
difiusing odours of the most delicious kind. This and
other white blossoms are now observable throughout
the whole night. The lofty Sunflower, and various
Convolvuluses are also in full perfection at this time ;
Snapdragons, Mulleins, Campanulas, Tiger- Lilies, and
many others. " The force of Nature can no farther
go," — at least in this climate, and the magnificence
of the flower border, with the exception of the length-
ened reign of the princely family of the Dahlias,
enters upon the wane at the close of the present

month.

" The earth is one great temple, made

For worship, every where,
And its flowers are the bells in glen and shade,
That ring the heart to prayer.

WILD FLO WEES OF AUGUST. 345

A solemn preacher is the breeze,

At noon or twilight dim—-
The ancient trees give homilies —

The river hath a hymn.
For the city bell takes seven days

To reach the townsman's ear ;
But he who kneels in Nature's ways

Hath Sabbath all the year."

WILD PLOWEES OF AUGUST.
(CONTINUED.)

CHAP.

ADVANTAGES OF AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH BOTANY TO THE
TRAVELLER -- ITS ASPERITIES COMPARED WITH THE
ADORNED CLIFFS OF THE SEA-SHORE — NOTICE OF THE
HEATH TRIBE IN THEIR MOUNTAIN HABITATS — VARIOUS
BELL-FLOWERS WITH THEIR LOCALITIES - RUSHES -
FLOWERS OF DECLINING SUMMER — SUNSET ON THE SKIR-
RID VAWR.

" Lo far and wide the glorious heather blooms,

Its regal mantle o'er the mountains spread j
Wooing the bee with honey-sweet perfumes,

By many a viewless wild-flower richly shed ;

Up-springing 'neath the glad exulting tread
Of eager climbers, light of heart and limb ;

Or yielding, soft, a fresh elastic bed,
When evening shadows gather faint and dim,
And sun-forsaken crags grow old, and gaunt, and grim."

Hon. Mrs. NORTON.

In rny cursory reading, while "water-logged" at a
WATEKiJSTG-pZflce," within the ominous period assigned
to the influence of a celebrated watery saint, who has
of late years contributed very largely to the stock of
the tee-totallers, I met with the following quotation.
It is from a clever sketch of Germany and the Ger-
mans, (1836,) by some anonymous "Englishman,"
who, amidst his various acquirements, unfortunately
omitted to obtain an acquaintance with botany ; and

WILD PLOAVERS OE AUGUST. 347

thus frankly admits the loss of pleasure he thereby
sustained, as many other tourists and mere pictu-
resque-seeing travellers have also done. " It is said
that to be ignorant of a science is to be cut off from
a source of enjoyment. The truth of this I was com-
pelled, experimentally, to prove during my wanderings
through these alpine provinces ; for my limited ac-
quaintance with botany prevented me from examining
and enjoying the rare and beautiful specimens which
every where abound."

Now this is substantially the argument I have taken
up to prove in these chapters, that the tourist or
wanderer who is, in some degree, acquainted with
botany, greatly enlarges the sources of his delight,
and has an incentive to action and movement, which
the mere superficial observer is entirely deprived of.
Yet strange to say very few general travellers know
any thing of botany, and consequently whether in
India or Persia, in Europe or America, the information
they give on this subject merely amounts to the bare
fact that in certain places myriads of the most beau-
tiful flowers delighted the eve, or matchless odours

*/ •

from them filled the air ; but further more their
" limited acquaintance with botany," entirely forbids
them to say. This negation is not only tantalizing
but humiliating ; it depresses curiosity, baffles explo-
ration, and leaves imagination to draw upon error to
an unlimited extent. The man who was unable
(though no architect) to decide upon the order of the
columns in a ruined Grecian temple, would be justly
considered ignorant ; and in the present day, surely,
to know nothing of botany, argues at the very least, I
should say, a defect in the organs of taste and percep-

348 WILD FLOWEKS OF

tion.* The fair portion of human kind are so sensible
of this, that almost every lady will be now found,
more or less, conversant with botany ; in fact, the
majority of practical though unostentatious botanists
are ladies ; and this circumstance should induce them
to exact the cultivation of the science from their
sluggish admirers.

The language that botany employs may, at first
sight, appear rather repulsive ; but familiarity with it
soon shows this to be little more than ideal, while the

* Unfortunately, a school of Botanists exists in the present day, which
under the pretence of depreciating the Linnaean system, and exalting " the
Natural," leads the Neophyte into such labyrinths, that the mere designa-
tion of plants is scoffed at, as if the knowledge of a plant's name would act
as an insuperable bar to the attainment of any further progress in botani-
cal science. So far is this absurd idea now carried, that I have met with
gentlemen who had attended regular courses of Botanical Lectures with
reference to the Natural System only, and yet, while conversant with phy-
siological details, knew not how they were to proceed to ascertain the name
of the humblest weed that grew by the way side ! Thus their want of prac-
tical knowledge rendered them almost as utterly helpless in the field as if
they had never studied Botany at all. Now I contend that one of the prin-
cipal scources of pleasure presented by Botany is to know not merely the
natural order, but the generic and specific name of every plant that meets
• the view of the roving eye ; and as this necessary knowledge is obtained
with most facility by the Linnaean system, I recommend the student to
direct his attention to that primarily. He will have, by this means, a key
in his hand to the most refined and exciting of all delights ; and he can
afterwards study the Natural System, if time and leisure be at his com-
mand. A key to the knowledge of names must be obtained; for the archi-
tect who examined a host of buildings without learning the names of any
of the parts of them he saw, would act as wisely as the theoretical Bota-
nist, who only attending to NATURAL ORDERS, finds himself incompetent
to name, specifically, the first native plant that meets his view when Sum-
mer has wooed him to give up a leisure hour to an exploration of the hills
and groves. Dr. DRUMMOND has well observed, that " according to an
aphorism of LINN^US, the great and important step in understanding any
science is to know things themselves. How can we reason about plants
unless we know what these plants are ? We must first have a knowledge
of the things we speak, or write, or think, or philosophize about, before
we can do any of these to a good purpose, and, therefore, the most useful
and important introduction to any science is that which leads us fairly to
a knowledge of the things themselves. Here the Linnaean system is pre-
eminent over all other introductions to a knowledge of plants."

AUGUST. 349

new images created, and the knowledge and pleasure
attained, compensates abundantly for every asperity.
So on the sea shore, the indented cliffs lift up their
serrated ridges with forbidding aspect, and the con-
torted rocks, washed and wasted by the eternal boil
of ocean, rise to view as sullen and barren reefs,
pointed, ragged, and terrific. Yet when the tide has
retired, and the quiet repose of a summer's afternoon
has tempted one out to thread the rocky labyrinth,
and bound from crag to crag, how different does the
scene appear — how beautiful ! In the recesses of the
rocks a hundred or a myriad of translucent fairy pools
have been left, their bosoms glistening with the qui-
vering light that reveals the amber pebbles or pearly
shells, in their transparent depths. There the crimson
Dasya or Plocamium, and green Ulva, placidly floats ;
the singular Asteria flaps upon the cold stone; the
Fucus, of various species, hangs its pods ; and zoo-
phytes, of numerous kinds (among which the Sea
Anemone is conspicuous,) claim the excited attention.
In other nooks, a host of Lichens colour the rocks
with orange, mark them with sable, or stain them
with bloody spots,* Some dry hollows are occupied

* A knowledge of natural phenomena often brings to light hidden facts,
and sadly encroaches upon the domain of the marvellous. The " blood-
spercled" stones, at the bottom of St. Winefrid's well, at Holywell, in
Flintshire, were long appealed to as miraculous relics of St. Winefrid's
blood, till the prying botanist resolved them into an algoid production,
known as Palmetto, cruenta, which has been frequently taken for blood
spilt upon the ground. Thus CAXTON quaintly says—
" In the welmes ofter than ones,
Ben found reed spercled stones,
In token of the blood reed
That the mayd Wenefrede
Shadd at that pytte
Whan hyr throte was kytte."

Caxt. Chron. Descrypt. of Walys.
I have myself in summer time picked up in damp hollows of the slaty

350 WILD FLOWERS OF

with the succulent Samphire, making verdant the arid
ridge; in others the golden Inula scatters its showy
star; the large glaucous foliage of the Sea Kale or
Sea Cabbage meets the view ; or the vivid purple of
the scentless Sea Lavender, surrounds lone hollows of
emerald-tinted water, with loveliness as unappreciable
as unexpected. And thus, to the cleared vision, does
botany exhibit objects that before, perhaps, were
unregarded : because unheeded or despised.

Let us test this in a ramble up some lofty moun-
tain, and look out upon the plants on our right and
left, as we proceed in our steepy excursion. We can-
not but be gratified, let us move in what direction we
will. In this month the different species of HEATHS
(Erica) appear in their perfection of beauty, making
glad the wilderness wherever they present themselves.

" The tiny heath-flowers now begin to blow,
The russet moor assume a richer glow ;
The powdery bells, that glance in purple bloom,
Fling from their scented cups a sweet perfume."*

Sandstone cliffs are splendidly empurpled with the
flowers of the Fine-leaved Heath (Erica cinerea,')
which often, too, covers the sides of mountains to a
considerable height; while, wherever a weeping spring
oozes upon the waste, the pale wax-like bells of the
Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix), droop in clusters
to the ground. Sir WALTER SCOTT has finely depicted
in Marmion, a sun-rise in a mountainous country,
when the Heath was in flower, and the first golden
rays fell upon the mountains-
bed of the river Dee, near Llangollen, such " reed-spercled stones" as are
here alluded to, the bloody tinge appearing on microscopic examination
to be occasioned by a minute fungus allied to the Chlorococcus that red-
dens the snow in alpine regions.
* LEYDEN.

AUGUST. 351

rt And as each heathy top they kiss'd,
It gleam'd a purple amethyst."

On the cliffs to the south of Aberystwith, on Cors
Gochno, near Borth, and especially on Craig Breidden,
in Montgomeryshire, among the vast wastes of the
Berwyn mountains, in Merioneth, as well as on the
wildest parts of Bromsgrove Lickey, Worcestershire,
I have enjoyed many a wade and plunge among
thickets of heath, that almost buried me in their pur-
ple folds, while the murmuring and angry buzzing of
a thousand bees, I had disturbed at their flowery
banquet, filled the air on all sides. Scarcely less beau-
tiful does the glorious heather bloom on the bright
and lofty empurpled buttresses, that support the bro-
ken cyclopean summit of the Monmouthshire " Sugar
Loaf;" on the cat's back ridges around Llanidloes, in
North "Wales, where from the bleak sides of Plinlim-
mon numerous torrents rave and plunge to form the
united stream of the infant Severn ; or on the sides of
the solemn Black Mountains of Brecon, ever shadowed
by trailing vapours, where dark as indigo the Talgarth
Beacon looks down upon the lonely pool of Llangorse,
and the solitary turret of Tretower in the valley of
the gravelly Usk. Yet brighter still does memory
paint the heathy heights in that matchless landscape
on the banks of the Mawddach, between Barrnouth
and Dolgelle, where the broad river bathes rock and
wood in beauty, and the sun of August almost fires
the hills enwrapped in heath, that seem to burn amidst
the hoary or dark lichenized rocks.

When in full flower, nothing can exceed the beauty
presented by a near prospect of hills of blooming
heather, while they offer to the way-worn wanderer a

352 WILD FLOWEBS OF

fragrant couch on which he may recline in luscious
idleness, and obtain " divine oblivion of low-thoughted
care." BURNS has presented, in his own matchless
way, the picture of a " bonnie moor-hen " flying from
her pursuers, among the blooming heather, where —

" Sweet brushing the dew from the brown heather bells,
Her colour betrayed her on yon mossy fells ;
Auld Phoabus himsel, as he peep'd o'er the hill,
In spite at her plumage he tried his skill ;
He levell'd his rays where she bask'd on the brae —
His rays were outshone, and but mark'd where she lay."

From the extent of moorland in Scotland, that country
has been generally distinguished as the " land of
brown heath," and the clans of M'Donald and
M'Alister bear two of the species as their device :
hence clouds, storms, and impending dreary rocks, are
images that unconsciously arise in our minds, when
referring to the heather bells ; and a modern writer,
when descanting upon the " moral of flowers," has
exclaimed—

" Since I've view'd thee afar in thine own Highland dwelling,

There are spells clinging round thee I knew not before ;
For to fancy's rapt ear dost thou ever seem telling
Of the pine-crested rock and the cataract's roar."

The Mountain Heather of the Scotch Poets, which
gives such a black aspect to the bleak hills of Scotland,
is the Ling or common Heath (Calluna vulgaris), now
properly separated from Erica, whose calyx as well as
corolla is coloured, and whose elegant attire, generally
diffused as it is in Europe, deserves every encomium
it has received. The leaves are more or less pubes-
cent, and sometimes quite hoary, when it has received
the name of ciliaris, but this variety is not the Erica
ciliaris of LIKN^TJS, the beautiful Ciliated Heath

AUGUST. 353

found in Cornwall and Dorsetshire. Though the
amethystine hue is surely the appropriate colour of
the blossomed ling, yet when occasionally white flow-
ered shrubs appear among the purple, the effect is
very elegant.

The beautiful Cornish or G-oonhilly Heath (Erica
vagans), flowers in August, and the Botanical Explo-
rator who has the opportunity, should now devote a
day or two to the examination of the Lizard District
where it grows. There this lovely plant covers acres
upon acres of barren moor with its snowy and pink
blossoms, presenting a spectacle of the utmost
interest to the geographical botanist.*

It is remarkable that the family of Heaths are con-
fined entirely to the old world, and while but few
species occur in the north, more than three hundred
occur in the country about the Cape of Good Hope.
These are splendid ornaments in green-houses, for
they exhibit a surprising diversity in their flowers :

* The Lizard District has been well illustrated both in its picturesque
and botanical features by the Rev. C. A. JOHNS, in A Week at the Lizard,
an example of the interest attachable by observation to a single and retired
tract of country however remote or seemingly barren. Besides the Cor-
nish Heath, the very local Strapwort (Corrigiola littoralis], Hexandrous
Water- wort (Elating hexandra)^ Whorled Knotgrass (Illecebrum verticil-
latum), the Least Gentianella (.Cicendiafiliformis), &c. may all be found
on the shore of the Loe Pool, a wide expanse of water near Helston, six
miles from the Lizard, or in its vicinity. Near Penrose Creek, says Mr.
JOHNS, the turf on the verge of the cliff for many miles of this coast, is in
spring studded with countless sky-blue star-like flowers of the Vernal
Squill (Scilla verna), and " in the months of August and September, the
Autumnal Squill (Scilla autumnalis), a plant very like the Vernal species,
but much less beautiful, comes into flower here and there along the coast,
but is nowhere, except at Cudden Point, so abundant as to form a bota-
nical feature. Its flowers are more pyramidal in their mode of growth,
and of a dingy purple hue. The leaves do not appear until the flowers
have faded." — Various Trefoils, as Trifolium striatum, T. strictum, T.
Bocconi, and T. Molineiri, are also inhabitants of the Lizard District,- in
Caerthillian Valley. f ^ f

2 A

354 WILD FLOWEKS OF

where all the hues of red, pink, purple, green, and the
purest pearly whites, tinge corollas swelled like a flask,
narrow as a tube, diluted like a vase, or round as an
air-bubble; and these again are hairy, silky, shaggy,
glutinous, or polished with a finish superior to the
finest glass or porcelain. Yet it is asserted that this
favourite tribe of plants is by no means so handsome
in its native country as when cultivated, as they there
form scraggy shrubby bushes, to which the colonist
boors have not even vouchsafed a name.

While, however, the Cape alone furnishes those
delicate or showy heaths, so ornamental to the green-
house, it is principally in the northern parts of Britain
that any of the species are employed for economical
purposes. There, ale is frequently made by brewing
one part malt and two parts of the young tops of
heath; the flowers furnish an abundant store of honey
to the bees ; besoms are made of its branches, faggots
of its old stems, it is used to thatch houses, and forms
a fragrant couch, that even poets have celebrated—

" The stranger's bed

Was there of Mountain Heather spread."

Its general use in the Highlands for beds, has sug-
gested the following remark from the editor of the
last edition of Withering, which, as a contribution to
imaginative botany, may deserve consideration. " If
it be true, as there is reason to believe, that the an-
cients were wont to repose on the leaves of particular
trees, not doubting their powers of inspiration : as
Agnus-Castus to compose the troubled mind, the
Laurel to excite poetic fire, or the Bay to awaken
visions of glory, why may not the Heather-couch not
merely refresh the wearied limbs of the rough sons of

AUGUST. 355

freedom) but inspire the noblest sentiments into
minds scarcely less imaginative, and nothing lacking
in credulity ? '

From the Heather the transition is easy to the
"HeathbeU" of Cheviot, the "Harebell" of Scotland,
the " Bell-flower " of England, and the Campanula of
the botanist. This is a very beautiful and favourite
genus, now everywhere exhibiting its trembling azure
bells in exquisite perfection, but especially in hilly
spots, on the sides of deep shady sandstone lanes, and
other similar localities. The Canterbury Bells (Cam*
panula trachelium), are rather plentiful on the mar-
gins of woods, and the Giant Throat-wort (C. latifolia)
is very ornamental on the copsy banks of the rivers
where it abounds — as the Severn and the Wye, and
often opens its hairy throat in the bosky dells of the
north. The most abundant species is the round-
leaved Bell-flower (C. rotundifolia), often waving its
delicate flowers on huge shattered masses of rock,
or decking the tottering turret that has escaped the
invasion of the hundred-handed Ivy. Hence thig
species is a favourite with poets : and SCOTT has de-
scribed the " elastic tread" of his " Lady of the Lake,"
as not even disturbing the position of the nodding
fragile Harebell. So CLAKE, the rural Northampton-
shire bard, mentions it with a just notion of its
character —

" The little Bell-flowers, pearly blue,

That trembling peep the shelt'ring bush behind."

The spreading Bell-flower (01 patula) is another beau-
tiful kind, generally adorning woods, or their borders,
in the midland sandstone districts ; while the clustered
Bell-flower (C.glomeratd), affects calcareous hills, such

2A2

356 WILD FLOWEBS OF

as the Cotswolds and the chalk strata, where it occurs
in extreme profusion ; and on the cliffs of the Isle of
Wight it is found in an exceedingly diminished state.
But the Ivy-leaved Bell-flower (C. Seder aced) , is,
undoubtedly, the most exquisitely delicate of all. This
fairy gem is mostly confined to mountain bogs, whose
surface it besprinkles with the palest yet loveliest
azure ; and hence the sight of it recalls a host of past
rambles in secluded spots of Alpine beauty : it is, in-
deed, a true mountaineer, loving the splashy mossy
spring, that feeds the bubbling tenant of the dark
ravine below, where the brown Dipper (Cinclus aqua-
ticus), is rejoicing in the pellucid stream, or the [Ring-
Ouzel runs hiding its snowy circlet as it treads the
labyrinth of the stiff bilberry bushes. I have gathered
this fairy bell amidst the dark turbaries of Plinlim-
mon, by Llynn Teivy and its sister lakes that fill the
craters and hollows of the mountain above Strata Flo-
rida Abbey, Cardiganshire ; on the fort-like hills that
barrier the course of the infant Severn about Llanid-
loes ; and in the summer of 1839, most profusely, as I
pilgrimaged across a mountain between Pont-y-pridd
and Caerphilly Castle, Glamorganshire.

The Ivy-leaved Bell-flower also occurs in great
luxuriance trailing along the mossy glens bright with
Nartheciurn and the Bog St. John's Wort, that border
the sombre tract of Exmoor, in Devonshire. It is
very plentiful in marshy spots about Hart -Knoll
Woods, between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe, tinging
the copsy scene with poetical loveliness.

The mountain rambler must often have noticed,
about this period, the relics of a custom once highly
honoured in olden times — the Rush-gathering, an occu-

AUGUST. 357

pation now entirely abandoned to the solitary moun-
tain cotter, who, with his feeble rusk-light, which he
has himself divested of its epidermis and coated with
fat, vainly attempts to throw a feeble ray in the long
winter, evenings upon the desolate aspect of his dark
and damp habitation. Yet when Bushes strewed the
floors of the palaces trodden by the Plantagenets and
the Tudors, and when the fairest lady of the land had
no softer carpet on which to place her foot in her
apartment, the Eush (Juncus) was highly honoured,
and the cutting and gathering of it, when it had at-
tained its highest growth, was celebrated with delight
by young and old, and the last load of its green
pointed leaves adorned with showy decorations and
preceded in gay procession. " More Rushes — more
Hushes ! ' SHAKSPEAEE makes a Groom exclaim at
the coronation of HENEY Y. ; and as our ancestors
rarely washed their floors, and carpets were unknown,
it was necessary to cover, at least, the dirt upon the
floors, and hence Bushes were employed for this pur-
pose. HENTZKEK, in his Itinerary, mentioning Queen
ELIZABETH'S Presence Chamber, at Greenwich, says,
" the floor, after the English fashion, was strewed with
Tiay" meaning JRusJies. The churches were strewed in
the same way at particular festivals. In ancient times
the parishioners brought Rushes- at the feast of the
dedication, and hence the festivity was called JRusli-
learing. But even plants and flowers become divested
in the roll of time of their celebrity, and rushes,
banished from the palace and mansion, are now trod-
den only by the sportsman, the botanist, or the
peasant. Yet to the latter, still, perhaps, as CLAEE
has intimated, they may add an item to the scanty

358 WILD FLOWEES OF

catalogue of his joys of recollection, showing that the
humblest minds picture pleasing images to them-
selves, even from a tuft of rushes.

" Ah ! on this bank how happy have I felt,
When here I sat and mutter'd nameless songs,
And with the shepherd's boy and neatherd knelt
Upon yon Rush-beds, plaiting whips and thongs." *

The Hushes, belonging to the natural order Junca-
cece, are a numerous and well-known tribe fringing the
margin of forest ponds with their " dank" herbage, or
covering marshy heaths in a characteristic manner
with their sharp-pointed glaucous foliage. Twenty-
two species have been enumerated as British. The
Great Sharp Sea-Eush (Juncus acutus), forms a conspi-
cuous feature upon the sandy wastes and " burrows"
of the western coasts of England and Wales, its
panicles being remarkable when in fruit, the capsules
large, brown, and glossy. Its leaves are sharp enough
to pierce the skin, and insects are often when flying
empaled upon their points. The Club-rushes (Scirpi)
are tall plants growing in watery places, and often in
the water itself. One of the most common is the
Bull-rush (Scirpus lacustris), so plentiful on the mar-
gin of ponds and slow-flowing rivers, where it grows
from three to often eight feet high, its lateral brown
inflorescence appearing near the tops of the lofty
spongy stalks.

The round cluster-headed Club-rush (Scirpus Holos-
c7iosnus), is a tall and noble very local species, confined
to maritime spots in the extreme western parts of
England, and in fact I believe only now growing upon

* Before the introduction of earthenware into Britain, platters, made of
twisted rushes, served instead of plates and dishes in the rural districts; and
thin cakes, baked in the pan, were placed upon this simple equipage.

AUGUST.

359

Braunton Burrows, Devonshire, near the estuary of
the river Torridge. It is, however, difficult for a
stranger to find the locality of this rush without spe-
cific directions. Eor when I was at Ilfracombe, in
1S43, on making an excursion to " the Burrows ' at
Braunton, I found an extent of waste, sandy, and
marshy ground disposed in flats, hummocks, and hol-
lows— here arid and dreary, there green and marshy —
to the amount of more than two thousand acres, and
bounded westward by the sea. I made many traverses
across it in vain; and some botanists, disappointed
like myself, reported it as lost at the station by an
inroad of the sea. A second visit, though fruitful in
some respects, failed to reveal the Scirpus ; until
passing over the Burrows a third time, on my way
to the singular embankment of pebbles called the
Poppleridge, on the opposite shore of the estuary, I
quite accidentally encountered the rarity that had so
long eluded my search. The future explorer, then,
may profit by my experience. Let the botanist keep
to the southern side of the Burrows, within a quarter
of a mile of the twin light-houses, but farther from
the river than they are ; here is a line of little pools
and marshy hollows, abounding with Teucrimn Scor-
dium, Littorella lacustris, Anagallis tenella, &c. and
two of which were almost filled up with aquatic
mosses and a profuse growth of Epipactis palustris,
finely in flower at the time of my visit. Following
the line of these damp hollows towards the sea, they
terminate in a little marsh impinging upon the sands,
and here the rare Scirpus Holoschcenus grows luxuri-
antly, forming almost a close thicket when I was
there, four or five feet high, but entirely confined to a

360 WILD FLOWEES OP

space about twenty yards in length. As the village
of Braunton is itself three miles off, a field botanist
not guided to the spot, might make many a ramble on
the northern side of the Burrows, and about the cen-
tral sandhills, without any attendant success. Braun-
ton Burrows is a fine storehouse for a wandering
botanist, with a glorious prospect on all sides. Other
rare plants are allocated here, as Viola Curtisii,
(Enanihe pimpinelloides, (E. silaifolia, Bartsia viscosa,
and patches of the beautiful silvery-leaved dwarf
Willow, Salioo argentea.

Summer ! ah, where has summer been this year ?
is often a common exclamation at its close, for in
ungenial years scarcely have we been able to obtain a
glimpse of it, before it is already perceived waning
away. Pine or wet, the flowers spring and fade, and
the profusion of composite or syngenesious ones now
perceptible, gives serious warning that the summer is
declining and the days shortening. On the river side
the Tansy (Tanacetum vulgar e)* spreads its golden
disc, gilding the bank; the specious-rayed Hawkweeds

* The golden yellow discs of the Tansj, though without rays, from their
thick clusters give a gorgeous appearance to the river banks, where they con-
gregate characteristic of advanced summer, and the impending close of floral
glories. This old English plant noted for its strong and bitter yet not unplea-
sant scent, marks the change from the good old times when our great grand-
mothers made their own confectionary, looked to their housewifery as a
morning amusement, spun their own sheeting, and knew more of the wholesome
virtues of herbs than the toll-loll of a piano or the merits of the last new novel.
Tansy Pudding was then an established dish, and ADDISON thus makes Sir
ROGER DE COVERLET mention it in connection with the sweet widow whose
charms had entrapped the guileless old knight. " You must know I dined with
her at a public table the day after I first saw her, and she helped me to some
Tansy in the eye of all the gentlemen in the country." But public tables
are now abandoned, as far as ladies are concerned — balls commence at nine
o'clock, when our ancestors used to be abed and asleep, and Tansy Pudding,
as being too homely a condiment, has gone out of fashion, almost as forgotten
as the spinning-wheel.

AUGUST. 361

muster numerous on the walls; the bristly-leaved
Picris echioides, and leafy grove Hawkweed (Hiera-
cium boreale), in the woods; other species appear
throwing a golden hue upon the aftermath of mea-
dows, . or limestone banks ; and the Fleabane (Inula
dysenterica), opens its specious yellow flowers upon
the last days of August. Other signs are, alas ! not
wanting — the berries of the Mountain Ash are flush-
ed ; those of the water Gruelder Rose (Viburnum
opulus), and the EJiamnus frangula show their crimson
beauties impending above the deep-flowing streams ;
the "Willow-herbs (Epilobium) empurple the beds of
rivulets and wet ditches, and the Mints are beginning
to blossom.

At this period the great Mullein or Hag Taper
(Verbascum tliapsus), shows its " flannel leaves" and
lofty spike of yellow flowers in full perfection, like a
huge torch in the dusk of evening ; and others, of the
same species, flash gloriously by way sides or gardens.
In certain spots the tall Dyer's Weed (Reseda luteota),
is very conspicuous, and the starry Scabious (Scabiosa
or Knautia arvensis), lifts its flowers of regal purple
high in air. The little Centaury (Cliironiacentauria),
named from Chiron the centaur, about this time
adorns many a bank with its bright pink flowers ; and
the hedges are over-run with the Eamping Fumitory,
the brilliant violet clusters of the tufted Vetch (Vicia
cracca), the pink flowers of the Everlasting Pea
(LatJiyrus sylvestris), and the conspicuous white bells
of the great Convolvulus (G. sepium).

For a transcient moment the declining sun spangles
the glorious scene — woods, meadows, cornfields stretch-
ing in far perspective, revel in his gorgeous radiance ;

362 WILD FLOWEBS OF AUGUST.

the deep hollows of the mountains are plunged into
sombre shadow, while their solemn brows, in long
succession, catch the sunny smile that rests not long
upon them, lest it should illumine too much their
sullen dignity. The setting sun is lost in a coloured
haze of lurid crimson, and amidst the impending
gloom of evening, and the rising mists that now slowly
creep along the huge sullen mountain crowns, I find
myself alone and deserted amidst the cliffs and fissures
of the Skirrid Vawr,* struggling for egress from its
masses of broken stones, wild thickets, wet ravines,
and thick-set masses of entangled brakes.

* The Skirrid Vawr, or Great Skirrid, is a remarkable precipitous hill near
Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, presenting in its contour the singular appearance
of a couchant beast of prey with a cub at its feet. It would appear that at
some distant period this lofty mass of old red sandstone has undergone the
phenomenon termed a landslip, a huge mass having been precipitated from the
summit to the base of the hill, and a steep precipice and yawning gap now
intervene between the two masses. To add to the picturesque effect, the
young cub, if the fallen rock may be so termed, is now luxuriantly overgrown
with wood. This circumstance has been seized upon by superstition to impart
a " holy" character to the hill, it having been imagined that this rock was
" rent" at the crucifixion of Our Saviour, and so it bears the appellation of
" The Holy Mountain" to this day among the people of the neighbourhood.
Possibly this landslip of the Skirrid Vawr may have been coincident with the
celebrated journey of Marclay Hill, in Herefordshire, noticed by the old
chroniclers, ami which is another member of the old red formation.

EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE AUGUST.

THEY who study, in detail, the Sea Weeds, now so
profusely scattered upon the sea shore, must consult
the admirable Algoc Britannicce of Dr. GBEYILLE, and
the beautiful figures of the English Botany, so neces-
sary in examining this exceedingly intricate tribe.
The Fucales, or Sea "Weeds, have been formed into
three sections — Fucince, Florinte, and TTlvince. Of the
two former, Professor BTJRKETT has observed, that
" the British seas afford examples of most of the types
of these two very extensive sections, which, though
imtimately allied, have been, from the colour of the
fronds, distinguished into two groups, the Fiorina
and the true Fucince : the first of which are of a mem-
branaceous or cartilaginous structure, and seldom
change much in drying. The second, or true Fucince,
are more or less densely fibrous, and mostly become
of a dingy black when dried. In the fresh state,
likewise, the Florince have showy pink or purple
fronds, the sporidia being also purple, while in the
Fucincs the fronds are of an olive green, and the
sporidia black."*

Dr. W. H. HABYEY, in his Manual of the British
Marine Alga, has arranged them in three divisions,
according to their colour. I. Melanospermece or Fu-
cales— plants of an olive-green or olive-brown colour.
II. Rhodospermece or Ceramiales — plants rosy-red or

* Burnett's Botany, p. 107.

364 EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE AUGUST.

purple, rarely brown-red or greenish-red. III. Cklo-
rospermeG or Confervales — plants green, rarely a livid
purple. He remarks that the green Algae are the
simplest in structure, that their lowest members are
the least compound of all vegetables, some consisting
of a single cell, others of a string of cells linked toge-
ther end to end ; and that the most developed of this
group are not on a par with the least complex of
either of the other groups. A good idea of the green
Algae may be obtained from the common curled gut-
ling (EnteromorpJia intestmalis), often nearly filling
stagnant ponds with its floating pod-like fronds.
These, at first fixed by a minute root, become detached
and floating, and thus inflated, and of a lively green,
curl in all directions about the pool they inhabit,
presenting the curious aspect of the intestines of
some destroyed animal. Finally they fade and become
bleached nearly white. The Confervce, also comprised
in the green Algse, chiefly inhabit fresh water in all
parts of the world, and form the bright green glossy
threads that float on the surface of ponds and ditches.
" "When young," says Dr. HAEVET, " the filaments
lie at the bottom of the pool, but, as they approach
maturity, they float to the surface, where they often
lie so thickly as to retain within their meshes large
bubbles of air, which they have disengaged during the
progress of vegetation, and which is in great part
oxygen. "When shallow water lies for some weeks in
summer on the surface of flat land, it often becomes
completely filled with the threads of these plants,
which, by their vegetation, counteract the evil effects
which the decay of other vegetables under the water
would otherwise dispense, and on the clearing off of

EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR AUGUST, 365

the water their relics quicklj dry up without under-
going decomposition. In this case the matted threads
are soon bleached white in the sun, and forms a sort
of natural paper." This is sometimes called water-
flanrusl, and where a shallow pool has been dried up
spreads its white though flimsy sheet to a considerable
extent.

The Fucales, or olive-brown Algae, are often of great
size, some of them surpassing in the length of their
fronds the tallest forest tree. By far the greater
number are found on tidal rocks, to which they are
firmly attached by a root or holdfast, or sometimes
anchor among loose pebbles. Though some grow in
deep water, they seem rather intended to float near
land, for which purpose they are furnished with air
vessels, which enables them to keep their long but
flaccid fronds in an erect position, the uppermost
branches floating on the surface of the water. The
reflux of the tide exposes them to the influence of the
sun and air at recurring intervals, when they seem
like strange stranded monsters, moving off their brown
leathery limbs with the first return of the briny wave.
The common Laminaria saccharina, from two to twelve
feet long, is a well known inhabitant of the British
coasts, on rocks between high and low water, forming
a cartilaginous, lanceolate, undivided frond. L. digi-
tata, with its leathery frond deeply divided into nume-
rous segments at the end of a long stalk, is also a
common object on the sea coast.

The Iflwdospermece, or red Sea-weeds, are the most
numerous in species, but they never attain the size of
the brown Melanosperms. They flourish mostly in
deep water, and after storms are found scattered

366 EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE AUGUST.

about and in fragments upon the sea beach. Prom their
colour and delicacy of structure, they are often highly
beautiful. Laurencia pinnatifida is a common species
frequently to be found, cartilaginous, and of a purplish
red ; and Delesseria sanguinea, almost as common,
shows itself as a beautiful crimson plant bearing
numerous transversely veined leaves of a similar
colour, and delicately membranous substance. CJion-
drus crispus (the Irish moss of the shops), may be
frequently found on rocky shores. It is of a horny
substance, flat and crisp, repeatedly forked at the
extremities, and of various pale shades of purple or
green.

Most persons bring a Fucus, of some species, as a
memento from the coast, and this, hung up, acts as an
indicative hygrometer. To the zoologist the fuci are,
by means, inutile. Dr. JOHISTSTONE has remarked of
the edible kind (Alaria esculent a) : that " during storms
great numbers of this large species are torn from the
rocks and cast on shore, bearing with them a rich
harvest to the naturalist. In the crevices of the
matted roots, shells and worms, of various kinds and
singular structure, find shelter, or a secure place for
constructing their furrows ; and many elegant coral-
lines spring up between them, to appearance trees in
miniature, but, in reality, cities fuH of living inhabi-
tants. The more delicate and richly coloured Sea-
weeds are parasitical on the stem ; while the broad
frond affords an ample field for many pretty shell-fish
to feed and course upon."*

As a proof of what may be effected by industry and
observation, Dr. HAEYET refers to the Algae Danmo-

* Flora of Berwick-upon -Tweed.

EXPLOKATORY NOTICES FOB ATJGTJST. 367

nienses, published and sold by Mary Wyatt, Dealer in
Shells, Torquay; which is a work of four volumes,
composed of 234 actual specimens of as many species
of Sea- Weeds, all beautifully dried, and correctly
named. For a lady residing near the sea shore, the
formation of a volume of this description is a most
elegant, and cannot fail to prove a most interesting
occupation. How delightful it is on the still calm
day of an ebb-tide, to watch the green isolated pools,
left among the dark rocks, all teeming with life. The
transparent water shows the Star-fish slowly moving
its flabby fingers along the bottom ; the Actinia is
putting forth all its tentacula ; while thickets of Sea-
weed, of various tints, wave their arms with solemn
motion, as if measuring the time for the return of the
tidal wave : —

" The wild wave's thunder on the shore,

The curlew's restless cries,
Unto the watching heart are more
Than all earth's melodies." *

The Porphyra laciniata and vulgaris, from the thin
substance of their shining purple fronds, present an
interesting and beautiful aspect when covering rocks
with their glossy puckered and waved investiture.
These fronds are extensively collected in South "Wales,
and when stewed down and reduced to a black pulp,
are brought to market under the name of laver. This
is considered a good sauce to mutton, and is even by
itself thought to be good eating ~by those who are used
to it !

* Mrs. HEMANS.

WILD PLOWEES OF SEPTEMBEE.

CHAP. XX.

NEW IMAGES ARISING IN THE MIND FROM THE PURSUIT
OF BOTANY — RARE PLANT AT PENNARD CASTLE, ITS
ASPECT, AND RESULTING REFLECTIONS — EXCURSION ON
THE BLACK MOUNTAIN ABOVE LLANTONY ABBEY — AU-
TUMNAL LANDSCAPE — ACCOUNT OF THE MONOTROPA —
CHARACTERISTIC FLORA OF SEPTEMBER — ECONOMY OF
THE AUTUMNAL CROCUS — THE PARNASSIA PALUSTRIS —
EVENING PROSPECT FROM THE LITTLE SKIRRID.

" Where meditation leads,

By flowing stream, through wood, or craggy wild,
Lov'd haunts like these."

" The gloom of dark forests, the grandeur of mountains,

The verdure of meads, and the beauty of flowers ;
The seclusion of valleys, the freshness of fountains,
The sequester'd delights of the loveliest bowers.".

BERNARD BARTON.

I HAYE before remarked the fresh inlet of ideas
opened to the mind by a minute attention to the floral
gems that so gorgeously ornament earth's undulating
bosom ; so that, even a moderate acquaintance with
botanical science, places in the hands and unfolds to
the view, as Dr. AENOTT has remarked — " keys which
give admission to the most delightful gardens which
fancy can picture — a magic power which unveils the
face of the universe, and discloses endless charms of

WILD FLOWERS OP SEPTEMBER. 369

which ignorance never dreams." I have constantly
found the truth of this in all my rambles, and hence I
feel great pleasure whenever I meet with any person
willing to receive on his mind the impress of new
images, before unthought of or unknown ; and this
happens not unfrequently.

"Whatever, indeed," says Dr. DRUMMOISTD, "will
pleasurably tempt us to visit the scenes of nature,
will bring with it the reward of happiness ; and to
this, I believe, is owing the enthusiasm of the angler,
in following his favourite occupation. It is not merely
the capture of a few fish that delights him, but that
it leads him into the lovely scenery of the country,
wlierever mountains rise and ivaters floiv, whether
through meadows rich with verdure, or along the
more sequestered course of rivers, bounded by heath-
covered hills, among which they brawl over stones and
rocks, or plunge headlong raging and foaming down
the dark and gloomy precipice. — It is not the paltry
taking of a few trout that constitutes the charm of
the pursuit ; this originates in the impressions formed
on the mind by the various scenes of nature into
which the angler is drawn in following up his pastime;
and to feelings of similar origin we may trace much
of the pleasure arising from the pursuit of any branch
of natural history, and more especially that of Botany.
It is true, indeed, that the study of the productions
of nature may be delightful under any circumstances ;
and that the inhabitant of a crowded metropolis may
pursue it with the greatest ardour ; but still the in-
vestigation of nature in her own domain has additional
charms ; and however much we may admire the beauty
of natural objects, of shells, for instance, in the cabi-

2s

370 WILD TLOWEES OF

f

net of a naturalist, or in a public museum, would we
not receive a still greater enjoyment, could we observe
them in their native habitats ? or in collecting them
ourselves on the shores where they had been left by
the ebbing tide, or thrown up by some recent storm ?
The pursuit of natural history, indeed, is in all cir-
cumstances redolent of pleasure to its cultivators ;
that is, when they are fairly warmed with the subject,
and possessed of that degree of enthusiasm, without
which every pursuit is stale, flat, and unprofitable."*

In a tour through South Wales, I was once seeking
for the remains of Pennard Castle, in the peninsula
of Grower, about eight miles west of Swansea, where
former botanists have recorded the habitat of a rare
plant, the Drdba aizoides, which is met with nowhere
else in Britain. I had got into a mountain track
among scattered white-washed cottages, overlooked
by a rough old veteran of a church tower, that seemed,
with its overhanging battlements and narrow loop-
holes, more like the refuge of beaten warriors than
the hallowed receptacle for harmless bells ; and hence
obtained a direction to a time-worn brother on the
steep hill beyond. In the little cemetery, with its
humble mounds of rustic flowers, the old parish clerk
was making hay alone, and paused at his labour, as I
bent beneath the narrow gateway. "It's a weary
track, Sir, to the old castle," said he, " and it is all
so surrounded and choked up with sand, that it is not
easy to get at ; indeed, it is long since I have been
there. But if you can wait till I have turned this hay,
I will e'en go with you." Having descended a long
wearisome lane, we entered upon a wild and barren

* DRUMMOND on Natural Systems of Botany, p. 93.

SEPTEMBER. 371

assemblage of sandy hummocks, among which I looked
for some time in vain for the castle ; and the old man
assured me that a town formerly stood here, which
had been overwhelmed with sand, wafted over from
Ireland in one night, and at times he said part of the
walls and houses were visible. I did not attempt to
combat a tradition, which seemed a favourite theme
with him, and in proof of which, he alledged the sand
here to differ from any in the neighbourhood, but
looked out for the plant I had in view, and we had
scarcely reached a ruined pointed arch leading to the
enclosed court, when I perceived upon the tower that
stands upon the very verge of a limestone rock, the
object I was in quest of, growing there in great pro-
fusion and luxuriance. The old man, attentive to my
motions, soon assisted me in gathering specimens, and
I noticed that he filled his own hat also ; for he re-
marked that it was strange that he had never before
observed the plant himself, and he would now cultivate
it in his own garden. As it is an early flowerer it is
an acquisition to any rock-work, and if, at a future
period I may find the flower diffused from garden to
garden, by the care of the old clerk, I shall not have
pointed it out to him in vain ; for what pleasing
images may arise in a host of breasts from one favou-
rite or remembered plant, even in a cottage garden.*

* The rustic names of garden flowers seem in many instances suggestive
of pleasant thoughts, or olden remembrances of poetical colouring, quite
different to the botanical vanity of the present day, which in its records
of new flowers introduces a barbarous nomenclature that will one day
require an Encyclopaedia to unravel it. Although the memory of some of
of the saints, like that of St. William, given to the Dianthus barbatus,
may have faded away, yet " Sweet Williams" remains as a pleasant
name, which is more than can be said of many late acquisitions in very
hoarse sounding latin. But Virgin's Bower, Balm, "pun-provoking:
Thyme," Old Man, Thrift, Speedwell, Stichwort, Heartsease, and Loose-

2 B 2

372 WILD FLOWERS OP

" I know nothing of the names that botanists give
to flowers," said an intelligent rustic once to me, " but
when I am travelling from place to place with my
cart, and see a pretty flower in the hedge, I am unable
to resist stopping to pluck and admire it ; and as I
go along and gaze at it in my hand, it seems to give
me pleasant thoughts for the whole day !"

Ah ! nature awakens up, even in the rudest breasts,
and kindles the divine spark within them ; and yet I
have heard persons who, no doubt, would fain be
thought pre-eminent in wisdom, temperance, and
piety, demurely cry, on looking upon the collected
treasures of many a year — that, no doubt, such things
might be interesting to those who had a taste for them,
if they did not lead the mind from higher things ; as
if any objects placed before the contemplation of man
by Infinite Wisdom, could be either ignoble, debasing,
or unworthy of the minutest attention.* For as the

strife, address the feelings, and tell a moral in small space. Then such
appellations as Monkshood, Larkspur, Columbine, Crowfoot, Toothwort,
and Cranesbill, well understood, show the observation that could institute
comparisons of floral productions with other familiar things. Many com-
mon plants retain the names originally bestowed upon them by monks
and friars of old, who at least harmlessly if not usefully strove to connect
the flowering of plants with recurring festivals and saints' days. Thus
Pasque-flower, St. John's Wort, Cross-flower, Herb Trinity, the Michael-
mas Daisey, and various plants called after " our lady," were considered
to indicate the arrival of festal solemnities of the church ; while Herb
Christopher, Herb Margaret, Herb Robert, Herb Bennet (corrupted from
Herba benedicta), with various others, were dedicated to the saints on
whose anniversaries they appeared. The traditional lore of virtuous
herbs called up other names, as Clary or Cleareye, Self-heal, Ploughman's
Spikenard, Woundwort, and many others, not yet entirely forgotten in
rural appliances.

* It may not be amiss here to record the uniform piety of LINNJEUS,
amidst all his multiform pursuits, as a proof that there is nothing in the
study of science, rightly considered, inimical to religion — in natural history
most assuredly the contrary. When LINNJEUS visited England, and for the
first time in his life beheld the Gorse in flower, he fell on his knees and
offered thanks to God for permitting him to enjoy this gratifying spectacle.

SEPTEMBEK. 373

great BOYLE has well remarked, nothing can be too
mean for the contemplation of man, which has not
been beneath the dignity of a Deity to create.

But away with all disparaging critics of our glori-
ous pursuit. Are we not now led by its love among
delicious solitudes, where the fragrant heather gives
instructive lessons as its pink bells glisten far over
rock and fell — where the thin air fans our panting
frame, inspiring us, at the same time, with purer
thoughts, nobler aspirations, and sublimer reflections ?
It is so. And then the outer man, is not that advan-
taged ? — purer air has displaced the city fog, a genial
glow diffuses itself over the previously pallid face,
and health crowns the moistened brow with a wreath
of flowerets and green herbs, glistening with mountain
dew. So I experienced, to its full extent, when a few
autumns ago two friends and myself climbed up the
Black Mountain from the vale of Ewias,* and progres-

Equally characteristic is his apostrophe to the Deity, in his inaugural
oration before the University of Upsal, on his taking possession of the
chair of Physic in that University. — " O omnipotent God, I humbly offer
up my thanksgiving for the immense benefits that have been heaped upon
me through thy gracious protection and providence. Thou from my
youth upwards hast so led me by the hand, hast so directed my footsteps,
that I have grown up in the simplicity and innocence of life, and in the
most ardent pursuit after knowledge. I give thee thanks for that thou
hast ever preserved me in all my journeys through my native and foreign
countries, amidst so many dangers, that surrounded me on every side.
That in the rest of my life, amidst the heaviest burthens of poverty, and
other inconveniences, thou wast always present to support me with thy
almighty assistance. Lastly, that amidst so many vicissitudes of fortune,
to which I have been exposed, amongst all the goods, I say, and evils, the
joyful and gloomy, the pleasing and disagreeable circumstances of life,
thou endowedst me with an equal, constant, manly, and superior spirit,
on every occasion." — Ameen. Acad., vol. ii.

* There are several mountain ridges in and near to Breconshire bearing
the appellation of the " Black Mountains," but the range here alluded to
stretch in a semicircular direction from N.W. to S.E. above the valley of
Llantony, forming one side of the secluded vale of Ewias, the western
side being formed by a corresponding and nearly parallel ridge. It is this.

374 WILD PLOWEES OF

eed up a rough torrent's bed, now overgrown with
tortuous drooping birches and mountain ash, now
rude with displaced slabs, among which the chafed
waters brawled and splashed, and the brown but
white-breasted Dipper napped his wings ; or barring
the way with steep walls of verdant moss, over which
the stream murmured and bubbled amidst its rocks
and crags, of which one in the centre bore a very
large and beautiful Crowberry Bush (JEmpetrum ni-
grwni), laden with its sable fruit, and many patches of
flowering heath gleamed on the sides of the dingle.
Far below, lessened yet beautified by mellowing dis-
tance, the broken towers and arches of Llantony
Abbey stood grey and desolate in the sober hues of
evening ; and above and around us, the dark frowning
eternal heath-clad hills formed in solemn magnificence
a grand but broken amphitheatre, rounded by the
action of waters long since passed away, but still
bearing on their barren heads the pristine traces of
stern desolation that ages have not taught to subside
even before the smile of summer ; while solemn, nay
even terrific, must be the aspect of these hills amidst
the wailing storms of winter.

Now, however, we could say with WOKDSWOETH, as
we threw ourselves panting on the bright thick and
soft Heather to take a transient but delicious rest —

" Ah ! what a sweet recess, thought I, is here
Instantly throwing down my limbs at ease
Upon a bed of Heath ; — full many a spot
Of hidden beauty have I chanced to espy
Among the mountains ; never one like this ;

range, which, standing on the borders of Herefordshire and Monmouth-
shire, more properly bears the name of the Halterel Hills. To the south
it is connected with hills that approach very near to the Deny, one of the
vast buttresses of the Sugar-Loaf Mountain.

SEPTEMBEE. 375

So lonesome, and so perfectly secure.
* * « *

— In rugged arms how soft it seems to lie,
How tenderly protected ! Far and near
We have an image of the pristine earth,
The planet in its nakedness ; were this
Man's only dwelling, sole appointed seat,
First, last, and single in the breathing world,
It could not be more quiet."

Farther up the mountain we came upon masses of
Bilberry bushes (Vaccinium myrtillus), whose purple
acid fruit we found peculiarly grateful, and the very
summit was adorned with the beautiful blushing fruit
of the Cowberry (Vaccinium Vitis-idcea), whose ever-
green box-like leaves always present a refreshing
aspect. Hence a rugged and desolate brotherhood of
flat-topped eminences rise to view, ridge beyond ridge,
among which Mynydd-y-Cader, or the Chair Moun-
tain, rises conspicuous with its two crowning cairns,
and the lofty crest of the Talgarth Beacon, in sombre
gloom, lifts its head above the other dark-browed
heights. This sullen hill is almost always shrouded
in clouds, its sides stony and barren, and its summit
shaggy with heath, cowberries, and whortleberries.
The lowering clouds rarely allow much prospect of
the surrounding country, and what is seen partakes
too much of surly austerity and gloomy rudeness to
be contemplated with much pleasure or delight.
There is indeed a solitary grandeur in the scene, but
the perpetual shadow of blackened clouds makes it
rather appalling, and gives a melancholy tinge to the
feelings ; and the wanderer retires with impressions
similar to those with which he would leave a robber's
cave — he is thankful to escape unmolested ; but hardly
certain of his safety, he pauses not to look round till

376 WILD FLOWEKS OF

he perceives that he is again approaching the borders
of civilized society.

Having finished our Ossianic reflections upon the
dark hill-top, mirth conducted us down : — for after
starting a covey of red grouse, on we dashed head over
heels down the mountain side, often kissing the turf
in our swift descent, and bounding over the dashing
stream at the bottom, till not without a feeling of joy
that our toils were completed, we found ourselves
regaled with the fragrant China herb in the parlour
of the southern entrance tower of the Abbey, served
by fair hands, and cheered with bright eyes. Truly
we enjoyed ourselves, till the grey mist of evening
shrouding the scene, urged our departure — but ere we
quite reached home, the grey spirit of the mountain
starting after us, blew in sleet and rain one parting
memento upon our recollections.

Such scenes as these will ever and anon refresh the
view of the Botanical Looker-out, and invigorate his
exertions ; and not in vain do they occur, for while
they rest upon the past, like the ruddy glow of sunset
streaking the dull gloom of twilight, their remem-
brance acts as stimuli to the graver duties and re-
searches of the study — so that the labours of the one
continually prompts to the enjoyment of the other.
A modern poet has thus very pleasingly depicted the
sensations that the sight of a single flower may bring
to the mind when contemplated beneath " the open
heaven," and forgetful of the unquiet world —

<e A flow'r is not a flow'r alone,

A thousand sanctities invest it ;
And as they form a radiant zone,
Around its simple beauty thrown,
Their magic tints become its own,
As if their spirit had possess'd it.

SEPTEMBEE. 377

The precious things of heav'n — the dew

That on the turf beneath it trembled ;
The distant landscape's tender blue,
The twilight of the woods that threw
. Their solemn shadows where it grew,

Are at its potent call assembled.

And while a simple plant, for me

Brings all these varied charms together,

I hear the murmurs of the bee,

The splendour of the skies I see,

And breathe those airs that wander free

O'er banks of thyme and blooming heather." *

And now, with botanical exploration thus pictured,
although my gun is not hoisted on my shoulder, may
I not exclaim with ALLAN CUNNINGHAM —

" Quoth I, fair lass, wilt thou gang wi' me,
Where black-cocks crow, and plovers cry ?"

for at this season, when the autumnal sun faintly
struggles with mountain masses of enormous clouds,
and the green earth is fresh from frequent showers
dashing across the landscape, while the glorious arch
of promise rests magnificent on wood or hill, the dain-
tiest foot need not fear the fatigue of a hilly ascent ;
and who that has once tripped upon the hoary rein-
deer moss, stood upon the time-worn slab crusted
with the tartareous lichen, or sunk to dream upon the
blooming heather stretching far upon the mountain
side, but must long dwell upon the scene that then
rose in wild seclusion with still recurring enthusiasm.
But amidst the empurpling hues of the Devil's-bit
Scabious (Scabiosa succisa), and the bright yellow
blossoms of the Cow-Wheat (Ittelampyrum) , we now
descend the deep sides of a glen walled in on either
side with broken rocks, whose lofty heads shadow the
dingle with sepulchral gloom. There rest we on the

* From an Ode by DOUGLAS ALLPOKT.

378 WILD FLOWEES OF

narrow bridge arching the gulf, where the raving
waters, red with the slaughtered soil, roar, splash, and
struggle, while on the masses of stones that lie around
in confused disorder, vast whirl-holes are engraved as
vestiges of former watery warfare. The irrecoverable
plunge hurries the stream into profound darkness,
beyond the reach of vision, and its further course,
like the unknown future, is shrouded in the solemn
gloom of blasted yews, and old battered beeches,
whose fantastic boles rooted into the rifted rock, swell
out into the strangest and most grotesque forms.

In such hidden recesses, among the dead fungoid
masses of beech-leaves that thickly strew the ground,
the scrutinizing eye may sometimes detect the curious
close-lurking Monotropa Hypopitys, whose brown with-
ered aspect, and brown flowers, renders it almost
inconspicuous in the twilight groves. The economy
of this plant is very remarkable. We find it seated
among beech roots in a hard intangled mass without
any certain apparent parasitical attachment, though
the beech roots appear many of them in a dead and
exhausted state. The roots of the Monotropa itself
are fleshy and branched, much like those of the Lis-
ter a nidus-avis, but more widely extended, and covered
with a white cobwebby mycelious production, perfectly
transparent when seen through the microscope, and
seeming to be a fungus in an abortive state, its ulti-
mate filaments much resembling the anomalous Ozo-
nia auricomum.* Whether this is parasitical upon

* Mr. T. G. Rv LANDS has, iu a paper in the Phytologjst, characterized
this, under the name of Epfphagos Luxfordii, as an actual plant, " pro-
bably a hyssoid Alga," but as no fructification could be found this appears
very doubtiul ; and after much microscopical observation of these very
curious filaments, I can only come to the conclusion, unsatisfactory as it
is, that they are a metamorphosis of the decayed beech rootlets, which are

8EPTEMBEB. 379

the roots of the Monotropa, or in some mysterious
way bound up in its economy I am unable positively
to determine, but it connects the plant in an inextri-
cable manner with the beech rootlets, which in some
instances appear actually metamorphosed into a fun-
goid aspect. Mr. NEWMAN has suggested in the
Phytologist (vol. i. p. 299), that " many species of
ferns derive part of their food through the decaying
portions of the bark and wood of trees to which their
rhizomata are appressed : if this be parasitism then I
think it will not be difficult to prove a like parasitism
in the plant now under consideration." When it is
found also that the Monotropa is always seen in con-
nection with beech or pine trees, and often growing
in circles around them within their dense shadows,
there certainly seems at first view a connection in the
economy of the plant with these trees ; and as on
further examination the masses of decayed matter in
which they grow are always permeated by a labyrinth
of rootlets, mostly in a decayed state, the probable
truth appears to be such a modified parasitism as Mr.
NEWMAN supposes. Dr. HOOKER in the Flora Lon-
dinensis says that the Monotropa is " one of the most
anomalous and singular of British plants. — In general
aspect it approaches nearer to OrobancTie than to any
thing else, but is totally different in the structure of
its fructification. The young plants have a graceful
form from the circumstance of their drooping heads,
which become quite erect as the flowers advance.
There is a very peculiar smell arising from every part

always found broken up in the vicinity of the Monotropa. I am inclined
to think still that the roots of the Monotropa do absorb nutriment from
the diseased rootlets of the beech, and that the byssoid appearance about
the Monotropa is owing to this disarrangement.

380 WILD FLOWERS OF

of the herb ; which much resembles that of the prim-
rose, but is not altogether so agreeable ; partaking
also as it appears to me, of the odour of bees-wax.
While drying, this scent is much more powerful, and
it is retained even when the plant is perfectly dry."
That noses may differ, however, in their sensations,
like doctors and lawyers in opinions, appears oddly
enough from the recorded statements of Mr. WILSON
and Mr. NEWMAN, who both considered the odour
given out by the plant to be exactly like that of a raw
potatoe — Sir J. E. SMITH, like myself, thought it to
resemble primroses — while a lady to whom. I pre-
sented three mature plants in seed after they had
been gathered nearly five months, and requested her to
smell them, at once exclaimed "Beautiful! just like the
Mezereon! " — "When I have had about fifty fresh plants
together, the fragrance proceeding from them was so
powerful as to scent the room they were in for weeks,
and was instantly perceptible on opening the door.

The wild Flora of September partakes of the colder
hues which the waning year now insensibly, as the
brighter flowers fade, mixes up with the changing
aspect of things. The various Mints (Mentha), as
Spearmint, Peppermint, Watermint, Hedmint, &c.,
now every where present their whorled or capitate
pale purple flowers on the sides of rivers, brooks, and
springs, toning down the hues of the robe of nature
in coincidence with the " cold autumnal care" that
begins to make itself sensible to the mind, yet not
without a feeling of pensive pleasure from the fragrant
scents diffused around-

" in the meadows where

Mints perfume the gentle aire."*
* W. BROWNE.

SEPTEMBEE. 381

In inoist spots, too, the Soapwort (Saponaria officina-
lis), shows its roseate petals glistening with dew; and
the Virgin's Bower (Clematis vitalbd), trails its pale
starry globes in assembled multitudes upon the
hedges-, or about limestone rocks. But the most cer-
tain indication of the approach of Autumn is shown
by the pale purple petals and long white tubes of the
Autumnal Crocus or Meadow-saffron (Colchicum au-
tumnale), commonly called, though rather indelicately,
" Naked Ladies," which invariably presents itself in
moist meadows by the first of September — and where
it abounds, as it does in profusion by the margin of
the Severn, and often in wild hilly places, far from the
haunt of busy life, the appearance it presents in wide
patches of delicate purple, like fairy islets amidst the
grassy aftermath, is truly beautiful. But, as is often
the case in the vegetable world, a moral lies shrouded
within this surface of beauty — for destruction lurks
concealed in its lap. Its foliage is a most virulent
poison to cattle, and great numbers have been, at
various times, destroyed by eating its foliage. It is,
however, very remarkable, that the leaves and fruit
never appear till the following Spring after the flower;
and thus in .the Autumn, when the flowers only arise,
no danger is to be apprehended from them, and the
meadows where the plant abounds being seldom
grazed in the Spring, mischief is for the most part
avoided. Every agriculturist should be especially
careful that the capsule of the saffron, with its three
long ribbon-like leaves, is not present in the vernal
pastures where he turns his stock to graze, for if it be,
and the cattle have been long deprived of green food,
they will ravenously eat it, and fall down dead in a
very few hours after.

382 WILD FLOWERS OP

The Colchicum from flowering in a nude state,
without any protecting foliage at so late a period of
the year has often attracted the attention of observers
who might have passed it by at another time. Arch-
deacon PALET has adduced it as an apt illustration of
his doctrine of compensation, and the Eev. "W. A.
LEIGHTON, in the Flora of Shropshire, states its vital
economy to be an exceedingly curious evidence of de-
sign. PALET says — " I have pitied this poor plant a
thousand times. Its blossom rises out of the ground
in the most forlorn condition possible ; without a
sheath, a fence, a calyx, or even a leaf to protect it ;
and that not in spring, but under all the disadvantages
of the declining year. When we come, however, to
look more closely into the structure of this plant, we
find, that instead of its being neglected, nature has
gone out of her course to provide for its security, and
to make up to it for all its defects. The seed-vessel,
which in other plants is situated within the cup of the
flower, or just beneath it, in this plant lies ten or
twelve inches under ground within the bulbous root.
The tube of the flower, which is seldom more than a
few tenths of an inch long, in this plant extends down
to the root. The styles always reach the seed-vessel ;
but it is in this by an elongation unknown to any
other plant. All these singularities contribute to one
end. In the autumn nothing is done above ground
but the business of impregnation." The young plant
of the present year formed in the preceding one, du-
ring the early summer absorbs its chief nourishment
from the old parent bulb, gradually enlarging, till in
autumn it protrudes through the soil a long sheath
from whence arises two or more purple flowers of six

SEPTEMBER. 383

petals at the end of a pale elongated tube. Fecunda-
tion soon completed, the corolla withers away, but the
buried gerrnen snugly rests beneath the soil through
the storms of winter, thus admirably protected, until
stimulated by the spring, the fully developed capsule
appears above the soil surrounded by three shining
green leaves. Meantime the bulb has assimilated the
juices of its parent and has itself rooted in the earth.
The leaves now wither, the capsule bursts and scatters
its ripe seeds, new embryo buds appear, and these in
their turn are destined to adorn the following Septem-
ber with their naked purple flowers, to fulfil the
economy designed for them.

One of the prettiest sights that this month can
offer to the eye of the botanical wanderer, in wilds
unknown to public view, especially where the dripping
fall of fountains beguile the ear, is in the elegant
aspect of the fair Parnassia palustris, whose stainless
argent flowers decorate particular plashy spots at this
time. I shall not easily forget the sight of numbers
of this most exquisitely beautiful of British flowers,
growing amidst emerald moss, close to the very edge
of the foaming waters of the " SEVEN SPEINGS," that
pour their overflowing urns into the chrystal Wind-
rush,* near Bourton-on-the- Water, Gloucestershire.
They inspired the following lines —

* I was at this time on a pleasant three days' excursion among the ups
and downs of the stony Cotteswolds in company with my friends General
BRIGGS and Professor BUCKMAN, the latter of whom has recorded the
incidents of our ramble and the plants found in the Phytologist, vol. i, p.
137-41. The Seven Springs is a most attractive and beautiful spot. Here
is a wide marsh extending up to an abrupt rocky yet undulating h;ll, from
whose base various clear streams appear gushing forth as if in wild tumul-
tuous joy, and effusing themselves over an extent of boggy ground,
bounded on the south by the quiet but chrystal Windrush, that like an
attendant nymph waits with her urn to receive the outpourings that from

384 WILD FLOWERS OF

TO THE PARNASSIA PALUSTRIS.
(Grass of Parnassus.}

By the brink of the fountain, sweet flow'r
I saw thee for one happy hour ;

In thy bridal array,

How beauteous, I say,

Was thy spotless display
Midst the streamlet's perpetual pour.

I had never beheld thee before

So fair on the rough barren moor ; —

Like a thought from above,

Like a vision of — Love,

Among flowers — a dove,
Was thy aspect on Windrush's shore.

Still fair in the wane of the year
Thy petals and nectaries appear ;—

Oh ! delectable sight

To behold thee in white,

While upon thee alight
The gay red or blue butterflies near.

As a beautiful vision, I think

Of thy blossoms on Windrush's brink ;

In that wildly lone dell

As if bound by a spell,

I shall oft seem to dwell,
Giving Memory a fair silver link.

this favoured spot are, as from the altar of a Deity, lavishly poured out for
her enrichment, and as a tribute for her to bear away and consign to the
friendly embrace of the silver Isis. The springs at this spot (rather eight than
seven) rush from the bowel s of the oolitic hill with considerable force splash-
ing and murmuring down the steep descent very prettily, but soon spread
themselves in the marsh below, which is densely overgrown with various
species of Blysmus, Juncus, Carex, and other aquatic plants, located on
pretty islets, while the marsh filled to repletion at length pours forth its
redundance into the clear Windrush, which decorated with the bright
flowers of the Forget-me-Not, and half filled with Potamogetons, flows
silently beside it. On the adjacent hill side the very rare Thlaspi perfoli-
atum grows, and the Pasque-flower in its season flourishes abundantly.

SEPTEMBEE.

385

The elegant Parnassia is much more plentiful in
the north than in the midland or southern counties.
The yellow balls of its nectaries seen with the pure
white petals have a very peculiar aspect. This is one
of those plants where the " natural system" only
serves to perplex the student, systematic botanists
referring the " Grass of Parnassus" to different orders,
as its affinities correspond in some degree with
Sundews, as well as Saxifrages and St John's- Worts.

' O

HOOKER and ARISTOTT remark that " its place is not
settled. — It resembles some violets in its leaves, and
the Saxifraga parnassicefolia in aspect, but it departs
from the Saxifrayacece by the position of its stig-
mas." Nature, in fact, will have her own way, and
the systematists are obliged to make use of artificial
expedients after all. Mount Parnassus gave its name
to this plant, where it was noticed and described by
DIOSCOEIDES.

Thought again carries us on swift wing far away
into a district in Monmouthshire, tempting alike to
the botanist and the lover of picturesque scenery.
The sparkling Usk rolls beneath the double bridge of
Abergavenny, glances on its cumbrous ruined castle
seated on a green elevated mound, and ploughing into
the gravel on its pebbly shores, hastens along its
beauteous vale to the ocean. Bounding the valley on
the west rises the stupendous Blorenge Mountain, to
the height of 1720 feet, the termination in this direc-

O »

tion of that band of mountain limestone encompassing
the South Wales Coal field ; — clouds ever and anon,
wreath its summit, while the morning sun lights up
the woods at its base, its green sides, and its protrud-
ing rocks, leaving the vast punch-bowl hollows of the

2c

386 WILD FLOWEBS OF

mountain shadowed in gloomy obscurity. Northward
the pyramidal height of the Sugar-Loaf and its mas-
sive subject buttresses of old red sandstone block up
the vale, leaving but a scanty space for the passage
of the Usk on the one hand, and shelving off on the
other towards the isolated fortress of the Skirrid
Vawr, whose terraced ridges and detached promonto-
ries form a commanding object eastward ; while from
thence to the south an undulating woody ridge,
capped by the feathery little Skirrid, extends almost
to the banks of — •

" The lucid Usk, the undulating line
That nature loves."

To increase the charm of the scene, the foaming
little river G-avenny hurries from the eminences east-
ward, through richly verdant meadows, to increase
the liquid resources of the rushing Usk ; while the
beauties of the country around Crickhowel, only six
miles northward, Ragland's noted towers, eight miles
to the south, with the matchless arches of Tintern
within the range of a more distant excursion, conspire
to tempt the wandering lover of nature to pause at
Abergavenny. In this vicinity various interesting
plants came under my notice, especially on the road
to Skenfreth, where by a little stream in a deep hol-
low of a by-way beyond Lanvetherine, I saw the tall
Elecampane (Inula Selenium) conspicuous with its
sunlike flower, one of the finest and rarest of its tribe
in Britain, and truly wild perhaps only in secluded
moist places. The Dwarf Elder (Sambitcus ebulusj) or
Danewort, supposed to indicate spots where blood
has been spilt, appeared also in considerable plenty
not far from the foot of the Derry. On the sides of

SEPTEMBER. 387

the Sugar-Loaf, Melampyrum arvense, var. montana,
appeared plentifully, Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis)
on the banks of the Usk in profusion, and various
Mints, as Mentlia sylvestris, Spear-mint (M. viridis),
and Fragrant Mint (M. acutifolia), by rivulets des-
cending from the deep combs of the sullen lofty Blo-
renge.

But evening has surprized us while musing on the
summit of the Little Skirrid, near Abergavenny,
amidst the wild groves of aged Hollies, Hawthorns,
Maples, and Beeches, that surround its lonely verdant
brow. The sun has sunk behind a purple cloud, but
the winding Usk gleams with mirror-like brightness in
the fair valley below, throughout all its undulations.
The clouds of evening slowly fold upon the solemn
brows of the Black Mountains, darken the head of the
Great Skirrid, and cast into deep shadow the majestic
wooded buttresses of the Sugar Loaf, whose narrow
peak bright above all, rises the acknowledged sove-
reign of this mountain conclave ; while the eye resting
upon the darkened surly Blorenge, robed in the deep-
est purple, vainly attempts to penetrate the gloom
that has now settled upon its rocky escarpment, and
bathes its ferns and mosses in the dews of night.
One lonely light among the woods at its base, alone
serves to show by comparison the giant bulk whose
indentations have been torn, bared, and riven by the
autumn floods and storms.— -Te woods, wilds, and soli-
tudes, ere again the tempest raves in terror through
your leafy glades, driving the phrenzied streams from
their murmuring pebbly beds, and tracing desolation
on the flowery meads — ere again the muddy torrent
breaks its bounds from the incessant rain, and the

2 c2

388 WILD FLOWEES OF SEPTEMBER,

blood-red ravine lifts its angry ensign as a trophy in
mid-air, may we wander meditatively among the deep-
embowered paths of your denies, and retreat from
your storm-robed fastnesses in safety.* Now, then,
as the rising mists trail in serpent folds along the
shadowy vale — Good Night !

* Just previous to my ramble in Monmouthshire, in the autumn of 1839,
after violent rain for some days, the saturated soil on the eastern declivity of
the Blorenge gave way, and a torrent of mud and water descended roaring in
the shades of night to the Usk below, violently tearing up the earth, over-
throwing trees, and scattering desolation over fertile fields. When I examined
the spot, the turnpike road, for some distance, had been converted into the
bed of a stream, rendered totally impassable, and obstructed by fallen trees,
that seemed to have been hurried along with the land on which they grew.
In a similar way the autumnal and winter torrents tear into the sides of the
sandstone mountains of Breconshire. The range of " Black Mountains,"
passed on the road from Hay to Brecon, appear deeply gullied with furrows
down their bare precipitous sides, all red and grimy from the decomposing
sandstone of which they are formed, yielding1 to the excavating force of tor-
rents swollen with continual rain, and giving to their profile the half-horrid
half-ludicrous idea of a giant's face furrowed with weeping !
" For many a furrow on their time-worn cheeks
Has been the channel to a flood of tears."

WILD FLOWEES OP SEPTEMBEE.

«

(CONTINUED.)
CHAP. XXI.

FLOWERS OF THE WANING YEAR — PLEASURES OF ASSOCI-
ATION— PLANTS BY THE WIZARD DEE AND THE LAKE
OF EALA — EXCURSION TO THE CLIFFS OF ARRAN BEN
LYN — NOTICE OF THE AWLWORT AND HABITAT OF THE
WATER LOBELIA — BOTANICAL LOOK-OUT ON THE BERWYN
MOUNTAINS — ASPECT OF THE MOSSY TURF CLOTHED
WITH SQUARROSE RUSHES AND LYCOPODI^-REFLECTIONS
ENGENDERED — VARIOUS FERNS AND ROCK PLANTS —
AUTUMNAL FLOWERS OF DITCHES AND COMMONS — DO-
MESTIC PLANTS, VERVAIN, WORMWOOD, &C. — EVERLAST-
ING FLOWERS — SPLENDOR OF THE AUTUMNAL GORSE —
OCEAN SUNSET AT BARMOUTH.

" It is a bright and balmy afternoon,
Approaching unto eventide ; and all
Is still except that streamlet's placid tune,
Or hum of bees, or lone wood-pigeon's call,
Buried amid embow'ring forest tall,
Which feathers, half way up, each hill's steep side :
Dost thou not feel such landscape's soothing thrall ;
And wish, if not within its bowers t'abide
At least to explore its h aunts, and know what j oys they hide ? "

BERNARD BARTON.

The year fast wanes away, and milder paler tints
diversify the floral prospect, save where the Hawthorn
berries blush in the hedges, or the orchards show the
ruddy tints of the ripened apples. The meadows
shine with pallid gold where the autumnal Dandelion

390 WILD FLOWEKS OF

(Apargia autumnalis) widely spreads, or are in many
places overgrown with the yellow umbels of the Pep-
per Saxifrage (Silaus pratensis), or silvery with the
common Burnet Saxifrage (Pimpinella saotifragd).
Indicative of the Autumnal Floralia, the Hawkweed
Picris (P. liieracioides) , Ploughman's Spikenard (Co-
ny za squarrosa), Golden-rod (Solidago Virgaurea),
common Saw-wort (Serratula tinctorid), the Ragworts,
and other syngenesious flowers appear to bloom in
the tempered radiance, ere their feathered pappi are
dispersed before the equinoctial gales. Flat meadows
by rivers are in some places at this period made re-
markable with the deep purple heads of flowers of the
Great Burnet (jScwguisorba officinalis)*

About pools, moist spots on heaths, and little rills
of clear water, several plants now appear of humble
stature, which in the more gorgeous days of Summer
might almost pass unnoticed — but the botanist detects
them as indicating the movements of Flora's dial,
whose hands are now resting on almost the last fresh
flowers of the year. Among these the Bur Marigolds,
(Bidens tripartite^ et cernua), claim attention ; the
purple Marsh "Wound-wort (Stacliys palustris), the
white flowered Gipsy-wort (Lycopus Europceus), and
the blue Skull-caps (Scutellaria), so called from the
singular aspect of the calyx after the corolla has fallen
The small Skull-cap is a common denizen of mountain
bogs, where in company with the yellow kingspear,
the ivy -leaved bell-flower, the rose-pimpernel, and the
flossy cotton-grass, it is seen with constant delight by
the wandering botanist.

The pleasures of local association combine in the
mind perhaps more fully with flowers than with any

SEPTEMBER. 391

thing else, and hence I have sought to connect beau-
tiful scenery with the plants that every day spring up
before our eyes. There is an incitation in this that
awakens the heart-strings of thought into full activity
and gives wings to the imagination. An amiable
author of Reflections among the Sublimities of Na-
ture, asks — " Why does the common heart' s-ease, the
bear's-foot, and the polyanthus, interest him more
than many other flowers, much more rare and beauti-
ful ? — Because they decorated the garden of a cottage
belonging to an old woman whom he loved in his
childhood. The violet, so beautiful and so odoriferous
in itself, is still increased in interest by remembering
how many a tranquil hour he has devoted to the
gathering bunches of it under the hedgerows, when a
boy.- -"When he sees a wood- strawberry, why are his
reflections agreeable ? Because it grows abundantly
in a wood in the county of Merioneth, where he has
often delighted to wander. — The wind-berry, the bog-
berry, and the spider-wrort ? Because growing on
mountains, they have associated themselves with
liberty, solitude, and large flocks of sheep." *

So in like manner I have wandered into the soli-
tudes of nature not merely for flowers, but for
thoughts, that in after years should be associated with
them by memory, and which their sight should again
recall. The banks of the "Wizard Dee are connected
in my mind with the Worm-seed Treacle Mustard
(Erysimum clieirantJioides) , and the Marsh Hawk's-
Beard (Crepis paludoscf), which I found, the latter
especially most abundantly adorning the margin of
the stream ; as well as with those woods of silver-

* BUCKE'S Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of Nature, vol. Hi. p. 13.

392 WILD FLOWERS OF

columned Birches that in beautiful array rise on the
heights above the lancet arches of Yalle Crucis abbey
in the vale of Llangollen. The hill fortress of Castel
Dinas Bran in the same vicinity has become con-
nected with botanical research by the circumstance of
a variety of the White-Beam tree (Pt/rus intermedia),
growing as a seedling on one of its time-battered
walls, though in fact I myself wandering farther on
found many more interesting specimens of the same
tree interspersed with solemn Yews among the fear-
fully shattered crags of the limestone rocks called
Craig Eglwsieg, that hem in the glen farther eastward.
Here too, in great abundance located in the crannies
of disjointed masses of rock, I observed, though half
shrivelled up, the little Rock-Hutchinsia (H. petrcea).
"While botanizing about the vale of Llangollen, I
walked one autumnal day from Bala to Cerig-y-
Pruidion, spending the noontide amidst the rocks and
foaming "Water-breaks below Pont-y - Glyn, thence,
roaming to Corwen by ways embowered with the red-
fruited Itfiamrms frcmgula, and in the dusk of evening
faint and tired bathed my forehead in the Dee's moss-
brown waters. There was a feeling of luxurious
enjoyment in that at the time, looking back upon the
toils and aspirations of a day of poetry, and oft has
thought reiterated the enjoyment like a remembered
strain of music. Nearer to Bala a new feature is
given to the scene where the banks of the little river
Treweryn and other streams are prettily clothed with
the "Willow-leaved Spiraea ($. salicifolia), with here
and there a Cambrian Poppy on some fissured rock,
and the red-berried upright Bramble (Rubus sub-
erectus), and the Mountain Globe-flower (Trollius

SEPTEMBEE. 393

scattered amidst monstrous boulder-stones
that in ruinous confusion almost choak up the beds of
the streams. Scenes like these charming the wan-
derer at the time with unimagined poetry, become
transferred to the memory not only as pictures, but
as impressions of readings from nature awaking bliss-
ful ideas again and again.

At the time above alluded to I sojourned for a week
at the little town of Bala, seated near the lake of the
same name. The lake itself dark, frowning, and ever
fretting its waters in ripples before the wind like an
unquiet spirit, has but little to attract the imagina-
tion; but the mountains that from a distance just
peer into its waters when a temporary calm soothes
its passion, are tempting to explore — particularly the
twin peaks of the Arrenigs, and the solemn Arran Ben
Llyn. The latter I devoted a day to wandering upon,
, and hence one little plant — the Awlwort, will ever rest
in my mind in companionship with the black rocks
of Arran.

On this ramble, ascending from the eastern shore
of the Bala pool, I entered a rocky valley watered by
a brawling torrent, beyond which appeared minor
ridges connected with the mighty backbone of Arran
itself. This torrent, called the Twrch, or Burro wer,
falls into the Dee ere it enters the southern end of
Bala Lake. I continued along the road in view of it
still ascending till I came to a farm-house and hamlet,
called Rhydybont, where there is a " watersmeet,"
from a boisterous stream joining the Twrch, by a
lateral valley that winds up into the very heart of the
mountain. Just beyond this place the rugged cliffs
of Arran appear with fine effect, deeply furrowed by

394 WILD TLOWEES OF

the erosion of centuries on their time-worn cheeks ;
and the highest peak with its cairn of stones here
comes into view, like a lofty pyramid, distinct in its
altitude from the nearer broken and disjointed masses
of the shattered black cliffs. Before ascending these
heights, I diverged to see the cascade of the Twrch,
higher up the valley where it narrows almost to a
glen, with a bare green mountain on one side, and a
steep eminence on the other pleasingly covered with
a natural forest of birches. Having arrived at the
entrance of the pass called Bivlcli-y-groes, the sound
of tumbling water in the deep glen on my right di-
rected me to the water-fall, and I hastened down to
it. From the paucity of water at that time it had
more the appearance of a number of water-leaps
among a great disruption of rocky masses, rather than
a cascade in the strict sense of the term. It would
appear as if a water-spout had burst in among the
mountains years ago, sweeping a ruin of massive
boulder-stones before it, which had been left heaped
confusedly upon each other in this cavity, since which
the water has rolled musically among them, sportively
leaping from one to another, burrowing beneath some,
sliding over the slicky surface of others, and more or
less marking all with those deep indented curious
circular impressions, which suggest the idea of their
being the tracks of some monstrous extinct animal of
bulk sufficient to seal its progress over the rocks !
The scene is very pretty and romantic at the com-
mencement of the fall, where two huge cromlech-like
stones seem to bar the way, and the stream dashes
down a deep gap between them, commencing thence
a series of leaps, plunges, and niurmurings among the

SEPTEMBEB. 395

broken stones, grey crags, and deep hollows, that
continues a considerable distance. In the damp re-
cesses of the rocks about the fall, the Starry Saxifrage
(Sascifraga stellaris^) w*as prettily in flower, and Wa-
ters Avens (Geum rivale) near a crag above it. In
the broken ground along the descent of the stream
many fine old battered and distorted Birch and
Mountain-Ash trees were growing, the latter always
in combination with falling water in "Wales, and their
red berries giving character to such wild secluded
scenery. The Marsh Hawk' s-beard (Orepis paludosa,)
still in flower also adorned the rocks close to the
waters, as well as the leafy Northern Hawkweed
(THeracium boreale), and masses of the Meadow-
sweet (Spiraea ulmaria) scented the air. Many Mosses
and Jungerrnannia3 also appeared about the moist
crevices of the broken rocks. After wandering for
some time among the fissures and ledges of this ro-
mantic scene, I returned down the valley to Ehydy-
bont, where I passed the Twrch by a wooden bridge
at the " meeting of the waters," and then another
stream by a number of leaping-stones through which
the waters struggled fiercely as they swept down from
the dark recesses of Arran.

I now took a path by the side of this last-mentioned
stream, which continued roughly brawling among
rounded quartzose stones, brought down evidently
from the entrails of the mountain, and as I left its
side the deep coomb of its birth opened before me on
the left with a steep green glacis. After passing a
rough cottage, whose roof was covered with polypody
and stonecrop (Sedum anglicmn), I struck off up the
mountain side till I came to an extensive bog, the

396 WILD FLOWERS OF

vast shadowy precipices of Arran frowning directly in
front. Crossing the bog towards the cliffs, I soon
perceived a deep hollow within which a lake, some-
what in the form of a figure of 8, lay partially shrouded
in deep shadow, the solemn cliffs above being reflected
in gloom, while a continual ripple agitated the waters.
Broken rocks of all sizes formed a fitting frame for
this mountain llyu, and among these its surplus
waters rushed through at the extremity at which I
approached it by a gulley that deepened in its pro-
gress towards the valley. A blaze of sunshine flickered
in front of the extending shadow of the black preci-
pices, lighting up the margin of the lake, and showing
a great quantity of green Plantain Shoreweed (JLitto-
rella lacustris) piled along the shore. The darkened
surface of the llyn looked sad as hopeless despair, but
on the very verge of the deep shadow a brilliant ray
of light awakened a little silver cruciferous flower that
on the margin of the sable water glittered like a
cottage window in the glories of sunset, or an icicle
on a rock amidst wintry gloom. So minute as to be
else unseen, I marked it in a moment, and found it
to be the fairy Awlwort (Subularia aquatica), a highly
curious little plant, found only on the margins or
even at the bottom of alpine lakes, where it flowers
though its corolla is quite unprotected and not diffe-
rent from, those of other tetradynamous flowers. The
leaves are few, all radical and awl-shaped, resembling
those of Isoetes, another inhabitant of mountain tarns.
Leaving the lake I skirted the base of the precipices
for some distance, gradually mounting among the
rocks as the opportunity presented itself among Crake-
berries (Empetrimi nigruni), and coarse grasses ; and

SEPTEMBEE,

397

in one place obtaining a sight of the Rough Alpine
Shield-fern (Aspidiimi Loncliitis), on an inaccessible
crag. Midway up the precipices, the little S-formed
lake which I now overlooked appeared to advantage,
and was contrasted with the long lake of Bala, seen
stretching above it in the perspective now momently
widening before me. I had some difficulty in reach-
ing the summit of the cliffs, and even then had to
cross an extensive marshy plateau, among which are
several boggy pools with quantities of Cotton-grass,
descend a deep hollow, and surmount a rough staircase
of quartzose and trappoid rocks piled horridly upon
each other, ere I could gain the loftiest peak of Arran
Ben Llyn. The view was repaying, for the landscape
was nearly clear, no clouds obscured the mountains,
and the sun within an hour of his setting finely illu-
mined the scene, without the deterioration of any
misty glare. Still the air was not entirely transparent,
consequently it communicated the deepest and most
lovely blues to the distant ridges, so that the entire
northern ranges of the Welch Alps appeared as vivid
and distinct as if painted in body colours. Eastward,
a singular scene appeared — the vast tabular masses of
the Berwyns were seen in gloomy uniformity, like
vast beams, the scaffolding of nature, one behind
another, with monstrous hollows between, green or
purplish, save where a great bare red place seemed to
point out the brand of some desolation of fire or
water. To detail the whole objects visible in such a
grand panorama as this would be a vain attempt —
but the northern prospect was the crowning gem of
the view. The lake of Bala, in its long extent, flanked
by the pointed Arrenigs, were looked upon in front j

398 WILD FLOWERS OF

thence extended a magnificent accumulation of ridges
heaped upon and behind each other in the wildest
confusion, intermingled with dark chasms and deep
glens, the grand appearance of which I can only com-
pare to that of a vast field of ice broken up by a
sudden storm. A coloured vapour from the descend-
ing sun harmonized the surfaces of these deep azure
" delectable mountains," and deepened their inequali-
ties with a chiaro-scuro effect that I have seldom
witnessed, and I gazed upon the sublime prospect till
the sun went down, and the shrill shriek of the even-
ing breeze, borne up the ravines of the mountain with
a warning voice, urged me to retire ere night should
give a dangerous obscurity to the morasses I had to
traverse on my return.

I may here, while among the mountains, mention a
plant peculiar to alpine lakes, that continues to flower
in the autumnal floral reign — the "Water Lobelia (L.
Dortmanna). This rooted under the water, with its
starry tufted recurved foliage, lifts up its long slender
spikes with pale blue drooping flowers at the summit,
in many of the Welch llyns very plentifully. I have
never seen it in greater abundance and perfection
than in the Teivy lakes, above Strata Florida Abbey,
Cardiganshire. There I gathered it on an excursion
when dense mist rested on the mountain tops, and
the silent llyns cradled in vapour, seemed in their
gloomy hollows like steaming volcanic craters, rather
than basins of chrystal beauty devoted to the Oreades.
Hastily I descended the splashy sides of the hills, but
the misty wreathes closed upon me from behind, and
involved in fog and darkness among quaking turbaries,
gushing streamlets, broken deceptive ravines, and

SEPTEMBEE. 399

slippery stones, I had some difficulty in escaping from
the humid bed where the mountain sylphs seemed
anxious to detain me, and it was late in the night ere
I reached Pont B-hynvendigad.

But .the earnest botanical explorator imbibes the
mountain dew uncomplainingly, the thought of floral
beauties among deep solitudes and broken fells dwells
upon his imagination, wander he must, and like a
vapour that the sun calls upward, he darts off from
murky streets and dingy habitations to the solicitous
haunts and purifying heights where his favourites
grow.

" Climb with me the steep —

Nature's observatory — whence the dell
In flowery slopes, its river's chrystal swell,
May seem a span ; let me thy vigils keep
'Mongst boughs pavilion'd, where the deer's swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell." *

Let us then illustrate the joys of a botanical look-out
in a cursory plunge among the dark moors and sullen
tumps of the Berwyn mountains. Here all is silent,
waste, and uninhabited, nothing visible but the black

' ' O

wide spread Heath,f and the blacker stacks of
"Mown" or turf, on the mountain side. Cairns crown
each round eminence, and one looms behind the other
so twin-like that in a fog it would be impossible to
distinguish one from the other, and what a desolate
position this must be with a keen pityless sleet-

* KEATS.

t LINN^US remarks in his Flora Lapponica, that in some of the districts
through which he passed in Lapland scarce any plant was to be seen hut the
heath, which everywhere covered the ground, and could no ways be extir-
pated. The country people, he observes, had an idea that there were two
plants which would finally overspread and destroy the whole earth, viz.
Heath and Tobacco. But it is probable there will be always smokers
enough to consume the last plant.

400 WILD FLOWEES OF

bearing wind, on a November eve. Even now a
monotonous extent of heath and inoss extends weari-
somely for miles and miles unvaried but by the Bil-
berry or Crowberry, or here and there beautified by the
orange leaves and red stalks of a patch of NartTiecium
-made sterner still by abundant masses of the stiff
dull-looking squarrose Rush (Juncus squarrosus) , and
ruinous mounds of black peat. Tet even here a
searching hand might pick out some curious object
worthy of attention, such as the Lycopodium clavatum
or alpinwn. The former is something like a branch of
Norway fir creeping along the ground, and extending
its branches in a proliferous manner for many feet,
still by its runners holding so fast to the mosses and
heaths among which it stealthily advances, that it
requires a little patience to obtain a perfect unbroken
specimen, which, however, with its bright green im-
bricated incurved leaves and ascending pale yellow
spikes of fructification in pairs, makes a very orna-
mental appearance, especially if transferred to the
head or neck of the wanderer. Even the rustics have
not passed it by unnoticed, for as WOEDSWOETH says
of his Cumberland shepherd boys —

tf With that plant which in our dale
They call Stag-horn, or Fox's-tail,
Their rusty hats they trim :
And thus, as happy as the day
Those shepherds wear the time away."

The Fir Club Moss (^Lycopodium Selago*), a stiff
upright species, with the capsules in the axills of the
common leaves, is an inhabitant of heathy and boggy
places. The Lycopodice belong to the Cryptogamia, or
Acotyledonous division of the Natural System.

SEPTEMBEK. 401

The sullen tract we are now traversing is all at
once enlivened by a break in its sadness — a gulley
appears, deep in the hollow of which a ferruginous
spring pours a gurgling stream that leaps, and rolls,
and dashes, brisk with young life, truantizing like a
thoughtless child. It probably communicates with
the Dee, for there is a most beautiful opening to its
green valley, and this seen from the height on which
I stood, the fields smiling in the richest emerald
green, with numerous trees a shade darker, and all lit
up in the smiling sunbeams., certainly looked like a
little Eden when contrasted with the bleak bare sides,
cold unbroken indigo, and dark umber hues of the
frowning wide-stretching Berwyns.

I now prepared to descend, for broken heights and
craggy rocks intimated a break in the mountain range.
A verdant valley soon appeared in front, extending
some distance, and watered by a meandering stream
that bounded from a deep gorge on the right, and was
joined by other torrents from the brows of the steep
escarpments that boldly rose in cliffs around the deep
glen, that, expanding as it receded from the moun-
tains, showed numerous enclosed green fields, trees,
bushes, and farm-houses within its limits, the angle
of the mountain just enclosing the village of Llangyn-
nog within its embrace, and terminating the view.
The scene was exceedingly pretty, for the valley
seemed like a laughing plump child in the care of a
gaunt stern nurse ; — the harried cliffs rising almost
abruptly to the sky, looked as if they could easily
fling down an avalanche of ruin upon the valley, and
their broken torrent beds seemed able at a moment's
notice to bear a flood of desecration among those

2D

402 WILD FLOWEKS OP

green fields. But now all was fine and fair, the slaty
purple-tinted rocks slept upon their glassy declivities,
and forebore to roll down in terrific uproar ; the deep
beds of the torrents wept only a silver skein among
their huge stones, or were several of them quite dry,
showing only by bright green patches of Mosses and
JungermannicB where water had been, or yet rested
hidden within their spongy recesses. The view might
be compared to a still scene of early life, when the
unclouded prospect has not unmasked its appliances
of woe, and when the sources of delight seem as if
they would ever remain so, and friends smile and
fondly promise to continue attached to us for ever ;
till experience, too late, makes us familiar with the
stern fact, which no one had cared before to tell us,
that the bitter waters of sorrow may overwhelm us
from the very same sources whence we had expected
a continued flow of delight only. Such, alas, is life ! —
and so the flood of alienation rushes upon us, over-
whelming our fondest wishes, and too often leaving us
desolate in the midst of overthrown expectations and
the wreck of scattered hopes. Aye, how often is it
that the reckless blow that disquiets us comes from a
once supposed friendly hand, and then it is felt to be
"sharper than a serpent's tooth." — And can this lovely
picture of bright mountain scenery before me conjure
up such unkindly reflections ? — Vanish ye baffling
unsubstantial ghosts of inverted thought ! — let the
sunbeam light up the dark vagrant cloud, and the
fragrant breath of the heathy air waft it away.

I am progressing down a mountain stair-case, the
deep glen with its opposing escarpment of rocks on
my right, my path shelving the precipitous schistose

SEPTEMBER. 403

cliffs on my left, among vast broken fragments in
whose clefts and recesses beauteous and delicate green
fronds of various Ferns appear, as the Parsley Pern
(Allosorus crispus), the fairy three-branched Polypody
(JP.Dryopteris)) the Bladder-fern (Cistopteris dentata) ,
and the Black-stalked Spleenwort (Asplenium Adian-
twn-nigrum). Bell-flowers too shiver here even in
the sunny gleam, and various Hawkweeds (Hieracium)
exhibit their golden rays on the rocks high above.
Descending lower down rough low-roofed cottages at
length appear on each vantage ledge the narrow road
presents, and their slaty roofs are bandaged with a
luxuriant crop of Houseleeks (Sempervivum tectorum),
with their starry tufts of succulent leaves, among
which tall stalks appear crowned with corymbs of dull
red flowers, and the edges of the slates are covered
with the silver-flowered Stonecrops growing here with
profuse luxuriance. Rapidly the road became steeper,
and brought me almost to the lowest depths of the
valley where stood the village of Llangynnog itself,
by its rushing stream filled with boulders. On the
fallen schistose layers of rock above this village
towards Pistil Rhayader, I was surprised at the quan-
tity of Parsley-Fern that presented itself. It grew
almost shrubby, in round gorse-like masses of con-
siderable size, and had, from the aspect of its crisp
green fronds, a very lively appearance.

Having descended from nature's craggy throne into
the valley of humiliation, we can now regard those
humbler wild flowers, or " weeds," as the uninitiated
would name them, which are familiar to the eye at
this period, and serve as well to denote the autumnal
season as the congregated swallows and martins,

2D2

404 WILD FLOWEBS OF

About rivulets and wet ditches the Hemp Agrimony
(JSkepatorium cannabinum) displays in large patches
its thickly crowded corymbs of reddish-purple flowers,
accompanied by the Water-Figwort (Scroplmlaria
aquatica), within the throats of whose red flowers
wasps may be often seen searching for sweets ; and
marshes are now adorned with the elegant panicles of
the common Reed (Arundo Phragmites), at this time
in feathery perfection.

Some goose-grazed common, dotted with pools, may
now be inspected with advantage, for here a host of
plants cut up elsewhere wherever they appear, take
sanctuary — like worried tribes among mankind, routed,
harassed, pursued, and persecuted, till they find some
remote district where they can rest their wearied feet.
Here may be seen in abundance those troublesome
tribes the Atripliccsa and CJienopodiacece, in vernacu-
lar dialect, Groosefoots, Fat Hens, &c. ; Spotted and
Pale-flowered Persicarias, the Biting Arsmart (Poly-
gonwn Hydropiper), not to be mistaken if its flowers
be once chewed; various Eagworts like beggars in
gaudy garments, the scentless Feverfew (Matricaria
inodord), the stinking Chamomile (Anthemis Cotula),
and the too Common Yarrow (Acliillcea Millefolium),
with its flat-topped heads of small but densely clus-
tered white flowers. In wetter parts of such waste
places where water settles all the winter through, the
Small Fleabane (Inula vulgaris) appears with numerous
branches bearing golden discs or knobs, with very
short inconspicuous rays. The drier turfy places have
a pleasanter and more wholesome aspect gemmed with
the pretty stars (yellow disc and white ray,) of the
Common Chamomile (Antliemis nobilis) whose aroma-

SEPTEMBEE. 405

tic odour is so agreeable that it is a favourite in cottage
gardens, and still prized medicinally. Other "wildered
spots" bear the low crouching Swine's Cress (Corono-
pus JRueUii), the Creeping Tormentil (Tormentilla
reptans), with little yellow four-petalled flowers, the
common Shepherd's Purse, Small Cranesbill (Gera-
nium pusilluni) , and the Dwarf Mallow (Malva rotun-
difolia), hah0 in seed and half in flower. Sculking
about the ragged hedgerows on the verge of the com-
mons Black Horehound (JBallota nigra) still flourishes,
and tall masses of the Common Dyer's Eocket (Reseda,
Luteola) appear with their long wand-like flower-stalks
crowded with capsules ; here also several Hemp-
nettles (Galeopsis) show their purple flowers, and
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), once prized for its
boasted powers, lifts high its crowded spikes and
cottony leaves. The Red Bartsia (B. odontites), gives
a dullish purple look to the same side of the waste.
Choaked in flags and sedges a slow half hidden brook
simmers along one side of the flat weedy expanse,
hosts of Bur-reeds (Sparganium ramosum) showing
their green prickly heads very conspicuously above
the water — CLAEE says

" Prickly burs that crowd the leaves of sedge,
Have claim'd my pleasing search for hours and hours."

There too is the Amphibious Nasturtium (JV. amplii-
Uum), and mixed with the withered heads of Carices
and green-stalked Bulrushes, the Purple Loose-Strife
(Lythrwn salicaria), exhibits its foliage changed to
the brightest crimson. On the banks of the stream
towering over all, squadrons of prickly-headed Teazels
(Dipsacus sylvestris), make a formidable covert. The
lazy brook covered with Pondweeds, amidst which the

406 WILD FLOWEKS OF

Arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifolia) lifts its singular-
shaped leaves and purple flowers, creeps on beneath
the flickering shade of pallid lank-leaved osiers scat-
tering a plumy waste of feathery seeds, and reluc-
tantly advances towards the polluting suburbs of the
town that soon blackens its current and chars the
stunted alders clinging to its margin.

Solitary stagnant ponds and wide drains and ditches
that occur in flat marshy places, appear about this
time quite green with a close investing coat of Duck-
weed that covers them like a carpet. In the genus
Lemna the term frond is given to what appears to be
stem and leaf united in a fleshy peltate cellular disc.
The increase of the plants appear to be principally by
gemmce growing out of the sides of the parent frond,
and thus forming dense proliferous masses that
speedily cover in the decline of summer the entire
surface of a pool or ditch. The young plants throw
out roots, and then separate from their parent to
increase and multiply in a similar manner. This
" green surface of the stagnant pool" harbours great
quantities of aquatic insects, as well as Moluscce,
Vermes, &c. and ducks consequently delight to explore
its recesses, soon clearing a pond of its verdant invest-
ment. Where it is very thick in unfrequented marshy
spots, its surface may be often seen marked with
indented criss-cross lines from the "Water Shrew or
Vole, who loves to paddle through it in the twilight
to seize the Lymnece or Water-slugs there ; or some-
times the rough head of the Water Eat may be seen
peering from, among it.

While on the margin of the commony waste, where
some old timbered farm-house, with its thatched barns,

SEPTEMBER. 407

tortuous Elder-tree, scraggy Elms, and green horse-
pond by the road side attracts passing notice, we can
scarcely help adverting to those wayfaring or " domes-
tic plants," as they have been termed, that scarcely
wild ai; all, doggedly stick to the skirts of mankind,
as if they had still some claim upon his notice, though
now almost entirely discarded. Such is the once
consecrated Vervain, of druidical fame,* always to be
found in the vicinity of civilization, lifting its wands
of pale purple flowers; such the Black Nightshade
(Solanum nigrum), Catmint (Nepeta cataria), with its
hoary leaves, the monstrous Thorn-Apple (Datura
Stramonium) conspicuous with its white funnel-shaped
plaited corolla and spinous fruit, the viscid Henbane
(Hyoscyamus niger), its curving branches now thickly

* MILLER has observed that the Vervain (Verbena officinalis), is scarcely
found a quarter of a mile from any house, and from this circumstance was
called the " Simpler's" or Herbalist's "joy." It was of old a sacred herb,
honoured by the Magi among the Persians and the Druids among the Celts,
and one of those plants of enchantment that counteracted the spells of witches
when with " wicked herbs and ointments," as SPENSER says, they bereaved the
senses of those they were inimical to. Hence TURNER says in his blacke let-
ter Herbal—" They call it Hierobotane, that is an holy herbe, because it is
very good for to be hanged upon men, agaynst inchantementes, and to purify or
clenge wyth all." So PENNANT says that it bears with the Welsh the signifi-
cant name of Cas gan Gytlirael, or the Demon's aversion. In druidical
times the plant was cut in darkness, and so gathered, many magical properties
were attributed to it, but especially was it considered to keep off evil spirits ;
and used among the Romans for its supposed purifying properties, holy water
being sprinkled with its branches. The reputation of Vervain must have
long continued, for in an old English MS. published in the Archceologia, it is
stated that whoso " berytb it up " in his hands, shall " have love of grete
maystrys," and none shall refuse his asking, but grant him with good will
" what he wele." This power " the sacred herb" seems now to have lost, but
it is still collected to make purifying infusions and decoctions, and I have seen
a pamphlet detailing " cases" of astonishing cures made by its use. Those
that believe it is not entirely used up, will still give a good price for bundles
of the plant.

" O who can tell

The hidden powre of herbes, and might of Magick Spell."

Spenser.

408 WILD FLOWERS OP

set with hard bell-like capsules, and the juicy but
insipid Grood King Henry (CJienopodium Bonus Hen-
rictis), never perhaps much better than a chip in
porridge, and as neglected now as poor King HENRY
himself could be. Sometimes we see a farm house
made out of the spoils of a deserted abbey or priory,
while many shattered walls and arches yet remain
about it —

" Where the mouldering walls are seen
Hung with pellitory green."

Nor are other plants of ruin slow to invade the inter-
stices of the broken-up fabric, where parsley and
willow-herb, ivy and honeysuckle, wild and garden-
flower mix in strange confusion, withered grass and
succulent stonecrop range together on the same ledge,
incongruous as would be the mixture of past and
present manners, and suggestive to the moralist of a
changed and ever changing scene. —

" Not always did that structure frown

With ivy-crested brow ;
Nor were its walls with moss embrown'd,
Nor hung the lanky weeds around

That fringe its ruins now."

In the vicinity of such once inhabited spots the
sickly looking Wormwood is sure to be found, often
in great profusion, especially in Wales. I never saw
such a crop as actually lines the streets of the abject
city of St. David's, in Pembrokeshire, and all around
the high steps of its once hallowed cross, while Ver-
vain in the utmost profusion, White Horehound, and
golden-headed Tansy, are scattered about the ruins of
its college and palace. Mr. LEIGHTOIST says, in his
Flora of Shropshire, that " there is a tradition that
this plant was extensively employed medicinally during

SEPTEMBEB. 409

the direful ravages of the plague ; certain it is, that
it now occurs in great abundance about the villages
and hamlets in the neighbourhood of Oswestry and
on the Welsh border, where that frightful disease is
known to have been rife."* It was, however, doubt-
less used officinally from a very early period, and I
have seen "Welch women gathering Wormwood to
make tea in the present day. SHAKSPEAKE indicates
a singular use for this bitter herb, well known to aged
crones, and derived from "the old times before them."
The garrulous nurse, prating about the age of her
" lady-bird," Juliet, and raking up her memory for a
time-mark there, says —

" ' Tis since the earthquake now eleven years ;
And she was wean'd — I never shall forget it —
Of all the days of the year, upon that day,
For I had then laid WORMWOOD to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall."
The bitterness of Wormwood has indeed passed into
a proverb, and it seems strange that such bitter and
dissightly herbs alone should willingly attend upon
the footsteps of humanity.

A curious tribe of cottony herbs with coloured per-
manent calyces of yellow, red, white, or brown scales,
and commonly known as Cudweeds, or " Everlasting
Flowers,"t are in full perfection in August and Sep-

* Flora of Shropshire, by the Rev. W. A. LEIGHTON (well worthy of
old Salopia), p. 407.

t These are the " immortelles" of the French ; and a recent author remark-
ing upon the "tubs of immortelles" offered for sale in the market of Mar-
seilles, observes, that " For this enduring flower there is always a sure sale —
crucifixes, altars, saints, the busts of great men, and of handsome actresses,
have all their chaplets of immortelles. It is flung upon the stage; it is sus-
pended over the tombstone; NAPOLEON, Louis, CHARLES, have had theirs;
Louis PHILLIPPE has his, and HENRY Cinq, would like his predecessors,
exhaust the stalls, if opportunity offered. In all this scene-shifting nothing
seems permanent but the least permanent of nature's gifts — a flower!" —
Sketches in the Pyrennees.

410 WILD FLOWEBS OF

tember. The African Everlastings are very beautiful,
especially one from the Cape, whose highly coloured
clusters resemble ripe strawberries. The Common
Cudweed of our fallow fields, Filago Germanica, was
called an impious herb by the old simplers, because
its primary flowers were overtopped in a proliferous
way by the later or younger ones, like children affect-
ing to be above or wiser than their parents ! Another
kind, the Marsh Cudweed (Gnaphalium uliginosum),
frequently extends its woolly entangled masses in wet
hilly spots or dried up ditches, and the Upright or
Highland Cudweed (Gnaplialmm sylvaticum), scatters
its flossy down on mountain sides or in the deep
shades of woods. The Pearly Everlasting (Antennaria
margaritacea), has a most elegant aspect, with its
globose calyces of pearly silvery white, that remain
unchanged after gathering, and decorate mantel pieces
with a perennial ornament. This species, though of
supposed North American origin, now flourishes appa-
rently wild on the banks of the river Kumny, in South
"Wales. I observed it a few years ago about four
miles from Caerphilly, Glamorganshire, and it pre-
sented itself in seven or eight spots between that
place and Ystrad-y-Mynach, on the margin of a wood
between the road and the brawling Eumny, but on
crossing the bridge to the Monmouthshire side of the
river, the Pearly Everlasting presented itself in the
greatest profusion in a waste spot among furze bushes,
with which its silvery foliage and pearly calyces beau-
tifully contrasted, and formed a delightful spectacle.
It was also abundant along the side of the bushy hill
beyond the bridge, on the road to Pontypool.

In South "Wales the Pearly Everlasting is much

SEPTEMBEE. 411

used as a fit emblem to adorn the graves of departed
friends, as a simple but intelligible " in memoriam."
This custom of planting the graves with flowers is an
interesting and affecting custom, still kept up in the
principality, but perhaps it is not generally known
that plants of pungent scent are chiefly chosen for
this purpose. Thus Rosemary, Old Man (Artemisia
Abrotanuni) , Balm, and Tansy, are of most frequent
occurrence, the latter of which, and some others, are
thus alluded to by MASON, in his fine elegy commemo-
rative of the practice : —

" Full many a flower,

Tansy and Pink, with languid beauty smile;
The Primrose opening with the twilight hour,
And velvet tufts of fragrant Chamomile.

For more intent the smell than sight to please,
Surviving love selects its scented race ;
Plants that with early perfume feed the breeze,
May best each dank and noxious vapour chase."

The idea seems to have been to render the last sad
home of the departed in the cold ground as pleasing
as possible, by throwing around it a grateful perfume ;
and perhaps this may have originally arisen from sani-
tary motives, the putrid effluvia from the mortal
remains being thus neutralized by the agency of the
flowers, no danger need be feared from a silent com-
munion with the loved object now for ever at rest. A
similar idea seems to have been entertained by SHAK-
SPEAKE, where it is said in reference to the death

Of FlDELE —

" With fairest flowers, while summer lasts,
I'll sweeten thy sad grave."

When the Pink is extensively planted upon graves, as

412 WILD FLOWERS OF

I have several times noticed in Glamorganshire, the
most beautiful and elegant effect is produced. A dis-
tinction is however to be made between planting the
graves with herbs, and strewing them with flowers, —
the latter only taking place immediately after inter-
ment, and being continued at occasional intervals, till
the growing plants put forth their blossoms. One of
the most charming spectacles of this kind that I ever
saw, was in the church-yard of Trevethin, near Ponty-
pool, Monmouthshire, in the month of March some
years ago, where several children were diligently em-
ployed in decorating every grave with the flowers of the
wild daffodil. These, covered with dew-drops, and glis-
tening in the morning rays of a vernal sun, produced a
very brilliant effect. This highly poetical custom has
probably been handed down from high antiquity.
"When MARTYN, in his Notes to the 5th eclogue of
VIRGIL, under the words " Bpargite Tiumum foliis"
says, that " it was a custom among the ancients to
scatter leaves and flowers upon the ground," he doubt-
less alludes to the subject in view, as the ground was
to be strewed with leaves in honour of DAPHNIS, and
a monument raised to his memory. This original
heathen custom was found not inappropriate to Chris-
tianity, and is alluded to by several of the fathers,
though St. AMBROSE seems to imply a disregard to,
or disinclination for, the practice. " I will not " he
says in his funeral oration on VALENTHSTIAIS", "sprinkle
liis grave witli flowers, but pour on his spirit the odour
of Christ; let others scatter baskets of flowers. Christ
is our Lily ; with this I will consecrate his relics."

For a brief space we must now climb the mountain
side again. On heathy spots and the declivities of

SEPTEMBER. 413

hills, a gorgeous aspect is in this month given to the
landscape by the flowering of the autumnal Gorse or
Furze. The spring Gorse (Ulex Europceus) com-
mences flowering even during the chilling blasts of
December and January, its golden flowers often glazed
with ice, succeeded in declining summer by the Ulex
nanus or lesser Gorse, which continues to gild the
heaths late into the autumnal floral reign. Thus some
kind of Gorse always exhibiting its yellow bloom, has
given rise to one of those common proverbs — kissing
is out of season when Gorse is out of flower — that is
never! — which shows how ready even the uncultivated
mind is to take notice of the facts in nature that are
open to general observation. Every body sees —
" The prickly Furze with bloom of brightest gold ; "
but every body may not be aware that there are two
kinds flowering at different times of the year. Even
the autumnal Eurze is botanically divisible into two
forms, if not species, both differing in the smaller size
of their flowers from TJlex Europceus, as well as in the
calycine bracts being very minute, the calyx merely
pubescent with distinct teeth, and the wings mani-
festly shorter than the keel. In the autumnal gorse,
too, the legumes do not ripen till the second year,
and then remaining unopened on the plant; while in
the spring gorse the legumes burst open in the year
of their production, shedding their seeds with a
cracking noise in the sun !

The autumnal Gorse has two aspects, lately pro-
posed as distinct species ; — one, Ulex nanus, is of
dwarf growth, much less spiny than Europceus, rather
elegant, and of a trailing habit, with the wings of the
corolla flat, straight, and shorter than the keel. The

414 WILD FLOWEES OF

other, named U. Gallii, by PLANCHON, from M. LE
G-ALL, a continental botanist, almost equals Europceus
in size, has rigid curved spines, but agrees with nanus
in its flowers, only that the wings are falcate and
incurved, a little longer than the keel, with hispid
legumes. — This last is certainly the most abundant
Gorse in the west of England and "Wales, splendidly
adorning the hills with its orange-golden flowers in
August and September. I noticed it in the utmost
abundance in 1849 on the mountains between Bar-
mouth and Harlech. When the heath is fading and
becoming embrowned, and the ferns tinged with a
russet hue, the gorse flames upon the declivities,
among broken purple rocks and grey lichened stones,
like a blaze of light through coloured windows, giving
contrasts and harmonies only to be appreciated by
those who wander among such exciting scenes.

We have oft pilgrimaged among them, and on the
stony ribs of the broken trappoid rocks that abruptly
rise upon the shore above the little terraced town of
Barmouth, at once look down upon the extensive
sandy beach there and the wide spread sea that darkens
in the distance, in the calm of evening. Its opaque
surface now slept without a ripple, and the estuary of
the river was silently and gradually becoming a waste
of sand. Inland Cadir Idris appeared perfectly clear,
while above the mountain a most stupendous white
cloud towered in air like the effusion from some vol-
cano, and beyond it were a few broken clouds of a
similar character. A singular wilderness of stones lay
before me in the hollows of the hill on which I stood
— a rugged wilderness sterile indeed to the utilitarian
cultivator, but full of imaginative beauty to a pictorial

SEPTEMBEB. 415

or poetical eye. It was now redolent of colorific
splendour, from the masses of bright golden furze and
purple heath about it, which thus adorned a ruin of
nature's own making. The glen between the heights
was filled with stones of all sizes, as if a broken mass
of rolling debris had been suddenly arrested in its
course; and above on either side rocks still threatened
to fall, or stood upreared against the sky seemingly
with purpose to do so — the covering of mother earth
so scanty that her bare ribs were every where evident.
On the very summit of the hill towered several masses
large as logan-stones, and suggestive of Druidical
rites, whether Druids had ever been really here or
not. I mounted as high as I could go — I thought I
had reached the very top, but another vast protube-
rance appeared beyond a high stone wall, and tired
expectation stopped to breathe. All around me the
mountain pavement was veined with white quartz —
the fire and the furnace of volcanic action was appa-
rent, but there had been a pause in its convulsive
throes, or rather they had ended in death, slowly
extinguished. I looked up the course of the estuary
to its head among masses of mountains rising behind
each other in grand array, still coloured, heathy, rocky,
dull green, but all involved in the solemn shadows
of evening ; and above them a host of dark broken
clouds just received the last faint copper-coloured
hues of the setting sun, whicji gave them a lurid
threatening meteor-like aspect. Turning towards the
whitish placid sea, it lay in its extensity calm as a
vast lake, the sky clear above it, bounded by the dis-
tant mountains of Pembroke, and the long line of
Caernarvonshire heights from Bardsey Isle to the

416 WILD FLOWEES OF SEPTEMBEE.

noble Rifaels, stretching northward in grand array.
A thin blueish mist lay upon the horizon above the
ocean, and this was reflected as a girdle to its white
shining surface, while lucid vapours in the atmosphere
scarcely perceptible, were yet plainly inverted in the
sea like enormous pillars sinking a thousand fathoms
down. Nature was sinking into repose upon the dun
wilds of her furzy coverts, becoming tintless and misty
as the pavement of a deserted cathedral in the sombre
twilight, and no sound of bird or insect gave an im-
pulse to the stilled air. An isolated cloud took a
position before the orb of the sun and veiled it in its
slow descent, yet leaving a splendid line of glory above.
Presently the golden light brightened, extended, and
was reflected in long waving lines like a second sum-
mer sky below. The sun was gone, the mountains
sombre, and the surface of the sea saddened, but a
bright after-glow still tinged the sky with softened
splendour, like the memory of past joys long gleaming
in the mind.

ELOWEBS OF SEPTEMBER.

(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. XXII.

REFLECTIONS AWAKENED BY A GLANCE AT THE WILDER
TRACTS OF FLORA'S DOMINION — SCENE CHANGED, AND
"AT HOME" IN THE GARDEN — DAHLIAS, HOLLY-HOCKS,
AND SUNFLOWERS, WITH THEIR ASSOCIATIONS — HYDRAN-
GIA, CHINESE ASTER, &C. — SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS FROM
GARDENING PLEASURES — ADONIS AUTUMNALIS — SMELL-
ING A GERANIUM — POETICAL IDEAS EMANATING FROM
FLOWERS — WITHERED FLOWERS AND LOST JOYS.

" Every Month has its Flower,
Every Flower hath its hour."

OLD PROVERB.

HATING given tlie misty mountains the slip, and left
the glens and ravines to their clouds and waters, we
shall now look out upon the softer features of the
Elower Garden, where I perceive many of Flora's
beauties, that might have received earlier attention,
had we not amidst the ruder yet more exciting features
of nature's wild haunts, been offering up our devotions
in scenes where the foot of man hath but rarely trod,
yet where shrouded in desolation and magnificence,
the finger of God hath clothed the rugged ravine with
verdure, and seated floral beauties in spots where
silence and solitude brood moodily in their high fast-

2E

418 FLOWERS OF

nesses, that the passing pilgrim, as he hastily views
the scene while the whirling thunder-cloud awes his
presumption, may long, with cherished feelings, renew
the image of the sanctity of nature in his mind. For
if earth be not now a paradise, its solemn peaks
whitened with snow or bathed by the misty cloud —
its deep ravines murmuring with a thousand streams
from every labyrinthal mossy hollow- -its sleeping
lakes reflecting in their still bosoms the roseate flush
of morn or sunset — and its black precipitous crags
coloured with the red lychnis, purple saxifrage, or
silver sandwort — all raise a paradise of rapt emotions
in the heart, transcendant beyond language. Earth
and its inhabitant man, then seem

" Not less than Archangel ruin'd," *

so soothing, affecting, and elevating, is the bright yet
melancholy prospect of the most glorious earthly
scenes.

"We cannot, however, retain our elevation long
among ethereal felicities, but must return to the tamer
scenes below. Perhaps, therefore, a glance at domes-
ticated flowers, may, as a contrast to the wilder tracts
of Mora's dominion, not have an unpleasing effect,
and like a rest at an inn, refresh the mind, tired with
the long contemplation of heaths and hills, and restore
its healthful longings for renewed searches amidst
the fascinations of mountain scenery. We are now
"at home," then, — so as the sunbeams flame above
the morning mist with tempting brightness, throw we
up the drawing-room windows, to " look out" upon
the terrace through the wide parterre, thus, as LTJCIAN

suggests in his classic strains —

" Sipping the flowers like a Bee."
* MILTON.

SEPTEMBER. 419

Chief among the flowers yet conspicuous in the
garden, is the regal Dahlia, with its drooping globes
of crimson, scarlet, maroue, yellow, and white, whose
innumerable varieties are the glory of floriculture,
and the just pride of the nurseryman. They will now
spread their gorgeous array till the first frosts wither
them at one fell stroke, and render it necessary to take
up their roots for preservation through the winter.
The name commemorates DAHL, a Swedish botanist,
thus honoured by CAYANILLES, a Spanish botanist, in
1791. Three species only are known, all natives of
Mexico, but the only one from which the garden
plants are derived is D, varidbilis* This flower fur*
nishes a curious instance of the effects of cultivation
upon the wild products of nature, for in its native
country it is described as a bushy herbaceous plant,
with single purple or lilac flowers, having little pre-
tensions to beauty. It has now been cultivated in
Europe for about fifty years. During this period
many millions of plants have been raised from seeds,
and under almost every possible variation of climate ;
and anomalies the most singular, not only in colour,
but in general constitution and physiological struc-
ture, have been obtained. The colour of the flower
has been altered from pale yellow or lilac, to every hue
of red, purple, or yellow, to pure scarlet and to deep-
est marone, or has even been wholly discharged from
the radial florets in the white varieties. The period of
flowering has been accelerated nearly two months ;
and the tall rank Mexican weed has been in some in-
stances reduced to a trim bush, emulating the Peony

* Among the native Mexicans the Dahlia was considered as the flower
of the dead that " ghosts come to snuff at."

2 E 2

420 FLOWERS OF

in dwarfishness. The yellow inconspicuous florets of
the disc have been expelled to make room for the
showy deep-coloured florets of the ray : what is more
remarkable still, the same yellow inconspicuous florets
of the disc have been enlarged, and stained with rich
marone, so as to rival the colours of the ray, without
losing their own peculiarity of form ; and, finally,
the whole foliage and bearing of the plant has been
altered by the substitution of simple leaves for com-
pound ones. Many hundred varieties of Dahlias are
now offered for sale by nurserymen ; and the prizes
offered at Horticultural Exhibitions, and the stimulus
of emulation among gardeners and amateurs, has in-
creased the rage for new forms of the plant to such
a degree, that perhaps a Dahlia-mania may run its
exciting round in our day, more general, if not so
dangerous or pernicious, as the Tulipomania that
affected the florists of the seventeeth century. PHIL-
LIPS, in his Flora Historica, says, the Dahlia, in floral
language is to be regarded as the emblem of instability ;
as it was introduced into this country by Lady BUTE,
in 1789, the year of the French revolution ; then lost
from bad management — and again introduced by Lady
HOLLAND in 1804, when NAPOLEON was proclaimed
Emperor of the French ; while it was not till 1814
that the downfall of the Emperor, and the consequent
peace, enabled gardeners to obtain that copious sup-
ply of roots and seeds from France, which has resulted
in the cultivation of the Dahlia in the extensive
manner that we now witness, with such ornamental
effect in the autumnal parterre.

Beautiful as the Dahlia has been made, the old
favourite of rustic gardens, the Hollyhock, is not to

SEPTEMBEK. 421

be forgotten. The Dahlia is for the future, and will
probably be copiously praised by the lyrists of the
rising generation, to whose care we commend the
image .of PHILLIPS — that the Dahlia will adorn our
groves, as gas now does our towns ; but the Hollyhock
cherishes the images of olden days, associated with
timbered picturesque farm houses, thatched cottages
with their humble adornments, and old massive time-
worn mansions in secluded parts of the country.
Here the Hollyhock's lofty stems and bright specious,
though homely, mallow-like flowers, in their varieties
of rose, blood-red, yellow, orange, chestnut, or blackish
purple, besides all the intermediate gradations, are
well associated with the honeysuckled porch, the trim,
straight boxen walk, the terrace bounded by its privet
or close holly hedge, the beehive stand, and the formal
peacocks clipped in yew, pecking at each other. The
Hollyhock is a malvaceous plant of the genus Alcea,
and appears to have been introduced from Syria. It
grows wild also in Siberia, China, and Africa, and is
one of our oldest garden flowers. The late period to
which it extends its floral show renders it worthy of
attention in large gardens and pleasure grounds, and
its towering figure has a palatial dignity above all
other flowers.

Another old tenant of the parterre is sure, at this
season, to attract the eye, with its flaunting staring
disk of golden rays, elevated upon a tall stalk dilated
to its utmost height. This is the Sunflower (ILelian-
thus), celebrated by the Bard of the Seasons in con-
tinuation of an old poetical idea, as ever turning
towards the sun.

" The lofty follower of the sun

Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves

422 FLOWERS OF

Drooping all night, and, when he warm returns,
Points her enamour'd bosom to his ray."

Various poets have dwelt upon this as a favourite
comparison, and even philosophers have confirmed
their reports of the SunHower's turning itself round
with the course of the sun.* OVID says of his Sun-
flower (transformed from the nymph Clytia, who
vainly loved Apollo) —

" Still the lov'd object the fond leaves pursue,
Still move their root the moving sun to view."

Dr. HUNTER, in his notes to Evelyn's Sylva, says " the
story of the Sunflower in Ovid's Metamorphoses is
confirmed by daily observation ;" though OVID'S plant
could not be the modern Peruvian Sunflower : — and
Sir J. E. SMITH absolutely states that the stem is
compressed to facilitate the movements of the flower,
which, " after following the sun all day, returns after
sun-set to the east." So COWLET, in his Poemata
Latina Plantarum, thus makes the " Flos Solis" lo-
quitur : —

" Jpse meum semper submisso vertice adoro

Semperque specto, semper observo patrem ;
Qua vertit vultus, vultus obverto sequaces,
Et semper haerent oculi in obtutu pio."

With bending head submissive I adore,
With constant gaze my father's face explore,
I turn my face following where'er he turns,
Still fix'd my pious gaze as round he burns.

* Dr. DARWIN in his Loves of the Plants, could not of course afford
to dispense with so poetical a simile, but quotes HALES' Vegetable Sta-
ticks for the fact that " the Sunflower follows the course of the sun by
nutation, not by twisting its stem." In his text the Dr. says —
" With zealous step he climbs the upland lawn,
And bows in homage to the rising dawn ',
Imbibes with eagle eye the golden ray,
And watches, as it moves, the orb of day."

SEPTEMBER. 423

MOORE, in his Irish Melodies, has seized upon the
same simile, in the following beautiful stanza —

" Oh the heart that has truly lov'd, never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close ;
. As the Sunflower turns to his God when he sets,
The same look 'which he had when he rose."

Unfortunately, ' however, for these fine images, this
" same look," as Paddy might say, " is often no look
at all; for many and many's the time we have seen
Sunflowers obdurately pointing to the north all day
long, having good cause, no doubt, to be sulky with
the sun ; and it is by no means uncommon in a group
of Sunflowers, to perceive their staring dial-like coun-
tenances pointing to every quarter of the Compass.
The French have perpetuated this error in their name
Tournesol ; though, no doubt, as old G-ERAED long ago
observed, " the flower of the Sunne is called in Latine
Flos Solis, taking that name from those that have
reported it to turne with the sunne, the which I could
never observe, although I have endeavoured to find
out the truth of it ; but I rather thinke it was so
called, because it doth resemble the radiant beames
of the Sunne, whereupon some have called it Corona
Solis, and Sol Indianus, the Indian Sunflower."

No doubt the Heliantlmm obtained its name from
the large ray-like golden flower sometimes exceeding
a foot in diameter, resembling the disc of the sun,
and so CHURCHILL mentions it as

" the proud giant of the garden race,

Who, madly rushing to the sun's embrace,
O'ertops his fellows with aspiring aim,
Demands his wedded love, and bears his name."

But a confusion has arisen on the subject from the
old European Mary gold (Calendula officinalis) or

424 FLOWEES OF

ancient sunflower, Laving been confounded with the
American Helianthus, or modern Sunflower. As the
latter was only introduced from the New World, it is
clear that OVID and other ancient writers could not
have had the Helianthus in view. Now the Mary gold
(named catholically as Aurwm S. Mar ice Vlrglnls)*
was of old noted as a flower of the sun, that accord-
ing to SHAKSPEAKE —

• " goes to bed with the sun,

And with him rises weeping."

Hence the Marygold was called by herbalists soils
sequa, or sun-follower, and soils sponsa, spouse of the
sun ; and so far correctly, as LINNJETTS observed that
the Marygold was usually expanded from nine in the
morning to three in the afternoon. So HEKRICE:, as
keen a poetical observer as the learned Swede was a
botanical one, denies that it could be evening, as—

" No Marygolds yet closed are,
No shadows yet appear."

* The common officinal Marygold which grows naturally in the corn-
fields of Italy and in many other parts of Europe, is said to have derived
its name from its being more or less in blow at the times of all the festi-
vals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the word gold having reference to its
golden rays, likened to the rays of light placed around the head of the
Virgin by painters. — Thus it is observed in the Circle of the Seasons " at
Candlemas or the Purification of our Lady, (Feb. 2nd,) in warm climates
the old last year's plants will show a few flowers. Even in our climate a
few flowers appear about Lady-tide. The full flowering takes place about
the Visitation, July 2nd. The young Plants flower about the Assumption,
Aug. 15th. Seedlings of the same year will flower about the Nativity of
our Lady, Sept. 8th, and they continue to flower through the whole period,
including Nov. 21st and December 8th, thus blowing on all the Virgin's
Feasts. Thus say the old writers, and the fact is true." — So it is reported
the latin name Calendula was given to the plant because it was in flower
on the Calends of every Month, which perhaps may be correct in the
sunny clime of Italy. Indeed the Italians have given it the name of
Fiorrancio, or Flower of every Month. Marygold flowers often continue
open to near sunset.

SEPTEMBEE. 425

But SHAKSPEABE, wakens up the lady-fair in Cymle-
line on the truthful assurance that

" Wirikin Marybuds begin

To ope their golden eyes,
With every thing that pretty bin,
My lady sweet arise."

Indeed it appears that at first, according to GEEABDE,
the Helianthus was called Sun-J$Iarygold.

The American Sunflower was brought by the Spa-
niards from Peru, where it appears it was consecrated
by the Peruvians to the worship of the bright lumi-
nary of day ; and the Virgins of the Sun, when
officiating in their temples, were crowned with golden
Jieliantliij wearing some on their breasts, and holding
others in their hands, which is described as forming
a spectacle of imposing grandeur. Sunflowers, with
all their gaudiness, should, however, be but sparingly
scattered in a garden, on the principle that — all is not
gold that glitters. To the botanist the Sunflower
offers a good study of the 19th class of LUSWJETJS-
Syngenesia, where one common receptacle encloses an
assemblage of florets of different characters. The
florets of the ray form the golden fringe of petals or
ligulate florets, which are all for show, and guard what
we may call the seraglio within : since this flower
belongs to the " Polygamia frustranea" where the
radiate florets having neither stamens or pistils can-
not produce seeds, and, by a poetical image, are
therefore inferred to be made in vain, or for show only.
The florets of the disc are, however, tubular, each
having five anthers, with a single pistil crowned by a
bipartite stigma, and each of the florets produces a
seed. The fertile florets are in general so numerous,

426 FLOWERS OF

that 2,362 seeds have been taken from the disc of a
single flower, and hence, in rural spots, these seeds
are preserved for fattening poultry, and in the United
States are pressed for the oil they contain. From
what has been observed, it is obvious, that the more
double a syngenesious flower becomes, the less seed it
can produce, as this fullness of flower, as gardeners
call it, is caused by the change of tubular into ligulate
florets, or those that are inconspicuous and produce
seed, into those that are specious and produce none ;
and therefore those that are all show produce no fruit
at all — a moral induction, which I need not attempt
to sharpen in further detail.

As a flower suited for the base of the porch or
arbour, the Hydrangea must not be forgotten here;
the large bunches it forms presenting a very hand-
some appearance. The flowers, from over-develope-
ment, are almost always barren, and very variable in
their colour, passing through every shade of green and
blue to red, In peat earth, especially, they assume a
rich blue tint; yet, in rustic gardens, plants, with both
red and blue flowers, sometimes present themselves in
the same soil, with a fine ornamental effect, A moist
situation is most favourable to the luxuriant develope-
ment of the Hydrangea, and hence, as one of the
most thirsty of plants, its name, derived from the
Greek, as a water-vessel, is taken. When in a droop-
ing state, a supply of water revives it as magically as
it would a man dying from thirst.

At this period of the year, the trailing Nasturtium
(Tropceolum majus)* becomes a great ornament to the

« The Latin name refers to the fancied trophies its flowers and leaves
form— likened to empty helmets and shields. The English name points
;out its affinity in smell, taste, and general properties, to the Nasturtia, or

SEPTEMBEE. 427

garden, especially if it be trained upon trellis-work, or
against a wall, its brilliant orange flowers flashing gor-
geously upon the eye. The extent and height to
which it will spread is really wonderful; and it is
curious to observe that the long petioles of its remark-
able leaves perform the office of tendrils, and curling
round any object near them, support the plant high in
air, though to an inattentive observer it is not, at
first sight obvious how this is done. The leaf of the
Nasturtium may be said to form a living vegetable
Mackintosh, or rather indeed, is far superior to that
useful article, for not only is it impervious to rain,
but no wet has power even to moisten its surface,
rolling quickly off in silver globules. The blossoms
of this Peruvian plant occasionally emit electric sparks
in the twilight, as noticed by the daughter of LIN-
N^rs, ELIZABETH CHRISTINA. The Nasturtium though
pretty enough as a domestic plant, seems hitherto to
have missed poetic celebration — remaining for the
sympathetic memory of some future bard.

The pretty Canary-bird flower (Trapcsolum adun-
tum), is a later introduction than the common orange
Nasturtium, but from the yellow hue and curious form
of its flowers well contrasts with the other in the gar-
den, and has an elegant aspect as a porch or trellis
climber.

One of the principal embellishments of the autum-
nal parterre is the Chinese Aster or Starwort (Aster
Cliinensis], now a common denizen of European gar-
dens, though introduced from China only about a
century ago. Asters are of various colours, deep pink,

land and water cresses, a very curious circumstance in plants belonging
to different natural families. The capsules, in particular, make a very
wholesome pickle.

428 FLOWERS OF

dark purple, pale blue, aud intermediate colours, and
when planted out in large beds have a splendid effect.
The French name of Queen Daisie (Seine Marguerite)
given to it, shows it to be of the same class as our
humble "wee modest crimson-tipped flower," which,
though now lost sight of, will not be seen without
pleasure by the early wanderer of the ensuing spring.
It is said that in China the varieties of Asters are so
disposed as to rival in brilliancy the richest patterns
of the carpets of Persia, or the most curious figures
that the artist in fillagree can devise. The Aster is
well adapted to variegate the shrubbery, as its showy
disc exhibits its bright rays even to November. The
Italian Aster {A. amellus), with blue and yellow
flowers, is considered to have been the plant alluded
to by VIRGIL in his Georyics, which he says was of a
golden colour, surrounded by purple leaves or petals,
and which was often used to adorn the altars of the
gods. The common Michaelmas Daisy {Aster Trade-
scanti], so called from, commencing flowering about
Michaelmas, is a characteristic flower of the garden in
September, growing tall and shrubby, and continuing
to the end of November. Bees and Flies cluster on
the flowers in great numbers for it is almost the last
hope they have to cling to. The latin specific name
commemorates JOHN TRADESCANT, juu. who brought
the plant from Virginia to England, about 1633. Its
flowering time caused it to be appropriated to the
feast of Michaelmas —

" The Michaelmas Daisy among dead weeds,
Blooms for St. Michael's valourous deeds."
China has contributed another specious gift to the
florist in the late flowering Chrysanthemum, the name
of which, golden flower, is, however inapplicable, as a

SEPTEMBEK. 429

great number of them bear silver, pink, lilac, or pur-
ple, as well as yellow flowers ; but this error it is
rather too late now to repair, unless any poet feels
inclined to marry to immortal verse the Chinese
names of Yok giti lung TcoJcfa, and Pale tseen yony ~kok
fa, by which appellations the white varieties of the
Chrysanthemums are known in China. It has been
remarked that this favourite flower of the Mandarins
has contributed to shorten the floral winter more than
any exotic, as when cultivated in pots and placed out
in favourable weather, its flowers will continue in full
beauty to adorn the halls and vestibules of mansions,
at Christmas, in places where tender plants could not
endure to stand. Notwithstanding its exotic origin,
" our English varieties" of Chrysanthemum, says
GLEKNTE, " will soon outnumber and excel the origi-
nal, and it will be, like the Camellia Japonica essen-
tially English, or at least European, before many years
pass over our heads. The plants are valuable as out-
of-door ornaments in mild autumns, for they succeed
the Dahlia ; and although a very severe frost will
destroy foliage and flowers, they will live through a
frost which will cut off the Dahlia past recovery."*

"We have now reached the limits of our flowery
domain, and have only opportunity to glance at with-
out describing in detail the rich crimson JRudbeckia,
the African and French Mary golds (Tagetes), varying
from bright yellow to a deep orange colour, which
often appear very splendid and beautiful in contrast
with the deep purple Asters, and the tall glittering
Golden-Rods (Solidacjo viminea), as contributing to
the peculiar glow, which, under the influence of a

* Annals of Horticulture*

430 FLOWEES OE

bright sun, has at this season so exciting an effect.
For bright and exhilirating is the influence of the late
autumn flowers, like some spectacle of pomp and
pageantry glittering before the eye, but not awaking
the tender melancholy resulting from other floral
contemplations, unless memory or incident rivet a
stronger charm. The character of the flower may
have something to do with this, as we do not seek a
sunflower as we have to search after a violet. But
yet the gaudy daffodil 5f the spring is more suggestive
than the brightest autumnal flower, and perhaps after
the storms and barrenness of winter the budding year
awakes keener impressions ; - - in autumn we have
become almost satiated with flowers and sweets, and
their excitement has become familiar to us. But
when a sudden killing frost cuts off our favourites at
a stroke, feeling and poetry revives again among
withered flowers and falling leaves.

Before finally quitting the garden and its petted
captives, two or three familiar flowers of memory
seem to call upon us as if from the beds of the past — -
there at least they smile bound up with olden joys
and old fashoned gardens, — they may not be in every
new one now. One of these is Honesty or Money-
flower (Lunarid), whose broad round silvery silicles
honestly display from their transparency whether any
or what number of seeds are contained within them.
Hound as the full moon they thence gave the latin
name of the plant, which as thus fancifully connected
with the moon, was supposed to be an enchanting and
bewitching herb. Its lilac flowers appear early in the
summer. Nor can we forget the sweet purple Stock
of every cottage garden in the country —

SEPTEMBEE.

431

" Lavish Stock that scents the garden round,"
since this seems ready ever to freshen our olfactory
nerves when vre think of it ; and indeed actually the
annual or Ten-week Stock, sown in May, will often
continue in flower all through Autumn until near
Christmas. Another old favourite entwined with
earliest recollection, is the Hosebay Willow-herb (Epi-
lobium angustifolium~) , whose lofty spikes of bright
violet combined with their rose-coloured elongated
siliques present a combination of colour and a show
of splendour not excelled by flowers of greater pre-
tension. How well do they recall gardens known in
days long past, where the footsteps of loved relatives
are all now, alas, long ago effaced.

The Eosebay "Willow-herb is now found naturalized
in many spots, but must have spread much since the
days of GEEAKD, who only mentions it as wild in
Yorkshire in his day. The blood-red Love-lies-bleed-
ing (poetical name !), and another flower of the genus
Amarantus — the Prince's feather (A. Jiypochondriacus) ,
are old garden flowers of autumn, dear to thoughtful
love. So may any one in mature life resuscitate in
their garden ideas of early prime as well as of present
enjoyment, if, like COWLEY, their wish should be in
the evening of life to " be master at last of a small
house and large garden," and there dedicate their time
to the culture of flowers and the study of Nature.

In closing this floral sketch, one little characteristic
flower, seen in almost every garden at this time, must
not be forgotten, as it commemorates the old classical
story of Venus and Adonis, the crimson or deep
scarlet flowers of the little Adonis autumnalis being
stated to have received their tinge from the blood of

432 FLOWERS OE

the beautiful hunter. Unfortunately, however, botany
has its " glorious uncertainties," like law, and this is
one of them ; for it has been gravely remarked, that
"whether the goddess of beauty changed her lover
into this plant or the Anemone, would be difficult to
decide, since the Linnsean system of dividing plants
into families did not exist when the gods and goddes-
ses made love upon the earth ; and previous to the
time of the Swedish botanist, the Adonis was consi-
dered to be one of the Anemonies, which it greatly
resembles." In answer to this doubt, I can only
alledge, as in the case of the celebrated something
black as a crow, that the flower of the Adonis is at
any rate as red as blood, whether the vital current of
the goddess lover ever came in contact with its petals
or not. And now, if any one should take exception
at this flower- sipping as an idle or unprofitable em-
ployment, I shall merely, in defence of my floration,
make this quotation from the ambling versification of
the once admired COWLEY, who thus apostrophizes
on the subject —

" Who, that hath reason and his smell,
Would not among Roses and Jasmine dwell,
Rather than all his spirits choke
With exhalations of dirt and smoke ?"

This is certainly a home thrust, and I therefore confi-
dently anticipate that I shall be able to count a pretty
considerable number of noses in favour of botanical
looking-out !

As writers more familiar with the study than the
field, often refer sarcastically to " mere botanists," as
if so taken up with system and technical verbiage, as
to be incompetent to feel in their souls the divine

SEPTEMBEB. 433

glories of creation, or even to nourish a meditative or
inspiring thought imbibed from the plants they exa-
mine, it may be well to call in the evidence of the
uninitiated in science as to the pleasure and instruc-
tion derivable from the inspection even of a single
leaf. ' And the following description of the sensations
of a novice on first inspecting a Geranium, though
naively expressed, are not the less intelligible. " I
remember after smelling at the first leaf of the rose
Geranium, and also when I received additions to my
stock, how I was struck with wonder and amazement
at the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, in im-
parting to the green leafoi one plant the fragrance of
another, such as the balm, musk, pennyroyal, &c.
How condescending to our senses, how indulgent, as
it were, even to our childish and playful fancies ! It
was thus my mind was struck when I smelt the first
leaf. Thought I, it is strange that a green leaf plucked
from a plant no way similar, should possess all the
flavour of the flower plucked from another." * Ideas
like these are the first efforts of poetry in the human
mind — thought, analogy, fancy, reflection, and images
of purity and loveliness are all awakened in the sensi-
tive mind at the sight of green leaves and opening
flowers — even memory sternly surveying the wreck
of the past, sadly grasps the fading flowers that alone
remain to her of the pictures that have faded away,
and these are the talismans that again conjure up
departed joys —

" The heart's affections — are they not like Flowers ?
In life's first spring they blossom ; summer comes,
And 'neath the scorching blaze they droop apace ;
Autumn revives them not : in languid groups
• GRANT THORB URN'S Forty Years in America.

2P

434 FLOWEES OP

They linger still, perchance, by grove or stream,

But Winter frowns, and gives them to the winds ;

They are all wither'd ! " H. G. BELL.

So adieu to the joys of the garden and its cultivated
gems — our last days with the waning year must be
devoted entirely to the woods and hills, and the pro-
ductions of Nature in her wildest haunts.

WITHERED FLOWERS AND LOST JOYS.

Where are the flow'rs of Summer ?

Where the hay
That scented ev'ry meadow ? —

Swept away !

Where are the hopes that brighten'd

Fair as they ?
Where are the friends perpetual ? —

Gone away !

Where are the scented Violets

And the May
Whose fragrance kindled pleasure ? —

Died away !

Where are the thoughts that rested

In their play
On some ideal fancy ? —

Fled away !

Where are the blooming roses ?

Dead heart, say
Where are life's cherish'd Roses ? —

Blown away !

Where the desires that floated

Light and gay
Like coloured clouds of sunrise ? —

Borne away !

SEPTEMBEE. 435

Where are the lilies flinging

To the day
Night-chasing fragrant beauty ? —

Thrown away !

Summer's bright flowers no longer

Can delay ;
Joys with the leaves are falling

All away !

Friendships and Loves long cherish'd

Cannot stay ;
Change brings th' autumnal tempest —

Where are they?

Yet in the past they flourish

When a ray
Streams from the kindled memory ! —

There they stay.

2P2

EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE SEPTEMBER

THE gleanings of Flora's fair domain is all that the
botanical explorer can reasonably expect in this month
of shortened days, bright and exhilirating as are its
mornings, and its evenings often glorious with the
harvest moon, or lighted up with the grey, green, or
ruby-colured columns of the mystical Aurora Borealis.

The fructification of the Eoses, and many other
shrubs, may now, however, be obtained, and should
be carefully examined, as, in botanical definition, the
character of the genus being taken from, the fruit, and
as it is often discriminative also with respect to the
species, the observer who desires to verify every fact
in nature for himself, should take the opportunity
only presented at this time, of gathering ripe fruits
and berries. Indeed, several shrubs, as the Euonymus
Europceus, and the RJiamnus frangula, are far more
conspicuous and beautiful in fruit than in flower, and
are more easily detected in the autumnal season than
at any other time. The former, loaded with capsules
of the brightest pink, when lighted up by a passing
sunbeam, is an object of great beauty. On the borders
of woods, and in shrubberies, the profusion of berries
now exhibited, with their varying tints, from the deep
black of the Dogwood (Cornns sanguinea), the light
orange of the Guelder-rose (Viburnum Opulus), and
the still deeper orange of the clusters of the Mountain
Ash, to the innumerable blood-red haws that crown

EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOE SEPTEMBER. 437

the lofty hedges, offers by no means an uninteresting
or uninstructive spectacle.

" The thorns and briars, vermillion hue,

Now full of hips and haws are seen ;
If village prophecies be true,

They prove that winter will be keen." *
It is a popular idea that an abundance of hips and
haws betokens a hard winter, but this is not certainly
true. Nevertheless, during a ramble at this period,
an excitement is created by the birds of various hues
and cries, that, attracted by the ripened fruit, are
revelling in the " common feast," now bounteously
spread around for all God's creatures. The shrill
short scream of the Blackbird, the harsh shriek of the
Jay, the chatter of the Magpie, and the solemn cawk
of the Rook, resound on all sides among the bushes,
as on diverse wing they fly off before the wanderer's
disturbing foot — and, see ! in that fiery-tinged pear-
tree a flock of Fieldfares have just alighted, with disso-
nant cries, after their aerial sail from the shores of the
northmen, and the last Swallow is seen flitting sadly
and disconsolately over the saffron-flowered mead.

The orchards in the cider and perry counties are
now ripening their fruit, and the sunny side of the
apples streaked as with sunset clouds, or deeply
blushing, present a beautiful appearance to the eye,
whether on the acclivities of the deep valley of the
Teme, in "Worcestershire, or on the undulating red
lands of Herefordshire. The commencing autumnal
gales often strew the uugathered fruit upon the
ground, to its injury and spoliation, whence has arisen
an old farmer's rhyme —

" September blow soft
Till the Apple's in the loft."
* CLARE.

438 EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES TOE SEPTEMBEE.

One of the most singular parasitical plants that
Britain produces, the greater Dodder (Cuscuta euro-
pcea), should be diligently sought by the enquiring
botanist, just before harvest-time, among peas, beans,
or vetches. It is generally considered a very rare
plant, though, in fact, when it does occur, it extends
itself as if with the most malicious activity. Though
often on the look-out for it, it was only in 1840 I first
saw it, when, in passing through a field of vetches, at
the Berrow, Worcestershire, near the southern termi-
nation of the Malvern chain, I was struck with the
red appearance of a part of the vetches — it was the
Dodder, which had enveloped them in an inextricable
stringy mass, and had borne them down to the ground
in its poisonous embrace, tied like Gulliver's head by
every hair. Yet, amidst the red clammy and stringy
mass it had formed, the round bosses of delicate wax-
like flowers shone with extreme elegance. Since then,

O '

a farmer pointed it out to me in a bean-field, not far
from my residence, at Northampton, clasped about
some bean-stalks most luxuriantly, but said that it
had not occurred there for some years previously.
This strikingly illustrates a, remark made by KIEBT
and SPEISTCE, in reference to the relations of insects
with plants, that " sometimes it happens that only a
single opportunity occurs, in a man's life, of seeing
certain plants growing wild : such opportunities
should never be neglected." * I have often had occa-
sion to see the force of this admonition, for so many
plants might, like Erica vagans, be justly termed
wanderers, that a curious plant undeniably observed
in a particular locality one year, may be sought there,

* KIRBY and SPENCE, vol. iv. p. 507-

EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES POE SEPTEMBEE. 439

afterwards, without any success. It is remarkable
that precisely at the time when the Beans are har-
vested, the seeds of the Dodder become ripe, and fall
to the earth, where they remain, probably, some years
before they again vegetate. Many, however, are car-
ried to the bean-stack, and may thus rest in the rick
for years, till again called forth, by circumstances, to
renew their parasitical depredations.

WILD FLOWEES OF OCTOBEE.

CHAP. XXIII.

AUTUMNAL WEATHER FAVOURABLE FOR EXPLORATION —
ADVENTURE AT MAENTWROG, MERIONETHSHIRE — FALLS

OF FESTINIOG A BREAKDOWN — ASCENT OF SNOWDON —

PLANTS GATHERED ON ITS LOFTY ROCKS — CLOUDY PROS-
PECT— RAINY OUTPOURINGS — BRAMBLES AT CAUNANT
MAWR — A TRUCE TO WANDERING.

" Upon the mountains, gemmed with morning dew,
In the prime hour of sweetest scents and airs."

WORDSWORTH.

OCTOBEE is undoubtedly the best month of the year
in Britain for the pedestrian wanderer, and therefore
by no means unworthy the attention of the " Bota-
nical Explorator." More especially is it in general
favourable for ascending the mountain fastnesses of
Wales or Cumberland. The morning opens with all
the balminess of spring without its bitter blasts — with
all the warmth of summer, without its oppressive
glare ; sleeping masses of vapour rest in the hollows
of the hills like silver lakes ; and the first rays of the
rising sun glancing upon the fading forest garnishes
it with gold, or resting on some old pear-tree, charms
the sight with the richest hues of crimson and carmine
exhibited by its foliage. In the height of summer it is
but rarely that any very extensive view presents itself
from a lofty eminence, in this uncertain climate ; for

WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 441

either a misty glare obscures the distant horizon in
some quarter or other, thunder clouds come whirling
about the mountain side, or worse than all, drizzling
and settled rain overwhelms the disappointed explorer
of Nature's beauties. But the calm and often cloud-
less days of autumn generally offer opportunities of
the most exciting kind, when no wind blows too rough
a cadence, and when the heat generated by exertion is
not of that debilitating kind before which, as is fre-
quently the case in the dog-days, the enervated frame
sinks in passive and overpowering fatigue.

It may, however, be thought that at this late period
of the season but few plants can be met with to give
zest to botanical ardour, but this is by no means the
case, for in favoured sheltered nooks among the hol-
lows of the rocks, many alpine plants continue in
flower till over-powered by the frosts of November ;
while the cryptogamous vegetation of the mountains
now appears in fine perfection — Ferns of the most
delicate structure glisten with a golden green lustre
within the dark cavities of the precipices — the Lichens
stain the sullen rocks with yellow, brown, and purple,
or fringe their edges with a hoary beard — and every
bubbling spring is surrounded with an emerald carpet,
where the Mosses lift up to the observant eye their
brown tkecce, or urns of fructification, either grace-
fully adorned with a light calyptra or veil, or covered
as in the Polytriclii with a shaggy hairy cap. But to
make these observations more obvious, I will detail
the proceedings of a botanical excursion I made a few
autumns ago, in Snowdonia, which will enable me to
allude to some plants that have not previously fallen
under our notice.

442 WILD FLOWEBS OF

I had got, it matters not how, to Maentwrog, Meri-
onethshire, within the confines of that lovely vale
adorned by the graceful windings of the Dwyryd, of
which Lord LTTTLETON once said, that with the
woman one loves, the friend of one's heart, and a good
library of books, one might spend an age in it, and
think it only a day. Anxious to explore the beau-
ties around, I first started for the two waterfalls
formed by the little river Yeleuryd, one of which is
called Rliaidyr-du, or the Black Cataract. Scrambling
down with some difficulty amidst entangling under-
wood, I reached the stony bed of the river, gloomy
even at noon with the masses of dense umbrage
around. It was a burning day, and seated on a mossy
rock below the fall in this cool recess, I listened to
the hoarse splash of the waters, ever and anon raving
with fresh repercussion, and gazed on the flowers
around with a feeling of delighted ecstacy. The tran-
quil repose of such moments often recurs to the
memory amidst the vexations or vacuities of after life,
and again presents a healing balm to the perturbed
spirits — such are the advantages the votary of nature
derives from his pure and vivifying contemplations.
"Where bogs skirt the banks of the mountain streams
as they do here and in many parts of North Wales,
the spicy scent arising from great quantities of the
Bog Myrtle (Myrica gale) growing together gives a
peculiar and exciting fragrance to the air.

Returning over the wooded bank of the stream,
and dashing quickly along a very narrow path that
led to a precipitous ledge of rock from whence ano-
ther waterfall sprang foaming into view, I came into
rough collision with a luckless sketcher, who was

OCTOBEE. 443

aiming to take off the water, and so closely did our
encounter approximate us to the verge of the cliff,
that the water was very near taking off the pair of us !
Chance having thus brought us together, we agreed
to travel for the next day in company; but I soon dis-
covered that I had got a so^Eless companion, for as
Sir WALTER SCOTT says of the Palmer in Marmion, so
might I say of my friend of the waterfall —
" His sandals were with travel tore,"

and could scarcely be said to be in tenantable repair,
while his diminutive person, armed with huge um-
brella, and graced with sketch book and concave
glasses, gave him a characteristic and somewhat ludi-
crous appearance. Having been the day before at the
Falls of Festiniog, I obtained his direction to them,
proceeding early the following morning up the roman-
tic vale, and thus obtained specimens of the pretty
Gnaplialium sylvaficum, as well as of a rare Riibus that
grows above the bridge between the two falls of the
Cynfael. The Mountain Ash (Pyrus aucuparia), pro-
fusely adorned with pendant fruit of the most brilliant
red, here presented itself, I think more beautifully
than I have any where before seen it, shrouding the
steep rocks excavated to a fearful depth by the " fierce
footsteps" of the mountain torrent.

" The Mountain Ash
No eye can overlook, when mid a grove
Of yet unfaded trees she lifts her head
Deck'd with autumnal berries that outshine
Spring's richest blossoms." *

In the deep chasm, cut out by the river, stands an
isolated pinnacle of rock, cracked and riven as if by
some tremendous storm or convulsion of nature, and

* WORDSWORTH.

444 WILD FLOWERS OF

where, according to traditional report, the mystic
rites of enchantment were once performed. For " a
deed without a name," truly such a locality is not ill
adapted — around the shattered pile the water roughly
roars in its progress on the one hand, or on the other
forms sullen pools black as obsidian, into whose
treacherous depths it would not be enviable to fall;
broken cliffs rise on either side so lofty, and so shaggy
with the mingled foliage of the sable Tew and Wytch
Elm, that day-light struggles almost in vain to pene-
trate into the murky glen, while the maddening plunge
of the stream, as it leaps out of this Stygian den, is
alone heard to break the stillness around "the En-
chanter's chair," by its intermitting roar.

In the grounds of Tan y Bwlch Hall, which I
next progressed to, I observed the frondose lichens
Parmelia lierbacea and Sticta pulmonaria, in great
abundance and luxuriance, and bearing the finest
fructification. The walks here well merit careful
exploration, while the eye is charmed with spreading
groves, and romantic scenery boldly rising from the
finely watered valley where the river Dwyryd winds
gracefully.

But to return to my artistic friend. An unexpected
bump had brought us in contact with, and another
incidental shake in life's journey sent us off again at
a tangent from each other. We had both mounted
the Caernarvon mail to get to Beddgelert, but scarcely
had we made a start when my companion's spectacles
fell, and were placed Jwrs de combat, or fit only for
hospital service. He had scarcely recovered from this
disaster, which I remarked was a bad omen, when his
snuff-box fell, and was with difficulty recovered. His

OCTOBEE. 445

packet of vesture next ventured on a forward move-
ment to his irrepressible chagrin, and last of all we fell
also — for down tumbled one of our horses as if shot,
and in a moment we were all hurried sans ceremonie
into the dusty road, to advance or retrograde as we
thought proper. Ultimately we shook off the mail
that had so unkindly shaken off us, and walked
through the majestic pass of Pont Aberglasslyn ; and
after refreshing at the Beddgelert Hotel, I engaged a
car to convey me to Llanberis, where I proposed my
unfortunate companion should accompany me, and
forget his sorrows ; but inconsolable for his broken
spectacles, which he said ruined all his prospects,
he would go no farther than the turn to Capel Cerig ;
and, as BUJSTAN says, " I saw him no more."

As I progressed down the pass of Llanberis, the
evening suddenly closed in, the wind moaned cheer-
lessly in fitful gusts, and Snowdon and his satellites
put on their darkest array — nevertheless I determined
to ascend the next morning if possible. Over my tea
and snug fire at the Dolbadran Castle* (which by the

* Dolbadran Castle itself is a ruined fortalice, of which a shattered
round tower now only remains, situated on a rocky eminence, between
the Upper and Lower Lakes of Llanberis, and its grey head encompassed
with lofty mountains, is reflected in the clear waters with pictorial effect.
In the Upper Lake Lobelia Dortmanna, Sparganium natans, Subularia
aquatica, and lioetes lacustris grow ; in and about the Lower Lake,
Nympheea alba, Alisma natans, Epilobium angust\folium, and Trollius
europceus. I did not examine the woods above, where probably several
rarities may be found, as a specimen of Epipactis ensifolia was given me
by my botanical guide hereafter mentioned, gathered there by him. The
intermittent roar from the explosions in the slate quarries seen from this
point, comes with fine effect upon the ear, like so many avalanches among
the mountains. Very near to and sadly eclipsing the ruined tower of
Dolbadran, an immense pile of building called " the Victoria," has been
erected of late years for the accommodation of visitors. I would, how-
ever, advise the Botanical Explorator to do as I did, and attack " the
Castle," although the smiling widow is a widow no longer.

446 WILD FLOWEBS OF

bye with its smiling widow landlady I strongly recom-
mend), I held a consultation with a guide. He was
willing enough to convoy me to the summit only, but
when he heard that I wanted to climb the precipices
of Clogwyn du yr Arddu and Clogwyn y garnedd, and
search about for plants, he begged leave to decline
the honour of attending me, as he said the whole day
would be occupied — while if it proved fine (a rarer
circumstance at Snowdon than red letters in the calen-
dar), he could take three journeys with different
parties from Llanberis in the same day. There was,
however, he told me, a sort of supernumerary guide,
who was fond of gathering plants, and probably he
might be induced to explore the crags with me.

Next morning a brisk little Welchman, active as
the goat of his native mountains, with a tin box on
his back, on which was painted " William "Williams,"
presented himself to my inspection, and said that he
was so fond of plants, that he would go with me any
where, as long as I pleased. My arrangements were
at once made, and we started. The day was fine, and
though the up-hill work was a little toilsome and
tedious, I experienced no inconvenience except from
a furious gust of wind on the more exposed parts of
the mountain. An exposure on the bleak acclivity
throughout the night, would, however, prove rather
serious, as has several times been experienced by
incautious tourists. Williams told me of an instance
that fell under his own cognizance. A gentleman
who formed one of *a party who had ascended to the
Snowdonian monarch, suddenly took it into his head
when on the summit, that he would proceed to Caer-
narvon, instead of returning back with his friends to

OCTOBEE. 447

.uianberis. The Caernarvon road being clearly visible,
he felt no doubt of finding his way, and ridiculed every
persuasion offered to divert him from his purpose.
The following morning a party was ascending Snow-
don about four o'clock, to see the sun rise, when they
were alarmed by shouts and cries of distress from
the Beddgelert side of the mountain. "Williams, one
of the attendants of the party, hastened down to the
quarter from whence the cries proceeded, when he
discovered the same gentleman who had left his party
the day before, in a dreadfully cold and exhausted
state from long wandering without food, and exposure
to the night air. It appeared that he had been de-
ceived by a distant shining rivulet, which he had
mistaken for the road, and being unable to regain the
track, as well as bewildered among the intricacies of
the mountain as twilight came on, he had wandered
to and fro in confusion and uncertainty, till overcome
by cold and exhaustion ; and it is probable he would
have perished, but for the circumstance I have men-
tioned. As it was, serious illness ensued, and he was
confined to his room, at Llanberis, for above a fort-
night.*

At length I stood on Snowdon. Dull and dark,
and cold, the clouds hung about its subject heights,
and obscured three parts of the landscape, and its
lakes slumbered in their deep hollows like misty mir-
rors— two or three, however, putting on a beautiful
sea-green tint. Twenty-five glitter amidst hollow
glens and ragged crags on a very clear day, but I

* The melancholy fate of poor STAKE, a clergyman of Northampton,
who perished amidst the Snowdon rocks, under very mysterious circum-
stances, and whose remains were not discovered till some months after
his death, is still the talk of guides and tourists.

448 WILD FLOWEE8 OP

could now make out only twenty. The lakes of Llan-
beris, the vale to the Menai, and the whole island of
Anglesea, presented a glorious spectacle, and towards
Beddgelert, Lyns Dinas and Gwinant were beauty
spots of no mean interest, as well as the little pools
called Llyn Llwdaiv and Llyn y Cwm Glds, beneath
the horrid pointed crags of Clogwyn y Garnedd ; but
towards Capel Curig a dense mist brooded over the
low country, from whose head quarters, advanced
squadrons occasionally pushed on, and dark a.midst
the fleecy masses that mantled their shoulders, rose
the gigantic heads of Carnedd Llewellyn, Moel Siabod,
and the Glyder Vawr, as if contending for pre-emi-
nency with Snowdon himself. On Yr Wyddfa, the
highest point of Snowdon, the trigonometrical sur-
veyors have reared a permanent stony cairn or mount,
surmounted by a pole, which has already received the
indeDtations of almost every letter of the alphabet, re-
peated as reporters sometimes tell of toasts at public
dinners, nine times nine ! — so inveterate is the habit of
Englishmen to leave a memento of their track behind
them — so tempting is it to have one's name elevated
above the clouds, and literally held aloft by Snowdon
for the admiration of succeeding generations ! For-
tunately the beacon post is stout and strong enough
to bear the hacks of many a host of invading carvers,
but it is to be lamented, that unless they climb higher
and higher, there will soon be a deficiency of " room
and verge enough" for these barbie operations ; so
that it may be advisable for future adventurers to
change the scene, and seek to carve out immortality
in the classic waters of " old Conway's roaring flood."
I found a party of gentlemen had just preceded me

OCTOBEE. 449

to the proud Wyddfa, and as no one ever thinks of
mounting Snowdon without a pocket pistol about him,
we now prepared to fire, and simultaneously cheered
to the health of our fair youthful Queen, from the
highest point in England and Wales. Let no teeto-
taller venture to mount Snowdon with presumptuous
foot, as he values the well-being of his outer envelope,
without a medical certificate first had and obtained,
in his pocket, for a little relaxation from the rule of
his order. At all events " Lookers-out" may be con-
sidered privileged persons, more especially when there
are no " Lookers-on /"

Although experimentalists have often affirmed that
the constituents of the atmosphere are precisely the
same upon the loftiest mountains as in the closest
cities, no one who has ever snuffed up

te The thin air upon the iced mountain tops,"
can assent to the effects of their respiration being the
same. The freshness of the mountain air, for ever
kept in a state of purity by the blowing wind, is
bracing and exhilirating in a high degree, and its
Ithuriel penetrations seem to unmask the spirit, and
draw forth its best aspirations, at the same time that
the soul, lifted above terrene affairs, distinguishes that
pulsation that throbs to nobler views than those of
earth. — But " to our mountain sport." Around the
summit of Snowdon grows the humble Salix Jterbacea,
a species of willow, and the smallest tree known in
the world, for a complete specimen of it, trunk, leaves,
flowers, and fruit, might be concealed within the
leaves of a thumb almanack ! Immediately below Yr
Wyddfa extend the series of awful crags denominated
Clogwyn-y- Garnedd, some of them above 600 feet in

2 G

450 WILD FLOWERS OF

perpendicular height. Here, amidst the clouds that
perpetually saturate this fearful reef, most of the
famed plants of Snowdonia grow, as mentioned by RAY,
and other British botanists.* Among the chasms of
this ridge I began cautiously to slide ; but the little
"Welchman, with his tin box on his back, actually
bounded like a roe, and soon brought me, from an
almost inaccessible peak, some specimens of the rare
Saussurea dlpina, or alpine Saw-wort. My own re-
searches produced me the Oxyria reniformis, or
Mountain Sorrel, Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia officinalis),
Mountain Fescue Grass (Festuca vivipara), the silky
leaved Cerastium alpinum, Mountain Rue (Tlialictruin
alpinuni), the beautiful Ferns — Allosorus Orispus, Cis-
topteris fragilis et dentata, and Asplenium viride, as
well as Alpine Clubmoss (Lycopodium alpinuwi), and
the pretty prickly Clubmoss, L. selaginoides. Arenaria
verna was also plentifully in flower, its silver blossoms
shining elegantly amidst masses of dark rock. Poly-
gonum viviparum, and many other alpine species
might be referred to — but one expedition will not
suffice to gather all, nor must the Botanist expect it.f
Besides these, among the dripping cavities, many
beautiful Mosses spread their deep green velvet
cushions, studded with urnlike fruit, among the most
elegant of which occurred PotytricJium urnigerum et
alpinum, Straight-leaved Apple-Moss (JBartramia ithy-

* The rare JVoodsia hyperborea still grows sparingly upon the rocks of
Clogwyn-y-Garnedd, the habitat recorded by RAY. With regard to the
difference between this and Woo Asia Ilvensis, Mr. WILSON remarks that
he " never had the slightest difficulty in distinguishing these plants, the
first by its ovate, the second by its oblong pinnae."

t Other Snowdonian plants are Silene acaulis, Cerastium latifolium,
Dryas octopetala, Saxifraga nivnlis, Carex rigida, Aira alpina, Poa
alpina, Poa glauea or Parnelli, Festuca ovina var- rivipara, Hymeno~
phyllum Tunbridgense, and H. IViUoni.

OCTOBER. 451

pliylla), so confervoid in its aspect, and the delicate
curious Filmy Fern Symenopliyllum Wilsoni. In our
way back to Llanberis we visited the terrific black
precipice called Clogwyn Du Yr Arddu, at whose base
lies the green lake, so called from the colour of its
waters, impregnated by the ore of a neighbouring
copper mine. Descending this precipice at its most
assailable point, we got to its base, looking back, not
without awe, upon cracked and yawning masses above,
that seemed ready to take a downward plunge without
much notice. Here Arabis hispida, a plant noticed
long ago by EAT, was still very abundant.*

Crossing the stream that supplies the waterfall of
Caunant Mawr, the head of Cwm Brwynog presented
a singular scene of desolation, of some interest to a
geologist. Here lay, in chaotic confusion, a ruin of
nature's own formation — vast slabs and massive frag-
ments piled upon each other, as if Pandemonium had
been upturned from its foundations, and riven by the
thunderbolts of vengeance and destruction. And
what was especially remarkable, all these masses had
been, in the lapse of time, so corroded by rains and
tempests, as to present the singula- appearance of
broken fluted cyclopean columns, more the work of art
than the accident of slow brumal and imbral action.
Amidst the examination of this labyrinth of stones,
the gloom of evening came rapidly on, and it was
verging towards the witching hour of night before I
was " at ease at mine inn."

Since the last mentioned excursion was made I have
again ascended Snowdon, but took the difficult though

* The Broad-leaved Alpine Chickweed (Cerastium latifolium,') also
grows on these rocks, and the Spiderwort (Lloydia or Anthericum aero-
tinum) has been recently gathered here.

452 WILD FLOWERS OF

more interesting route from Capel Cerig. Hain had
fallen in the early morning, and water was in many
places weeping over the slippery precipices. Llyn
Llwdaw, on which I looked down, curiously tinted,
seemed a sable abyss girdled with dull green, and
beyond it towered the bare precipitous rocks of Crib
Coch, while another little lake still higher was frowned
into darkness by the cliffs about it. The peak of
Snowdon was clear in front, and our party hurried on
over the slippery ground ; but ere we could reach its
base, an enormous cloud descended, and the mist crept
down enveloping every thing. A few openings into
the scene below — like snatches of happiness midst
clouds of sorrow — a few breaks through the spiteful
fogs of destiny, pourtraying glittering lakes, bright
vales, and cliffs and heights of noble sublimity when
the curtain of cloud was for a moment lifted up — was
all we could boast of that day as our prospect from
Snowdon.* " Such is life' it may be truly said, nor
have I been exempted from cloudy passages in my
numerous mountain excursions — in fact, vaporous out-
pourings have scurvily treated me, and too often
pitylessly overwhelmed me. The very last time I was
beneath the brows of Snowdon, rain remorselessly
poured upon my head, and pursued me from Llanberis

* Enveloping; fog and dreary mist, is too often the experience of the
disappointed wanderer on our British mountains. Mr. J. BACKHOUSE,
jun., has described an excursion on Helvellyn in the P/iytologist, where he
says " when we reached the summit of the mountain we were completely
enveloped with fog and cloud, so that we could see nothing but the upper
part of the deep gorges and chasms in the precipitous cliffs with which
the top of the mountain is faced. We therefore made our way against
wind and rain down to Grisedale Tarn." I refer to this excursion as re-
cording the occurrence of some fine tufts of the rare Cerastium alpinum
upon Striding Edge, found there by Mr. TATH AM. Striding Edge is said to
be the best locality for plants upon Helvellyn.

OCTOBEB. 453

to the very gates of Caernarvon. Yet I bore safely
through the storm a splendid panicle of Eulus macro-
phyllus the finest I ever saw, which I gathered by
the road side near the Lower Lake of Llanberis. Once
only, I think, have the clouds favoured my look-outs
by overwhelming me in their embraces. I had ram-
bled from Barmouth to the romantic falls of Dolmy-
lynllyn, near Granllwd, and amidst towering rocks and
gleaming pattering waters, resting on beds of heath
in lonely wilds, beautified by waving birches and
waxen-berried mountain ashes, beneath which where
Harebells and purple Wood-vetches (Orobus sylvati-
cus,}* adorned the vocal shade, had passed a contem-
plative blissful day, when I prepared to return.
Scarcely, however, was I two miles on my route back,
when dark clouds hurried from the west, and poured
upon me in an open space where no shelter was near.
I hastened on to an old oak a short distance from the
road, and there partially covered, determined to wait
till the rain was over. But the storm increased in
fury, poured down from the leaves in a hundred chan-
nels over me, and at length washed me out. I was
compelled to hurry back to the Oakley Arms, which
I had contemptuously left behind me an hour before,
and there sought shelter. All night the tempest
raved, and the streams ran in terrified gushes fright-
ening me from my repose with their rushing cries.
But morning shone in tranquil beauty, and every
stream wild with glee was rattling along in foam and

* This beautiful Vetch (Vicia Orobus of some authors), grows in grassy
spots near Pistill Cayne, and on rocks north of Barmouth. I have also
gathered it in Caermarthenshire. It grows in an upright manner with
hairy pinnate leaves, without tendrils, bearing many branches with uni-
lateral racemes of pale purple flowers.

454 WILD FLOWEBS OF

fury. Pistill Cayne at once leaped the cliff that oft it
only veils, and the great Mawdach Tall hid all its
rocks with a flood red with indignation, and sweeping
as a hurricane. The waters were all alive that day,
and the woods were stunned by crashing torrents.

In descending Snowdon to Llanberis, I paused at a
bushy place in Cwm Brwynog, not far from the water-
fall of Caunant Mawr, whose voice sounded loudly in
the stillness of evening. Here was a fine thicket of
brambles, among which I observed the lofty Eulus
pyramidalis of Babington, whose long panicle has a
very remarkable appearance. Many other curious
brambles are observable about Llanberis, as jK. incur-
vatus, Bab., It. Linclleianus, R. affinis, &c. ; and pros-
trate among stones, on the banks of the torrent, I
observed the rare mountain bramble It. lentiginosus,
which I have described in Steele's Handbook of Bri-
tish, Botany. This is a very prickly bramble, but has
a suberect habit and growth, though the numerous
sharp serratures of the leaves distinguish it at sight
from the usual forms of jR. plicatus or suberecttis, the
latter of which is of common occurrence in Snow-
donia, and it is more slender than those species. It
seems to bear some relationship to R. affinis, but its
elliptical leaflets and racemose panicle gives it a very
different aspect to that bramble, and the panicle also
is much more hairy. I would compare it among the
suberect group to E. Guntheri in the glandulose, the
flowers being in general small, and the whole plant
weak even in the best developed specimens ; yet the
stem is so prickly and the points of the prickles so
sharp and attenuated, that it is one of the most lacer-
ating among the Rubi. It seems a subalpine bramble,

OCTOBER.

455

but not well developed except in moist localities ; as
in dry woody ground at Capel Curig it grew very
dwarf, with scarcely formed fruit ; while on the stones
of the ravine bordering the water below Caunant
Mawr it spread about most luxuriantly, exhibiting
large succulent black fruit.

Examining the bramble bushes in the deep shadowy
ravine, I kept slowly advancing till the waterfall of
Caunant Mawr was full in my view. After its first
plunge it makes a sidelong leap into the deep ravine
that enshrouds it, and is soon lost among embowering
foliage. Tbe front of the rocky chasm down which
the waters gracefully leap was densely covered with a
robe of verdant mosses, and the spangled stream as if
in thoughtful mood fell with such little perturbation,
that at a short distance it almost seemed like an em-
broidered picture set in green velvet. Laden with
the specimens I had collected, I retraced my steps,
and took the road to Dolbadran Castle.

A TRUCE TO WANDERING.

SNOWDON'S peak is lost in gloom ;-
Now how bright the lighten'd room
To the sharpen'd senses speaks
After hours 'midst cloudy peaks,
Where the wind at ev'ry turn
Blusters over bog and burn,
Humid crag, and precipice; —
Rest we from such toilsome bliss.

Feast we now in castled halls
Safe away from foaming falls,
Ferny cliffs, and mossy peaks
Glowing in red sunset streaks j

45(? WILD FLOWEBS OF OCTOBER.

Tho* we rest from wand'ring, still
Their images return at will,
Like clouds along a stormy sky,
With pictures of sublimity.

A truce to wand'ring — yet we see
Snowdonia's wide immensity,
As resting, half the pleasure rises
Within the mind, and still surprizes ;
Cloudy crags and deep ravines,
Misty lakes, and mountain scenes,
To the memory fondly cling,
And still urge on to wandering !

Truce, ye tempters, while we rest
Within Dolbadran's castled crest,
Yet thinking on the flow'rs that rise
On Garnedd's black declivities,
While clouds the riven crags immerse,
And raving winds the clouds disperse j —
But now within Llanberis valley
Rest we till to-morrow's sally.

The morning sun again shall rouse
To scenes all meet for nature's vows,
To lakes within whose sanctity
O'ershadowing craggy mountains pry,
To roaring waterfalls, beside
Whose moistness ferns and mosses hide,
Diffusing golden brightness round,
And on to wild peaks vapour-bound.

These are our joys — smile ye that may,
Shrinking from Snowdon's vapours gray,
Clouds shall intrude upon your dream,
Life pour to you its troubled stream,
And rocks appear as dark as ours —
While we look out among the Flowers !
And purified in heart the while,
See bliss in every dark defile.

WILD FLOWEKS OF OCTOBEE.

(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. XXIV.

EXCURSION TO THE BOTANIC GARDEN OF SNOWDONIA —
PLANTS OP THE RAVINES AND ROCKS — FEARFUL LEDGE
ABOVE LLYN IDWAL — A CONTEMPLATIVE DAY ON THE
SEA SHORE — THE ASPECT OF UPLAND HEATHS LATE IN
THE YEAR — EYE-BRIGHT, JUNIPER, MOUNTAIN GROUND-
SEL, BETONY, &C. — RELICS OF WILD LOVELINESS —
AUTUMNAL MARITIME PLANTS — SEA - SIDE SKETCH —
SEARCH ON BREAN DOWN FOR THE WHITE MOUNTAIN
CISTUS.

" I have known the herbs of the hills,

I seized their fair heads on high, as they waved by their secret streams."

Ossiari's Temora, Book viii.

" Observe yon band pursue the sylvan stream :
Mounting among the cliffs, they pull the flower
Springing as soon as pulled, and mavelling, pry
Into its veins, and circulating blood,
And wondrous mimicry of higher life ;
Admire its colours, fragrance, gentle shape ;
And thence admire the God that made it so —
So simple, complex, and so beautiful." POLLOK.

As the " Botanic garden of Snowdonia" still remained
to be visited, I started for it the succeeding morning,
with my little Welchman, and a visitor at Dolbadran
Castle, who volunteered to aid the expedition. We

458 WILD FLOWEBS OP

proceeded to the base of the G-lyder Vawr, bearing up
along the bed of a torrent that had made sad havoc
with the entrails of the mountain. This course proved
exceedingly delightful, and was fraught with ever
varying interest. The torrent here spent itself in
threads of silver over precipitous ledges of rock, there
almost entirely lost amidst vast disrupted masses,
allowed its bed to be traversed with impunity ; again
gathering its waters to one head, with chafing roar,
it bounded athwart the declivities impatient of delay,
whirling its eddies in deep pools among the stones.
Now silent, now furious, now a brook and anon a
cataract, its vagaries gave a continual zest to the
ascent, especially where in some places it fell into
cavities whose perpendicular sides must be scaled ; —
or tumbled in a hundred channels, where its vocal
waters, washing the smooth stones, rendered them too
slippery to bear the leaper in his passage from channel
to channel. Hence many a slip, many a plunge, mid-
leg deep in the mountain stream, and many a boister-
ous laugh. By the side of this torrent various highly
beautiful and delicate flowers were located, particularly
the Yellow "Welch Poppy (JMeconopsis Cambrica), still
in full flower, and that fairy gem with flowers of
stainless lustre, the Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia
palustris) .

It would take up too much space to dilate upon all
the cryptogamous vegetation that exhibited itself
abundantly in this ravine, especially where bushes
garnished the edges of the rock; but a species of
Rivularia* had an extremely curious aspect on the

* I believe identical with Rivularia calcarea of HOOKER'S British
Flora. The spongy crust of my specimens was very stiff, though not
absolutely stony j when dry of a greyish green, and not reviving again if
immersed. It appears calculated to exist for a long time.

OCTOBEB. 459

face of a steep rock down which the torrent fell —
resembling a number of cricket balls strung together,
and saturated with water like sponges. In a shadowy
recess, on the side of this waterfall, I gathered a fine
specimen of Marchantia Jiemisphcerica, as well as the
green Socket-Lichen (Solorina saccatct), the rare Col-
legia spongiosum, and Peltidea venosa, all in fine fruit.
Approaching now towards the head of the cwm we
had been following up so long, our course was barred,
and we climbed up the rocky side turning towards
the crest of the mountain, but leaving the wild watery
ravines with some reluctance. The Melancholy Thistle
(Cnicus lieteropliyllus), with its silver leaves, occurred
under a rock about midway up the Glyder, and the
ground about the summit was most beautifully verdant
with the prostrate stems of the Mountain Juniper
(Juniperus nana), which was profusely in fruit. We
now descended to a little lake called Llyn y Own, into
which my botanical guide waded to obtain Lobelia,
Dortmanna, and the curious alpine water plants Subu-
laria aquatica and Isoetes lacustris.

We next followed the stream issuing from the lake
till it approached a black barrier of rocks, in whose
front appeared a narrow fissure for the admission of
the stream, and for it alone. Here it paused — mur-
mured, curldled, foamed, and hurrying into the gulphs
whose impending masses shadowed it on either side,
it suddenly rushed on and flung itself shrieking into
an obscurity the eye was unable to penetrate. This
dark passage is the portal into the celebrated recess
denominated Tivll Du, literally the Hack hole, or
vulgarly called " the Devil's Kitchen." Hitherto it
had been a glorious autumnal day, but we were now

460 WILD FLOWEBS OF

on the verge of Tartarus, and it was but natural to
expect smoke and steam. They came on rapidly in
the shape of a drivelling mist, which soon spread its
wearisome sameness around, shrouding " the Devil's
Kitchen," Llyn Own, and everything else in its reek-
ing folds. This, for a season, obliged us to call a halt,
and bivouac in the Satanic territory. Accordingly we
sat down upon the loose blocks of stone that lay near
the chasm before us, as if the Tartarean gates had
been forced by an earthquake from their massive
hinges and overthrown ; and while waiting for the
dispersion of the clouds about us, with appetites
whetted by the mountain air, gladly called in requisi-
tion the not forgotten sandwiches and brandy-bottle,
to reanimate our half exhausted limbs stiff with climb-
ing. My little "Welchman, however, kept jumping
about among the crags, with his tin box strapped to
his back, to my admiration and almost terror, and
soon exhibited to me the delicate Spider-wort (Antlie-
ricum serotinum), while I myself had plucked the Sea
Pink (jStatice armeria), the soft-flowered Mountain
Cat's-foot (Antennaria dioica), and the alpine Hawk-
weed (Hieracium dlpinutri).

Turning down the bed of a streamlet among the
slippery rocks, we began to descend towards Cwm
Idwal, and here it is, where the torrent I before men-
tioned breaks through the barrier of Twll Du, amidst
a debacle of ruin, that Flora, as if to counterbalance
the horrors of the place, robes the sable rocks with
some of her choicest favourites. Here the Snowdon
Pink, as it is called, or Moss Campion (Silene acaulis),
dashes a broad gleam of rosy light upon the rock with
its numerous pink flowers ; here in immense profu-

OCTOBEE. 461

sion the silver flowers of the Saxifrages ($. hypnoides,
stellaris, et cesspit osa), cover the face of the dripping
precipices ; here the fairy purple Saxifrage (Saxifraga
oppositifolia) abounds ; the yellow Poppy blooms
abundantly in the crevices, and the Rosewort (Rhodi-
ola rosed} hangs its yellow cymes luxuriantly in spring
far out of reach of the adventurous foot, or in autumn
droops its flaccid leaves, rosy as the glowing hue of
sunset.*

In this favourite spot, called the Botanic Garden
of Snowdonia, some of the rarest Ferns reward the
enterprise of the "Botanical Explorator/' as Asple-
nium septentrionale, and SymenopJiyllum Wilsoni. To
find the very local PolysticTium Lonchitis, as well as
the almost eradicated Woodsiafi I ventured up the
front of the mural rock. Midway up, one spot made
us pause. It was a part where a huge intervening
mass blockaded the way, with no possible advance but
by a narrow gutter on its face fit only for a chamois.
One slip from that narrow gutter would have been
worse than a tumble from the Tarpeian rock, for it
was a perpendicular plunge of 250 feet, without a
break ! In the craterian hollow below lay Llyn Idwal,
black and without a ripple on its surface, solemn and
terrific to look upon ; clouds rolled above, and clouds
rolled below, between the lake and the precipice where

* Other plants found in this vicinity are Thalictrum alpinum, Draba
incana, Galium boreale, Sedum rupestre, Rubus saxatitis, Cerastium
alpinum, Sajcifraga nivalis, Juncus triglumis, and Carex atrata, the
scorched aspect of the latter well fitting it for the " pots" as the hollows
formed by the water are termed in the " Devil's Kitchen."

t I am glad to understand that Woodsia Ilvensis has lately re-appeared
in unusual abundance at its old station, a rock above Llyn-y-Cwn. About
a hundred plants were said to be visible in 184Q, but inaccessible, and not
to be gathered without the aid of a ladder.

462 WILD FLOWERS OF

we stood. At this point my nerves actually quailed
at the prospect, and I felt I could move no farther.
But ray little guide soon gave me a recipe for my ner-
vousness, occasioned by my looking down into the
cloudy gulph beneath. "Lookup," said he, "creep
close to the rock, and there is no danger." I still
hesitated, till measuring the distance with my eye,
and at last forming my resolve, I closed my eyes on
the fearful view, felt my way with cautious steps,
crossed the dreaded ledge in safety, and gathered my
plant ! After that all was lightsome to the summit
of the cliff, and thence over the flank of the Grlyder
by Llyn Own, and down into the vale of Llanberis, to
a glorious regale at the Dolbadran Castle.*

But to the " Botanical Explorator," as well as to
every mind awake to the love of the bold and the
beautiful, a contemplative day on the sea-shore, in
the autumnal season, affords a mental banquet of the
highest order ; and, of necessity, the calm, delicious
tranquility that pervades the mind, is not undivested
of a dash of melancholy, from the feeling that the
glories before the eye will soon be succeeded by the
fierce uproar of the brumal tempest. As first impres-
sions are always the most vivid, I will here extract a
short account I penned some years ago of a passing
visit to the pretty village of Budleigh Salterton,
Devonshire, because here I passed my first solitary
day in the contemplation of the restless ocean — a day
that still rises in my mind a chrystal gem, amidst the
dull, sad, and opaque rejectamenta of memory.

It was most lovely autumnal weather, with a kind

* The Inn of that name, which has every comfortable appliance a
Botanical Explorator can desire, and not the ruined tower on the side of
Llanberis lake.

OCTOBEE. 463

of dreaminess upon surrounding nature. The day
was not cloudy, and yet the sun did not shine forth in
his ^fullest effulgence, but tempered his radiance with
a thin gausy veil, which occasionally admitted a bril-
liant gleam over the landscape, while ever and anon,
though without a breeze, the yellow leaves of the elms
fell eddying through the air. "With renovated spirits
I advanced on the road to Salterton, and beautiful
were the prospects that occasionally presented them-
selves— Exmouth and the sea when I had mounted
the hill beyond the town — a lovely expanse of woody
country, with a bare, heathy, gravelly hill in front,
near Salterton, and beech trees (oh, the beautiful
beechen tree) in the richest diversity of gold and
auburn. Salterton is a pleasantly situated village,
close to a fine pebbly beach, expanding for about
half a mile from a fine semi-circular sweep of red
sandcliffs that stretch close up to the village on the
right, to where the little river Otter (jGoleridge's
Otter) makes its embouchure into the sea on the left.
An isolated mass also rises between, where the beau-
tiful Sea Pink (Statice armeria) was displaying its
rosy loveliness in great profusion. From the base of
this cliff extends a fine beach composed of large peb-
bles, forming a noble mound or breakwater, at the
base of which the calm sea was faintly gurgling ; but
what must be the clash of the ' proud waves ' here in
rough weather, when

" settling on the sea the surges sweep,

Raise liquid mountains and disclose the deep ;
South, east, and west, with mix'd confusion roar,
And roll the foaming billows to the shore."*

* Dryden'a Virgil.

464 WILD FLOWERS OF

I proceeded slowly along the pebbly barrier, though
with some difficulty, as the smooth stones were dis-
placed, and rolled about at each footstep. On one
side appeared a smooth shallow pool, where a flock of
Sandpipers were sporting, and immediately in front
rose a proud, lofty mass of red sandstone, the base of
which was washed by the Otter, which at this point
rushed with a swift current over the pebbles into the
sea, dividing into two branches, and forming a small
pebbly island at the ebb. This island I contrived to
reach by striding along the slippery stones, and occa-
sionally flouncing in the water, and was amply repaid
by the scene of desolation presented to my view. For
some distance along the shore the rock had been
shivered to pieces, and lay on the beach in vast broad
slabs, presenting an awful geological spectacle. These
masses of sandstone are evidently covered by the
tide, which dashes violently against the cliffs, forming
cavities and grotesque shapes, and the friable consti-
tuents of the sandstone thus mutilated by the waves,
and acted upon in winter, probably by the frosts, and
at all times by the atmosphere, necessarily causes
huge masses of the rock deprived of support from
below, or detached from above, to thunder down upon
the beach, leaving a singular scene of ruin and deso-
lation. These fragments are profusely covered with
olive-green fuel, and form a favourite resting place
for sea-birds. An old fisherman put me in his crazy
boat from the island across the other branch of the
Otter, and botanizing about the sandstone cliff, I
found some fine specimens of Arenaria marina in full
flower, and the beautiful Sea Lavender (Statice limo-
nium) on the ledges of the rock. Here, too, were

OCTOBER. 465

some most luxuriant plants of the Iris fcetidissima in
seed, which seems to delight in a maritime locality,
and I have scarcely seen it more abundant than here
and in the Isle of Wight. I now toiled to the sum-
mit of the cliffs, and sitting down at my ease, while
munching some biscuits, gazed delighted on the lovely
expanse of ocean stretched before me. On the right,
with a spread of pebbly beach between, was the pretty
sequestered village of Salterton, beyond which a ma-
jestic range of red cliffs extended in a semi-circular
direction far away, cliff beyond cliff receding in length-
ened succession, till the far point of Berry Head, in
Torbay, dimly met the view. Above Salterton was a
lovely wooded inland landscape, bounded by hills and
groves, and the blue outline of the heights of Dart-
moor in the far distance. To the left, cliffs of a still
sublimer character presented themselves, loftier and
grander, massive, towering, and threatening ; — beyond
which, in far perspective, the white cliffs and chalky
ranges of the coast of Dorset glittered in the declining
rays of the sun. But, in front, stretched that world
of wonders in itself — the Ocean ! not, indeed, in its
wild, awful, tempestuous character — but fair, smooth,
and calm, as when it tempted the shepherd in the
fable, to sell his flocks, equip the winged vessel, and
traffic in merchandize. So fair, so beautiful it seemed,
spreading in its loveliness to the verge of the horizon,
while not a vagrant sail disturbed the solemn solitude!
At intervals, only, a Cormorant would wing along
with spreading pinions close to the water, till his
dark form was lost behind the intervening cliff. I
approached close to the verge, but cautiously, and
looked down ; it was too awful to venture the view

2 H

466 WILD FLOWEBS OF

again except on bended knee ; — the rock was friable,
and the scene of ruin below told but too plainly what
must be the inevitable result of a single slip. "While
gazing on the scene, a solitary Sand Martin (Hirundo
riparia) sprung from a cavity in the rock, and flut-
tered in the sunbeams, resting every now and then
upon a little shelf of the sandstone. Poor fellow ! he
was left behind when his parents and brethren took
their departure over the mighty deep to warmer
climes, and, like the domesticated pet of a deserted
cottage, whose inmates have removed far away, ho
moved querulously about, as if astonished and con-
founded at the unwonted state of destitution in which
he was thus left. In wandering on to a succeeding
range of cliff", and looking down suddenly through a
break upon the shore below, I perceived a large flock
of Sea-Grulls seated, in all their white purity, upon a
large fragment of sandstone ; but they quickly started
off, barking and howling like a pack of hounds, till
the eye lost sight of them, as far off they flounced
down upon the water, — but their singular bark or
melancholy low, long resounded, at intervals, from the
wide ocean, alone disturbing the awful, soothing,
renovating silence of the scene.

The morning scenery of October among upland
heaths is often of an exciting delicious character,
combined with the last blowing plants of the year,
every twig sparkling with translucent dew-drops
lighted up with iridescent hues as the rising sun's
rays fall upon them, while the wild woodbine has a
brood of later pink-hued blossoms that adds fragrance
to the air still saturated with moisture. The moun-
tain ash glows with the load of its coral ripened

OCTOBER. 467

berries, the wild Bryony (Tamus communis), shows
its crowded wax-like fruit twining among shrubs high
in air, and the clustered sloes or slons contrast their
blue mealiness with the deep sable of the blackberries
bending down oppressed with their ripened weight.
The reeking turf is brightened with the purple and
yellow blossoms of a whole army of little Eyebrights
(EupTirasia officinalis), that in such an airy situation
might well be imagined to sharpen the eyesight, or at
least to open the mental vision to contemplative
delight. A few bell-flowers, gems of ethereal blue,
yet cling to the scene like reflections of past delights
—but the ling brown and faded, stretches far and
wide in sulky continuity — yet even that is burnished
here and there with the sparkling beaded beauty-
giving vapour, bright as virtue in the humblest garb.
The lesser gorse is yet gorgeous in gold, contrasting
with the brown faded or auburn fading brake, gradu-
ally bending its broad fronds to the ground, while
tufts of the grayish-green Juniper rise at intervals,
like hermits in hoary gowns, and give almost a sacred
character to the scene, especially where a cloistered
wood extends its brown umbrage on the margin of
the heath, with scattered broken mouldy pales upon
its bounds covered with aged silver lichens and green
leprarice, the collected fur of time and rot. The
Mountain Groundsel (Senecio sylvaticus) strews the
ground abundantly here, its numerous flowers with
their inconspicuous revolute rays making up for their
minuteness in giving a feature to the bank ; and rising
about almost every old stump on the edge of the wood,
the purple flowered Betony (JBetonica officinalis)* an

* The name Betony is said to be derived from Bentonic, a Celtic word,

2 H 2

4G8 WILD FLOWEKS OF

old rustic favourite, stands pretty among deep green
tufts of the goldilocks moss. Ragworts are become
flossy with their pappi, which every zephyr loosens to
fly off" with, but the latest Hawkweed (Hieracium
umbellatum) has yet a few golden florets in store, and
the tall purple-spiked Melic-grass (Molinia ccerulea),
and the handsome Wood-reed (Galamagrostis Epigejos),
now in full perfection, continue to give a feature of
botanical life to sylvan sequestered spots. Within
the wood enormous tall culms of the tufted Hair-
grass (Aira ccespitosa) are seen in a pallid dead state,
and the rambler turns from the overgrown weediness
that has obscured all path — like hankering wretched
burthens on the mind — and turns away once again to
the gay coloured heath, while the trill of the robin
sounds a plaintive requiem, to the floral season.

As the year slowly dies away, every object on which
a sunbeam rests is viewed with pleasure, and an old
stump robed in ivy, a drooping thyrsus of flowering
bramble, the wild Clematis clasping the tall bushes,
and with its feathery seeds seeming like a snow-drift,
a fragrant "queen of the meadows" flowering later
than usual, or even a humble Geranium, with shining
red petals, blooming to the last — all seem like scat-
meaning good for the head, and if so this herb must have had long stand-
ing as a crowning remedy. In the old English medical MS. of the four-
teenth century, now in the Royal Library of Stockholm, printed in vol.
xxx. of the Archeeologia, and which I have before quoted, higher powers
are ascribed to it than mere head work — as it is said

" Who so Betonye on him bere,

From wykked speryts it wyll hym were." (or keep.)

A very good thing could its powers but be still kept in action. Indeed it
was was once good for every thing —

" For all sekness in every stonde, (hour,)

Betonye is good while it may be fonde." (met with.)
Doubtless such simple and easily obtained remedies were not without
efficacy when believed in.

OCTOBEE. 469

tered pages of poetry. Even in this contemplation of
the little detached objects that meet the eye at every
turn, Nature may be well enjoyed. I never ramble
down a winding shady tree-embowered lane, or even
look into a ditch or hollow by the road side, but I see
something worthy of observation — at least a lead of
beauty, that deserves to be taken up and preserved
upon the string of recollection.

In favourable, and especially sheltered maritime
localities, many plants will continue in blossom to a
very late period of the year ; and hence the Botanical
Explorator need never despair of improving a fine day
even to the very verge of Christmas itself.

Winter begins to threaten, dashes a gust of whirl-
ing leaves about our heads, and as we approach the
margin of the ocean, its vast extent oscillates with
yeasty waves far as the eye can reach. But along the
shore, as we wind about from marsh to sand-hill and
to cliff, how many spots of beauty yet remain to charm
the exploring eye. The Sea Starwort (Aster Tripo-
liuin) flowers still, showing its pale purple rays and
yellow eye ; Sea Campion (Silene maritima) yet trails
its mealy stems, with silver petals like frills beyond
its inflated calyces ; and little shrubberies of Sea
Wormwood (Artemisia maritima), white and downy,
offer not an. inelegant spectacle. On the coast of
Wales, scenting the morning on the blowing sands of
Barmouth, the little green marshy lawns on its con-
fines fill the air with mild fragrance, well known to
the nose of the botanist, from an abundance of Lady's
Tresses (Neottia, spiralis), while hosts of autumnal
Gentian (Gentiana amarella) spangle the ground with
their branched heads of deep purple flowers. The

470 WILD FLOWEES OP

dwarf Centauries, with numerous red funnel-shaped
blossoms, well contrast with the Gentians, and lowlier
still with purple rays and full-blown seed of down,
the little Blue Eleabane (JErigeron acris). Proudly
seated upon the rifted sands about it, among stiff
glaucous sea lyme grass, the beautiful Sea Holly
(JEryngium maritiinuni) almost dares the tempest with
its armed leaves with coursing veins of azure, vying
with the fairest hand. Here, too, the Dewberry creeps
with bloomy berries all over the sand hills, amidst stiff
prickly shrubs of red dwarf roses (Rosa spinosissima),
that display large gooseberry-like fruit ; and in such
places I have gathered softly tomentose the Great Sea
Stock (Matthiola sinuatd), both in flower and fruit,
half covered with the blinding sand pouring along
the wind-swept shore. Masses of green verdigris-like
Mercury (JMercurialis annua) fringe the margin of
the sands and the beach.

In wild lonely spots, in some parts of the coast of
Pembrokeshire and Cornwall, the wild Asparagus
(A. qfficinalis), offers a pretty spectacle in fruit —
though stumbled over, perhaps, ere it can be found,
as the fierce sea breeze prostrates it to earth, making
every bush and tree shrink also from the sea-girt shore.

One tree, however, at least, the Tamarisk, seems to
rejoice in the vicinity of the raving ocean, blushing
into flower with the most elegant varying spikes even
as late as October, and a pleasing object with its
minute evergreen leaves upon the coast at all times.
I have observed the Tamarisk (Tamarix Anglica), in
some plenty about the vicinity of Hastings, Sussex,
and it is seen at the Lizard, in Cornwall, but is an in-
troduced decoration to the scene.

OCTOBEE. 471

As I must speedily have to take leave of phane-
rogamous vegetation, I shall here record a visit I paid
to the habitat of the rare Heliantliemum polifolium,
or white Mountain Hock-rose. I happened to be at
"Weston-super-mare, in Somersetshire, in the middle
of November, 1841, after winter had set in somewhat
fiercely ; but a fine gleam of sunshine tempting me
down to the beach, I thought it possible that I should
be able to find my way to Brean Down, and allured
by the prospect, bent my steps towards it, scarcely
expecting, however, to find a specimen left of the
plant in question, unless, perchance, in seed. I walked
down to the beach, where all was silent and deserted
— the tide was out, and the distant roar of ocean
sounded but faintly on the ear. In front lay a wide
expanse of wet sand : in mid distance the rocky pro-
montory of Brean Down and the islands of the Steep
and Plat Holmes ; and beyond there lay a level sea,
bright in the subdued light that thin yet dusky clouds
permitted, that veiled the sun's orb from view. The
scene was calm, fine, but dreamy, and with the leaden
tints of twilight. Left of Brean Down a whole legion
of descending rays burst from the clouds, partially
intercepting the line of distant hills, but occasionally
lighting up their sides. After a long walk upon the
moist shining sands, I came to the verge of the little
river Axe, which I found cut off" my progress to the rocky
peninsula, and, as there was no bridge, I had to engage
a boatman to row me down the river to the rock, and,
of course, await my return. I was soon scrambling
up a precipice of carboniferous limestone, of which
the peninsula of Brean Down consists, running far
out into the Severn sea, and on so straight a line with

472 WILD FLOWERS OF

the Steep Holmes, that I should judge they were
formerly connected, and, perhaps, disjoined by the
dashing waves at a far distant period. A glorious
view of Weston Bay, the expansive estuary of the
Severn, and its guardian islets, burst upon my view
from the summit of the promontory, which is covered
with a fine green turf, — invaded now, however, from
its virgin state, by various small allotments let to
cottagers for potatoes, &c. On the south side is an
almost perpendicular precipice, and the peninsula,
narrowing in places, subdivides itself into three
portions. I now commenced my search along the
southern ledge for the Cistus* but, for some time, in
vain ; nor till arriving at the end of the first division
of the down did I find a single plant, though quantities
of the Iris fcetidissima, with open capsules appeared,
displaying a rich array of orange-coloured seeds. t At
last a single scrubby withered Cistus appeared on the
cliff, and thus assured I was on the right scent, I
pressed on — more appeared, yet, still, all withered.
But as I entered upon the second portion of the pro-
montory, where the rock forms a fine slope towards a
little bay below, I was rejoiced to notice numerous
plants quite green and flourishing ; — then I saw some
with perfect fruit ; and, beyond all hope, a beauteous
group lay on the hill side, still bending with unex-
panded white petals, tipped with rose. It was a lovely
sight, and one I may, probably, never behold again,
since, except at Babbicombe rocks, in Devonshire, this
rare and beautiful flower is found no where else in

* Cistus of LINNAEUS, Helianthemum of De CANDOLLE.

t OQ Brean Down grows also the pretty dwarf silvery Carex, C. clan-
destina, which has been only found in Britain here, on St. Vincent's rocks,
the downs near Bayford, and on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

OCTOBEB. 473

Britain, and, according to Sir JAMES SMITH, in the
world ! I seized my prize, I fear, with a rapacity
worthy of " gloomy Dis" himself, when he carried off
the " fairer flower" of Sicily ; but, for the satisfaction
of my brother botanists, I beg to say, I left a store of
plants behind for the stock of another season, and
many had evidently spread their seeds around long
before my arrival.

Many a delightful capture of this kind has it been
my lot to obtain, though, frequently, from weather or
accident, proving " a fearful joy ;" nor, on the present
occasion, did I entirely escape unscathed. I had lin-
gered so long upon the rocky promontory, wandering
to its remotest end, that the shades of evening had

o

gathered round, and I began to fear for the fidelity of
my boatman, for by this time the tide had set in, and
so filled the little estuary of the Axe, that it appeared
like a broad lake. For some time, when I got to my
starting place, I could see nothing but a boat got
loose from its moorings, which, imagining to be mine,
I began to calculate upon a long round-about toilsome
pilgrimage back to my quarters ; but, after some loud
shouting, Charon fortunately appeared, having re-
moved his boat farther up the stream, and picked up
an auxiliary in the shape of a "Westonian, who begged
a passage in the boat. So away we scudded with the
tide, nor with that alone behind us, for in its wake a
driving rain burst upon our devoted heads. It was
now dark, wind and rain rendered obscurity doubly
obscure, and I should certainly have got into some
misadventure, had not the "Westonian, whom I had
accommodated with a passage, offered the aid of his
local knowledge to guide me over the sands. Amidst

474 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER.

the dashing of waves, and the beating of rain, I at last
arrived wet and weary, in view of the glimmering
lights of the town, just as the moon, dim and hazy, as
seen through the watery vapours, faintly appeared in
the brightening east.

WILD FLOWEES OF OCTOBEE.
(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. XXV.

A LOOK OUT UPON THE SERE AND YELLOW LEAF — REFLEC-
TIONS ON A FOGGY MORNING — COLOURS ASSUMED BY
TUB FOLIAGE OF FOREST TREES CHEMICAL SUGGES-
TIONS ON THIS PHENOMENON — MOURNFUL ASPECT OF
NATURE — SUPERSTITIONS APPERTAINING TO GROVES AND

TREES — FADING PICTURE IN RURAL LANES COLOURED

BERRIES OF THE HEDGES NUTTING AND BOTANICAL

STRUCTURE OF THE NUT THICKET BEAUTIES AND

LOVELY ASPECT OF THE "WOOD HORSETAIL — BRAMBLE
HUNTING — NOTICES OF THE IVY AND ARBUTUS.

" Now shift the scene to moonlight jilade,
"Where clapper elves beneath the shade
Of oak or elm, their revels keep
"What time we plodding mortals sleep.
Next, lead me to some haunted grove,
Such as the Fauns and Dryads love ;
Or seat me by some brook, whose swell
Makes music like a Naiad's shell :
Then touch the tree 'neath which I lie,
Till it unclose to ear and eye
Whate'er it may have heard or seen
Since Spring first cloth'd its stems with green."

SPIRIT OF THE WOODS.

WE are now literally touched by the " sere and yellow
leaf," vegetation is every where fading around us, and
the woods of October stand arrayed in unwonted yet
melancholy splendour. The mind contemplates this

476 WILD FLOWERS OF

brilliant " pomp of woods" with, feelings akin to those
that would arise at the sight of a well appointed army
glittering with gay uniforms, feathers, and standards
— just advancing to their final debouche upon the
field of battle So this gorgeous array of shrubbery,
grove, and forest, is the last glory of the waning year
— the breath of winter has already touched the foliage
with talismanic power, and the transcient colours that
on every side now gild the landscape, are only the
deceptive tranquil prelude to the desolation that
sternly stalks behind. But though the prescient
philosopher ever predicating results from apparent
phenomena, troubles himself with the coining events
whose precursing shadow he espies, there is no neces-
sity for a " Botanical Explorator" to be in advance of
the season, and thus be overwhelmed in the whirlwinds
and storms of Winter before they arise ; sufficient to
him to seize the day as it actually exhibits itself, and
depict the beauties of nature as they appear — all
smiles — in the balmy transcient hours that beam like
sunset clouds in the too short intervals of autumnal
pourings. For, alas, " Amalthea's horn," once honoured
as the horn of plenty, now too often pours upon the
meads and orchards pluvial treasures, upon which the
eye gazes mournfully as they fall, and the wandering
foot seeks in vain for a dry spot on which to stand
and muse.

Hain ! rain ! rain ! — the falling deluge echoed
throughout the day in the shrubbery ; it pattered
upon the leaves, and sounded mournfully, mixed with
the owl's " too whoo" as I raised my head from my
pillow dubiously amidst the gloom of midnight. But
look out upon the still morning ! All is hushed as if

OCTOBEE. 477

by the touch of an enchanter's wand : the scowling
tempest has exhausted itself — the wayward wailing
child is cradled to rest. Yet hush ! for a sound may
awaken it again to increased squalling and commotion
— let us then enjoy the momentary respite. A reek-
ing fog now rests its grey folds in dull sameness over
the vast surface of silent nature. It conceals (as a
moralist might say) beneath that damp but opaque
curtain, crimes never to be revealed in this world ;
cares, sighs, anguish, that are well concealed — for they
would be known in vain to the heartless throng —
what stragglings, what throbs, mental and bodily,
what hopes, what aspirations, are not hid beneath
that sea of vapour ! But all must go on — for, as Miss
EDGEWOETH says, " amidst the most interesting scenes
dinner comes on the table as usual," —so moralizing
is useless, the fog rises in mid air, the rooks vociferate
in cawing chorus as they journey through it to break-
fast ; — it invests the solemn deptli of parti-coloured
woods as it stalks gloomily along, then encamps along
some ledge of limestone heights finely relieved upon a
sky of cloudless azure, and at last is lost by rapid
movements through a rocky pass beyond which its
misty squadrons drive away from view.

The fall of the leaf, the different hues assumed by
the foliage of various trees, and the order in which
they are disrobed, is a subject of curious observation,
and it may not be uninteresting to pay some attention
thereto, especially as at this period the Flora conspicua
pausea in its career — the garden has scarcely any new
glories to produce, and although a few impatient
plants hastily and foolishly make an effort to antedate
the spring, like some young misses "coming out" too

478 WILD FLOWEBS OP

soon — it is but a few that make an effort to effect this
onward but premature movement.* Our contempla-
tions, then must be directed to the wild interior of
the forest glade, seated on some rustic seat, as the sun
pours its glories from an unclouded sky, and lights
up the silent tranquil noon of October with reflected
light that burns upon the withering foliage as if with
pyrotechnic fire — and all is still ; the frolicsome squir-
rel sits with curled-up tail upon the oaken bough,
the hare crouches moveless in her bracken form, and
amidst the reeds and tall bulrushes, the black coot
dreams on the mirrored pond, on whose glazed surface
not a circlet stirs. Now mark we the varied hues
that glow around us. In the following list I have
enumerated the characteristic tints that usually mark
the leaves of the trees named, before they drop off.

• Scarcely an autumn passes, however, without an attentive observer
perceiving some tree or shrub, which has put forth a second crop of
flowers, Irom which of course fruit would arise, if " a. killing irost" did
not arrest their progress. Even wild flowers are often proliferous in this
way, as if capricinu>ly throwing their beauties into " old Hiem's lap; "
but these anomalies may be oltcner noticed in cultivated plants. From
such sportive treaks of nature, permanent varieties have arisen, endowed
with the properties of their progenitor, and I should account in this way
for the "Holy Thorn" of Glastonbury, Caldenham Oak, in the New
Forest, and other famou« pruilromic exhibitors of flowers or foliage, of
course enlisted into the legendary credulity of the day. A superstitious
relic of this kind now exists in a garden close to the west end of the
cathedral at Gloucester, in the shape of an Apple tree, commonly called
by the inhabitants of the fair city " the forbidden fruit!'1'' — very proba-
bly a legacy from the monks of the former abbey. The fruit of this tree
is never gathered, nor does it fall off like the generality of apple trees,
remaining till after the flowering of the following year, so that flowers
and Iruit appear on the tree together, as I can witness. The superstition
respecting the tree is, that it is the offspring of Eve's too celebrated apple,
and that death or some direful calamity would inevitably befall the daring
individual that plucked this " forbidden fruit." It is certainly curious to
see the fruit clustering upon the tree late in the spring;, and to witness
the respect in which it seems to be held, though its beauty is not very
remarkable. Some fanciful monk, I should imagine, first noticed and
nursed this odd variety of the apple.

OCTOBEE. 479

LIME Pale orange.

MAPLE Light yellow.

WILD CHERRY .... Bright red.

POPLAR Yellow, or Citron.

BIRCH Straw colour.

ELM Yellow and brown.

PEAR Frequently vivid crimson.

HOHSE-CHESNUT ..Orange and ferruginous.

DOG-WOOD Sanguine, changing to vinaceous.

BEECH Auburn to deep umber.

LARCH Dull orange.

SPINDLE-TREE . . . .Crimson lake.
WYTCH HAZLE . . . .Brownish yellow.
COMMON HAZLE . . .Yellowish.*
GUELDER ROSE . . .Deep red or pink.

But besides this, many denizens of the grove pre-
sent such variable tints that no one in particular can
be fixed upon as the general component of the foliage;
thus the sovereign Oak either exhibits a changing
vesture of light green and yellow, or holds his green
cloak firmly below his bald antlered head long after
the leaves of every other deciduous tree have fallen,
finally putting on a sober russet hue, which remains
till late in the spring. The " wannish gray" of the
Willow is scarcely altered till just before the leaves
drop, subsiding into a pallid primrose tint ; and the
Alder keeps its foliage green to the last. The syca-
more has been well described by COWPEE as

" Capricious in attire ;

Now green, now tawny, and, ere autumn yet

Has chaug'd the woods, in scarlet honours bright."

* Late in the autumn, however, if the foliage continues on, taking a
dull orange or reddish hue, as noticed by CLAKE hi a Sonnet inscribed to
Autumn. —

" Where o'er broad hazel-leaves thy pencil mellows,

Red as the glow that mornings opening warms,
And ash or maple 'neath thy colour yellows,
Robbing some sunbeam of its setting charms."

480 WILD FLOWERS OF

The Lime is almost always denuded the first, and the
Ash follows — a sharp frost often bringing down its
entire foliage at one fall, and hence its sensitiveness
prevents the exhibition of those gorgeous hues borne
by other trees, the leaves (either green or yellow)
very often curling up as if scorched. At a later
period, however, the " keys," or seed-vessels of the
ash, which remain till spring, give a characteristic
aspect to the individuals that bear them. The autum-
nal splendour of every other tree fades before that of
the beech, which continues the longest of all, and
under particular circumstances is of the most brilliant
description. This arises from its lucid leaves, which
vary in hue from auburn to gold-colour and umber,
reflecting back the level rays of the descending sun,
and thus burning with pre-eminent lustre, like a sud-
den illumination. Blazing characters irradiate the
grove wherever the beech presents, in spectral pomp,
its vivid outline ; and if a passing raincloud, shroud-
ing for a moment the tree tops, bears upon its purple
breast the glowing Iris, with one limb intermingled
with the golden foliage, the splendid effect will long
rest upon the memory of the spectator.

Several chemists have amused themselves in at-
tempting to account for the colours produced in
autumnal foliage, but no precise result of importance
seems to have been arrived at. BERZELITJS having
found a peculiar colouring matter in red fruits, sug-
gests that this must be common to the fruit and
leaves, as trees with red fruit have also red leaves in
autumn. This appears merely fanciful, for though
certain trees with red fruit have also red leaves, all
trees with red leaves have not red fruit, as may be

OCTOBER. 481

readily observable in the horse-chestnut and pear, the
latter of which, though the fruit is mostly green, has
often foliage of the most resplendent crimson or car-
mine. Again, the pallid yellow of the fading leaves
of the Laurel has surely nothing to do with its black
fruit ; and the foliage of the vine assumes the same
faint purple hue whether the fruit be black, purple, or
green. * MACAIKE PBJNSEP, after various experiments,
came to the conclusion that the foliage in autumn
ceased to evolve oxygen, which it usually does in the
daytime, when in a healthy state, but that it received
that gas from the air, by which an acid was formed,
tinging the foliage at first yellow and then red. ISTo
doubt that when the action of cold destroys the vital
functions of the leaf, it must of necessity cease to
evolve oxygen, but being thus in fact dead, it can
scarcely receive that vivifying agent within its struc-
ture ; but, as after falling, we perceive the leaves
stretched "dry and withered on the ground," in one
uniform brown tint, perhaps the oxygen may act ex-
ternally upon the epidermis to impart that hue to the
disrobing frondage. But whatever may be the primary
influence that affects the change of colour in the leaf,
its fall is the mechanical effect of gravity upon a dead
substance, now in fact isolated entirely from the
vitality of the compound polypoid structure to which
it is still attached. Thus in the stillest autumnal
morn, when the woods curtained in vapour, seem to
have settled into lethargic torpor, and the lightest
thistle-down pants for flight in vain — as the first burst
of sunlight streams through the reeking mist, scatter-
ing jewelled colours upon a myriad host of dewdrops
and concentric studded webs, leaf after leaf drops

2i

482 WILD FLOWERS OF

eddying to the ground, this intermitting pit-pat alone
ominously interrupting the profound silence that in-
vests the forest glades.

" For now the leaf

Incessant rustles from the mountain grove ;
Oft startling such, as studious, -walk below,
And slowly circles waving through the air." *

The leaf-strewn walk is a peculiar feature of autumnal
scenery, and though the effect of the fallen russet
frondage is exceedingly pleasing to the eye, and the
rustling sound of dropping foliage falls with lulling
cadence upon the ear, yet an unaccountable melan-
choly insensibly takes possession of the mind as it
contemplates the sensible image of withered hopes
and high-born expectations — flattering, once, perhaps,
as the green buds of April, now blighted and pros-
trate as the humid leaves that rest in sepulchral state
beneath each skeleton tree. It may be, too, that grief
is awakened at the remembrance of some for ever
lost to us, who in these very shades exchanged their
thoughts with ours, and trod where we shall never
hear their voices again.

" The landscape is lovely no more,

I mourn — but ye wood-lands I mourn not for you,

For morn is returning your tints to restore,

Endued with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew.

Nor yet for the ravage of Winter I mourn,

Kind nature the embryo blossom will save ; —

But when shall Spring visit the mouldering urn,

Or when shall day dawn on the night of the grave ?" *

Sombre as this train of reflection may seem, it accords
with the phenomena of the dying year, for as in
Spring every feeling is legitimately buoyant with

* THOMSON. t BEATTIE.

OCTOBER. 483

mirth and joy, so in Autumn grief and melancholy
must have their vent. Indeed, at all times, the deep
shade of " twilight groves," whether immersed in the
dreamy listlessness of noon, or considered as fairy
haunts under the phantasmic splendours of a full
moon, have ever nursed grave, romantic, and even
superstitious feelings in the human breast. In the
sacred -groves of Graul and Britain the mystic rites of
Druidism were celebrated ; among the polished Greeks
and Eomans every temple had its consecrated wood ;
and " holy trees" have been venerated in every age,
and esteemed as oracular.* Indeed, a huge old tree,
or a grove of trees, anterior to all our recollections,
seems in itself to inspire respect and reverence, while
the adjuncts that encompass it — shade, gloom, soli-
tude, and silence, all conspire to convert this incipient
reverence into devotional awe, As WALLER has
pleasingly observed —

" In such green palaces the first kings reign'd,
Slept in their shades, and angels entertain'd ;
With such old counsellors they did advise,
And by frequenting sacred groves, grew wise."

* The oaks of Dodona were especially honoured for their supposed
prophetical powers, and are several times alluded to by HOMER ; hence
OVID says — " Quercus, oracula prima."

Even timber from Dodonaean oaks retained the prescient gift. At last
almost every tree was consecrated to some idol, or even itself worshipped.
TACITUS says that the ancient Germans called trees by the names of their
gods. Tree-adoratJon continued to a very late period even in Europe, for
in DALVELL'S Superstitions of Scotland, he quotes a MS. description of
the Isle of Skye, in the Advocate's Library at Edinburgh, where it is stated
that " about two hundred years ago, there was, in the island, a sanctified
lake surrounded by a fair wood, which none presumes to cut; and who-
ever ventured sacrilegiously to invade it, either sickened at the moment,
or were visited afterwards by some signal inconvenience, even if sunder-
ing the smallest branch." A recent traveller in Italy mentions the whole
neighbourhood of Bolsena as " covered with rotting trunks of trees," the
fact being that the Chestnut woods there are considered sacred by the
people from their antiquity, and are never cut. " The trees have ripened,
and fallen, and rotted thus for centuries."— Willis,

2i2

484 WILD FLOWERS OF

So PLIISTY states that " groves were of old the temples

of the gods, and after that simple but ancient custom,

men at this day consecrate the fairest and goodliest

trees to some deity or other ; nor do we more adore

our glittering shrines of gold and ivory, than the groves

in which, with a profound and awful silence, we wor-

ship them." Eaunus, however, came to be considered

the tutelary deity of woods, while each individual tree

was considered to be the habitation of a Dryad, or

sylvan nymph, who sometimes miraculously spoke,

and generally indicated her displeasure if her habita-

tion was invaded by the sacrilegious axe, though she

had power to remove and change her dendroidal habi-

tation. EVELYN, in his Sylva, published in 1706, in

reference to this, remarks, in his quaint humorous

style, that " as to those nymphs, grieving to be dis-

possessed of their ancient habitations, the fall of a

very aged oak, giving a crack like thunder, has been

often heard at many miles distance : nor do I at any

time hear the groans, without some emotion and

The Arcadians went so far in their devotion to
trees, that they professed to be actually descended from
the venerable oaks whose extent of boughs shadowed
over their hills ; so that it is hardly to be wondered at
that more savage barbarians, awed by the altitude,
strength, majesty, and apparent eternity of duration
of their vast primeval trees, as well as witnesses of
their utility, should ascribe to them supernatural and
divine powers, and view their hoary mouldy trunks
and tortuous mossy boughs from a distance with the
chilly trembling of superstition. Besides the oracular
powers ascribed to consecrated trees around the fane*

OCTOBEE. 485

of gods and goddesses, and the mystic responses of
the Dryades, the foliage itself, especially that of the
Laurus and Agnus Castus, when lain upon in the still-
ness of night, was thought to propitiate the presence
of the deity, facilitate the shadowed exhibition of
prophetic vision, and inspire the soul to pour out, in
frantic, furor, those Pythonic verses, supposed to be
dictated by the indwelling deity.

" But now, alas ! the woods

Have all forgotten the immortal voices —

Apollo, -with blithe Pan, no more rejoices
In viny solitudes ;

And poets only hear, amid the trees,

Glad birds and wandering bees."

Like the foam that awakened into existence by the
frantic leap of the mountain-torrent, long remains
whirling on the surface of the dark water, as if unable
or unwilling to pass on with the under current, till a
pause in the supply at once leaves it unrecruited to
dissipate in air ; so the products of idolatry and super-
stition have kept their holds, age after age, in the
deep fastnesses of the woods, till the ignorance that
gave them birth, and the cunning that kept them up,
failing any longer to sustain them, they have passed
away from the scene, evanescent as the exhaling spray
at the foot of the stilled waterfall.

Yet one more glance at the fading picture ere
dying day robes in mist the mountains, and spreads
her white vapours insensibly over the meadows and
woods.

A yellow gleam from the west faintly illumines the
pallid foliage beneath a gloomy sky, like a vast painted
cathedral window in a black city. The distant horizon
fades into the dim and obscure, rivers and lakes frown

486 WILD FLOWERS OF

dark as the skies, many trees are stripped, hedges
are becoming bare, and tall dry umbelliferous plants
stand stiff in scrawky deadness. Every thing denotes
the waning year, the death of Mora, and the advent
of stern frowning winter —

" The spring is gone, the summer beauty wanes,
Like setting sunbeams in their last decline ;
As evening shadows lingering on the plains

Gleam dim and dimmer till they cease to shine :
The busy bee hath humm'd himself to rest ;

Flowers dry to seed that held the sweets of spring ;
Flown is the bird and empty is the nest,

His broods are rear'd, no joys are left to sing.
There hangs a dreariness about the scene,
A present shadow of a bright has been." *

In rural lanes how beautiful the ruddy fruit of the
wild rose droops at the end of its long branches ; how
rich the darker red of the haws ; how bright the pink
capsules of the Spindle-tree, just opening to show the
orange arill of the seed ; the splendid varied hues of
green, orange, and scarlet, exhibited by the clustered
berries of the twining Bryony (Tamus communis)
forms itself a picture ; then, in contrast, Blackberries
trail their sable clusters, tempting with their empurp-
ling stains many a rustic finger — and there loaded
with its erect black fruit is the Privet, on whose top
a crimson-breasted Bullfinch has just settled for a
passing regale.

At this time of year, when flowers are dead or dying
away, it is very pleasing to contemplate the various
wild fruits and berries that characterize the autumnal
landscape, and therefore it may not be uninteresting
to place the principal autumnal Berries of Britain,
with their various tints and hues, in juxtaposition.

* ClARE.

OCTOBEE. 487

Mr. T. FOKSTEB, in his Encyclopaedia of Natural
Phenomena, says that " Berries in the hedges often
forbode a hard winter, and severe weather frequently
occurs in seasons when they are particularly plentiful
on the Eosebush and Hawthorn." So CLABE, in his
homely notices, says with reference to the squirrel's
stores —

" How against winter it was well prepar'd
With many a store in hollow root or tree,
As if being told what winter's wants would be
Its nuts and acorns he would often find,
And hips and haws, too, heaped plenteously
In snug warm corner."

But these wise saws of hard winters, betokened by
plenty of berries, are by no means to be depended on,
though a large crop of berries may invite numerous
fruit-eating birds.

FRUIT AND BERRY-BEARING BRITISH TREES

AND SHRUBS.

Barberry (Herberts vulgaris), berries crimson.
Spindle-tree (Euonymus Europceus), capsules pink.
Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus), berries black.
Alder Buckthorn (R. frangula), berries at first red, finally deep

purple.

Common Sloe or Slon, (Prunus spinosa), drupes downy blue,
finally purple black.

" the ripening sloes, yet blue,

Take the bright varnish of the morning dew." — CP.ABBE.
Raspberry (Rubus Idceus), fruit red.
Upright bramble (R. suberectus), fruit at first bright red, at

length deep mulberry.

Blackberry (Rubus var. species), fruit at first reddish, finally
deep black.

— — — " the berries of the brambly wood
That stud the straggling briers as black as jet."— CLARE.

488 WILD FLOWERS OF

Dewberry (Rubus ccesius), fruit blue.

— — — — " as if begloss'd with dew,
Shining dim-powdered with a downy blue."
Stone Bramble (R. saxatilis), fruit crimson.
Wild Roses (Rosa canina §• var. species}, light red to vermillion.
Burnet Rose (Rosa spinosissima), fruit purple-black.
Hawthorn (Cratcsgus Oxyacantha), berries red.
Cotoueaster (C. vulgaris), berries scarlet.
Crab (Pyrus malus), fruit deep red.

" Crabs sun-reddened with a tempting cheek." — CLARE.
Wild Service (Pyrus torminalis), fruit brown.
Mountain Ash or Rowan (P. aucuparia), fruit bright orange to

scarlet.

" The scarlet Rowan seems to mock
The red sea coral-berries, leaves and all;
Light swinging from the moist green shining rock,
Which beds the foaming torrent's turbid fall."

Hon. Mrs. NORTON.

White Beam Tree (Pyrus Aria), fruit at first downy arid dusky-
brown, at length red.

Ivy (Hedera Helix), berries at first green, then brownish, finally
smooth and black.

" Dark creeping Ivy, with thy berries brown,
That fondly twists on ruins all thine own."
Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea), berries black.
Mistletoe (Viscum album), berries white.
Dwarf Elder (Sambucus Ebulus), berries deep purple or shining

black.

Common Elder (S. nigra), berries raven-purple.
Mealy Way-faring Tree (Viburnum Lantana), berries at first red,

finally purplish black.
Common Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus), berries bright orange

to waxen red.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclymenum), berries red.
" The woodbine trees red berries bear

That clustering hang upon the bower ;
While, fondly lingering here and there,

Peeps out a dwindling sickly flower." — CLARE.

Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus), berries blueish, or glaucous
black.

" Pinch the maids as blue as bilberry."

Cowberry (V. Vitis-Idcea), berries red.

OCTOBER. 489

Cranberry (V. Oxycoccos), berries dull red.

Holly (Ilex aquifolium), berries scarlet.

Privet (Ligustrum vulgar e), berries black.

Woody Nightshade (Solarium Dulcamara), berries bright orange.

Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna), berries black, poisonous.

Common Mezereon (Daplme Idezereuni), berries red.

Spurge-Laurel (D. Laureola], berries black.

Crow-berry (Empetrum nlgruin), berries black.

Juniper ^(Juniperus communis), berries at first green, gradually

becoming bluish black.
Yew (Taxus baccata], drupes deep red.

To these might be added the scarlet berries of the
Arum, very conspicuous beneath hedges in the autumn,
and long persistent if not destroyed. A fruit-like
appearance is well simulated too by those curious
Galls upon oak-leaves, which on their sunny side glow
with the brilliance of a strawberry or peach, and are
often very numerous at this season, sometimes two or
three clustered together. They are produced from
the agency of a little Gall-fly, a species of Cijnips.

In a popular point of view the Hazel coppices
loaded with nuts have, in the autumnal season, a pe-
culiar and exciting interest, and, to those who have
ever lived in the country, the remembrance of nutting
excursions call up recollections teeming with delight.
The deep embowering shade, the crashing bough, the
brown clusters, and the joyous laugh that then was
from familiar faces now lost to the scene, flash upon
the mind like fiery sparks that beam in beauty for a
moment to be extinguished as quickly again. The
rustics enjoy a saturnalia here, for once ungrudged to
them, and their undisputed game clusters around
their torn and battered hats : —

" The woodland bowers that us'd to be
Lost in their silence and their shade,

490 WILD FLOWEKS OF

Are now a scene of rural glee,

With many a nutting swain and maid.

The scrambling shepherd with his hook,

'Along hazel bows of rusty brown
That overhang some gulphiag brook,

Drags the ripen'd clusters down." *

Nor is the botanist without his interest in the
auburn clusters. The catkins of the hazel were waving
in January, the first pennons of the progress of sta-
meniferous action, yet nine months have elapsed ere
the ripened nut has presented itself to view. And
now singly or in thick clusters the nuts appear enve-
loped in their shrouding husks, clinging close to the
hazel branches, very different in aspect from the long
waving catkins. But these only shed the pollen
necessary to fructify those tufts of sessile crimson
threads that on branches below the catkins are ready
in early spring to imbibe the impregnating influence
provided for them. It needs a prying eye to see
these red stigmas clustered together within their
scales, each pair surrounded by a jagged involucre,
which, growing large and succulent, becomes the husk
surrounding the nut. The stigma shrivels up, but at
its base is a two-celled ovary whose shell hardens on
the one hand, while one ovule alone filling the cavity
with its embryo, the perfect nut is completed. Often
the cluster of red stigmas are only partially fructified,
and then one or two nuts only are formed, but if the
whole take, then a large cluster is perfected. The
hard shell now safely shelters the kernel, which is the
food appropriated for the young embryo, should it
remain for vegetation. In that case, unmarked by

* CLARE.

OCTOBER. 491

the squirrel, it drops upon the ground and is covered
up by dead leaves. The young plant slumbers within
its cell, but rains pour upon the leaves about it, and
the moistened darkened shell at length becomes soft,
and in due time relaxing, splits in two ; — the nut
gradually separates into two lobes, a dicotyledonous
embryo appears to view, whose radicle and plumule
quickly enter upon their allotted functions.

Under hedges and in secluded lanes, even at this
late period, while lines of radiance quiver across the
landscape, how beautiful is the tranquil scene. The
leaves vivid with the sun's latest tinges, and, as if
coloured with expiring passion, fall exhausted to the
ground, silently yet imperceptibly strewing the paths
with a crisp covering, exhaling not scents of death
but those of revivification, for nature is her own em-
balmer. The ground becomes coloured for artistic
painting with the brown leaves, and the hedges them-
selves are dyed in purple and crimson where the dog-
wood or the viburnum yet hold their foliage, or the
dewberry shows its sanguine-stained leaflets, or coyly
hangs its blue opaque fruit on the banks of the weedy
ditch. There in the water the Loosestrife (JLytlira
salicarid) seems to have been dyed in blood, and
masses of Bur-reeds yet green, show their powdery
stamens or globose heads of prickly fruit.

Penetrating farther among yielding mosses and
black morassy soil, where silence is brooding among
bogs, withering Carices, and Cotton-grasses, with
stagnant pools gleaming in the duskiness, a sight of
verdant loveliness refreshes the eye in the bending
stems and whorled branches of the "Wood Horsetail
(JEquisetum sylvaticum), apparent for a long extent on

492 WILD FLOWERS OP

the verge of the sullen morass, like a grove of minia-
ture pine trees. So have I seen them drooping in
beauty over the dark boggy ditch or stream, just
bubbling into life, in dreamy solitudes in South Wales,
visited only by the woodcock or moisture-loving snipe.
In Grlyn Neath they adorn the scene in many places,
and I have observed them plentifully by a marshy
wood, between Neath and Britton Ferry, in company
with the yellow flowering Lysimachia vulgaris. Mr.
EDWABD NEWMAN, who has made the British Ferns
all his own in his most elegant as well as scientific
descriptive volume upon them, dips his pen in poetry
when mentioning this Equisetuin. " In Scotland,"
he says, " I observed it growing with peculiar luxuri-
ance in the vicinity of Loch Fyne, in a little fir wood
on a hill side. The fructification had entirely disap-
peared,-and each stem had attained its full develop-
ment, and every pendulous branch its full length and
elegance. Altogether I could have fancied it a magic
scene, created by the fairies for their especial use and
pleasure, and sacred to the solemnization of their
moon-lit revels. It was a forest in miniature, and a
forest of surpassing beauty. It is impossible to give
any adequate idea of such a scene, either by language
or illustration. In "Wales it occurs at Hafod, and
near the Devil's Bridge, in deep shaded ravines, occa-
sionally straggling into open and exposed places, but
then partially divested of its characteristic elegance."*
Still tempted to look out even amidst the gloom
that oft envelopes the skies of October, when heavy
towering tempestuous clouds crowdle densely upon
each other, and the river reddens with rainy strife,

* NEWMAN, in Phytologist, vol. i. p. 694.

OCTOBEB. 493

the homely Bramble, with all its prickles and its sable
fruit, urges on the botanist to the latest explorations
of the season; and its excitements are joyous and
delectable, as I have often found with enthusiastic
friends. See its shoots spreading and rooting with
wild luxuriance, long panicles of sable fruit depend-
ing, its digitated leaves now becoming crimson-stained
or dotted with purple from the attacks of epiphytical
fungi, its stems horrent with thorns, and sparkling
with purple setae. Other more erect ones are lifted
high into air, forming dense spreading thickets of
fruit and verdure almost impenetrable. Thanks to
the Rubi for many a pleasant excursion. One of the
last, in company with a botanical friend, was chequered
by a rushing storm when among the glades and shin-
ing pools of Sutton Park, near Sutton-Coldfield. The
skies suddenly blackened, empurpled the pools, and
shadowed the fading groves — the wind crackled the
dead branches as it swept along — and then poured
down the descending deluge with such rapidity that
our books and papers (for we were then at our de-
jeune) were at once soaked, and we ourselves some-
what damped in ardour ere we could run to the dense
clustered hollies that offered their friendly shade.
There we hugged our shelter while the pools were all
in ferment with the violent rain, until a smile of sun-
shine again gladdened the solemn woods.

Last in the train of our native wild shrubs, the Ivy
(Heeler a helix), now exhibits on many a garden wall
or neglected ruin, its sad inconspicuous and almost
unnoticed flowers. They present no beauty in their
aspect, yet are courted as a last resource by bees, flies,
and many dipterous insects, and even the brightest

494 WILD FLOWERS OF

butterflies — the iris-winged Peacock and the red Ata-
lanta, come like improvident prodigals flashing in
splendid attire when other hopes have failed, to the
feast which the careful ivy has yet power to provide.
Even in this last flower of the year the same instruc-
tive lesson of adaptation to circumstances is given us
as is seen throughout the floral chapter. The ane-
mone shuts up its petals from the wind, the pimpernel
closes its corolla from the rain in summer time when
plenty of sunshine is to be had, and daisies and but-
tercups early recline the languid head, for they can
get up again with the rising sun. But the gleams of
October are few, and the days short, so the petals of
the ivy often expanding in obscure places, are closely
reflex, that the sun's rays may exercise their full
power upon the stamens and pistils, and they are thus
ready to imbibe every vagrant beam that approaches
them, to ensure the formation of the berry. Thus
is a designing Providence shown in arranging the
mechanism of a flower according to the season when
it has to appear. The Snowdrop is erect in infancy
and pendulous in maturity to escape the storm, while
the poppy is the converse to imbibe the sun ; and the
ivy still more requiring solar agency at a period when
it is daily becoming less, opens its petals to the light,
and recurves them never again to furl upwards.

" A rare old plant is the Ivy green ! ' — and as win-
ter approaches especially does it become an orna-
mental object wherever it entwines itself whether on
ruined tower or aged tree. —

" It changes not as seasons flow

In silent changeful course along ;

Spring finds it verdant, leaves it so ;
It outlives Summer's song."

OCTOBEE. 495

Ivy may be well considered as a curious kind of un-
derwood, seeing that it is a most vigorous climber,
and also one of the best possible carpets for the
ground under large trees. It kills nearly all sorts
of weeds and other undergrowth vegetation where it
assumes the lead, and creeping along the ground may
derive its chief nutriment far from the barren place
which it thus covers. It proceeds along the ground
till meeting with some friendly tree it seeks from it a
prop on which to lean, giving in return a profusion of
glossy evergreen foliage pleasant to contemplate. It
certainly takes no sustenance from the tree it covers,
and it has thence been considered as doing no harm,
and kind Mr WATEETOIST ever ready with a good word
for bird or plant, says that "it is not in a condition to
compress injuriously the expansive powers of the tree
proportionally stronger than its own." Certainly not
at first, but as it is a partner for life when once the
union is proclaimed, it obtains a higher ascendancy
and firmer grasp every year, its original twining stem
has become a huge bole, and its compressing branches
like serpents twist and twine around every branch of
the tree it is established upon, and its " marriageable
arms" will take no denial — it reigns supreme as an
ivy tree, and the original stump has become a mere
peg for the ivy to disport itself upon at will, an
embrace from which there is no escape while the
tenacious climber continues to exist. — "A rare old
plant is the Ivy green."

Once more we turn towards our garden pales, where
in the shrubbery the Arbutus (A. unedo), gives us a
last glance at floral beauty, its flowers of the purest
lustre mingling with its pendant ruby strawberry-like

496 WILD FLOWEES OF

fruit. It thus offers a type of that perpetual spring
believed once to have pervaded the whole earth —

" Green all the year; and fruit and blossoms blush'd
In social sweetness on the self-same bough."

The Arbutus is celebrated for its connection with
the Lakes of Killarney and the monks of Mucruss,
finely adorning, as it does in the present day, the
romantic district of the south-west of Ireland, whether
truly indigenous there or not. It is a native of Italy
and the south of Europe, as well as of Asia Minor,
where some use appears to be made of the fruit, in-
sipid as it tastes in this climate, however beautiful its
strawberry simulation. It may be considered as curi-
ous that a tree whose fruit certainly fed the early and
simpler races of mankind, should now be cultivated
only for its beauty as a shrub, while humbler plants
have been increased in size and luxuriance, and ele-
vated into importance for their development by horti-
cultural effort. Several of the classic poets have
mentioned the Arbutus, and its shade (" arbutus
umbra") is alluded to by VIE GIL, as a pleasant ingre-
dient in that sunny climate. LTELL mentions it as
covering the slumbering volcanic hill of Monte Nuovo,
near Naples, which like Vesuvius of old, may one day
again awake and scatter the magnificent woody vest
that now envelops it, in burning splinters through the
air. OVID has mentioned the "rubenti arbutus" as
an object of ornate beauty ; but the moral attaches to
it that its charms are but deceptive, the specific name
unedo being supposed to indicate that no one would
eat it more than once. There are things, indeed, that
had better not be tasted at all.

EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE OCTOBEE.

the country a pallid or umber covering of withered
leaves may now be truly said to have invested and
almost entirely hidden all traces of phanerogamous
vegetation ; for —

" In the mid days of autumn, on their eves
The breath of winter comes from far away,

And the sick west continually bereaves
Of some gold tinge, and plays a roundelay

Of death among the bushes and the leaves,
To make all bare before he dares to stray

From his north cavern." *

So in the woods the leaves fall thicker and thicker,
till the ground is softly matted and of an umber die,
forming a nidus for many fungi. Yet a few flowers
struggle to the last, contending with stormy gusts
and short days, so that the Botanist will not find all
barren in his Explorations even now ; and, indeed, a
moist season frequently discloses some kinds of plants
to greater perfection in the autumnal season than at
any other time, while, under such circumstances, even
vernal flowers will again renew their perishable beau-
ties. No walk, then, need be made in vain, for late
in this very month I have gathered Clilora perfoliata,
Gentiana amarella, Acinos vulgaris, Cnicus acaulis, and
Campanula glomerata, all in full flower, not to mention
several species of MentJia, Tliymus: and Apargia, that
yet remain studding the meadows and copses in vari-
ous spots.

* KEATS.
2 K

498 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR OCTOBER.

As every day exhibits sadly increasing numbers of
denuded trees spreading their melancholy skeletonized
forms against the clear blue sky, the Virgin's Bower
(Clematis vitalba), wreathed around them in woody
limestone spots, often to a considerable height, begins
to show its plumy seeds very conspicuously, though
their snowy featheriness is not fully attained till the
following month. It is not yet too late even for the
water-plants, for various families of these may be
found in October, in fine flower or fruit, as several of
the curious genus, Chara, which occur, entirely filling
whole ponds ; or if the season has been dry, and the
level of ponds and streams is lower than usual, indi-
viduals of the genera Potamogeton and Ceratopliyllum
can be easily gathered and examined.

But, in fact, new objects of attention occur on the
very leaves themselves, withered as they are, and about
to sink into total and irremediable decay. ^Ecidii,
Uredines, Meticularice, and other minute Fungi fix
upon them just before they fall, and stain them in a
remarkable manner, while the lens discloses amidst
what would be mere mildew to a common eye, numbers
of minute spheres, of various colours, which, in some
cases bursting, expose to view countless multitudes of
still smaller globular sporules, invisible but to the
microscope, which are the reproductive particles from
which future acotyledonice are to spring. Such are
the minute wonders of Divine skill.

[Fallen leaves have often a most curious appearance,
pustuled, distorted, coloured or blackened by epiphy-
tical fungi — thus full of life even when supposed to be
dead. Dotliidea TJltni makes elm leaves appear as if
covered with a sparkling metallic substance, while

EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR OCTOBER. 499

sycamore leaves are covered with black patches from
Rhytisma Acerinum, another curious little epiphyte.
Even in summer the foliage of the Maple may fre-
quently be seen white-washed to some extent by a
little Erysiplie, but in autumn these vegetative vermin
multiply and spread about to a wonderful extent.
Fallen -hazel leaves are frequently dotted with hoary
patches of the Erysiplie guttata, and numerous others
tinge, stamp, or mark fallen leaves, offering plentiful
employment for the thoughtful consideration of the
mycologist, while light enables him to inspect them.

Often on a dreamy autumnal day, when the misty
wreath has rolled down from the hills and enveloped
the level country in vapour, through which no sound
vibrated upon the ear, has twilight surprised me upon
woody heights covered with holly-trees and carpeted
with long damp moss. Then, ere I descended, what
a scene of grave tints and awful shadows has appeared
beneath the western sky, where only a long line of
deep ruby has rested, partly intercepted by one dark
distant mountain peak. In the world of darkness
below me, the trailing blue smoke was but just visible,
and the yellow gorse and brown fern of the wild heath
hardly discernible.

2K2

AVILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBEK.

CHAP. XXVI.

CRYPTOGAMIC VEGETATION, AND THE TRIBES COMPOSING
IT — ASPECT OF THE FUNGI — FAIRY RINGS — BEAUTY OF
THE AGARIC AND OTHER TRIBES — OFFICE OF THE
FUNGI — NOTICE OF THE SMALLER FAMILIES — NOMADIC
AND METEORIC PHENOMENA — RAPID GROWTH OF THE
MUSHROOM, AND DERIVABLE SIMILES — PLEASURES IN
SEARCHING OUT THE DIVERSIFIED FUNGOID FORMS.

" When Flora's lovelier tribes give place,
The mushroom's scorn'd but curious race
Bestud the moist autumnal earth ;
A quick but perishable birth,
Inlaid with many a brilliant die
Of Nature's high-wrought tapestry."

BISHOP MANT.

WHEEE shall we cull a garland for November, amidst
wailing winds, scudding clouds, and driving leaves ?
Not surely in the garden, for there blight and desola-
tion fill the flower border with disordered heaps,
whirls of withered leaves rush about in disorganized
files as the fitful gales impel them, the butterfly is no
longer seen, and the hum of the bee has ceased to
murmur forth the exciting sound of sunny hours.
But there are still objects of attraction for the " Bota-
nical Explorator;" and leaving the poets to harp the
dirge of fading flowers at their leisure, we shall pro-

NOVEMBER. 501

ceed to describe the particular vegetation we have in
view —

" Beneath a spreading Mushroom's fretted roof." *

"When LIKN-.ETJS formed his celebrated Sexual Sys-
tem, he was compelled to include under the term
CKYPTOGAMIA, a vast number of plants having no
visible flowers, but which were assumed to have analo-
gous organs to those of the PHANEEOGAMIA, though
altogether concealed from view. Modern botanists
are not in general disposed to acquiesce in the idea of
Limonrs, but regard the flowerless plants as altoge-
ther destitute of sexual organs, their reproduction
taking place by means of sporules, which are enclosed
in cases called thecce, or imbedded in the substance of
the plants, or else by a mere dissolution of the utricles
of cellular tissue. These sporules, which are often
exceedingly minute, have no embryo, like seeds, con-
sequently their growth is not a development of parts
already existing ; but a vegetation appears which
seems to be controlled in a considerable degree by the
matrix to which the sporule has become attached ;
and it has been conjecturedf that from the same
common form of matter, a lichen, a fungus, or an alga,
might be developed according to varied conditions of
soil and atmosphere. It would be rash to accede to
this view without the fullest proof, though, at all
events, the sporules germinate at no fixed point, the
mere accident of situation determining what part
shall rise upwards and sink downwards.

The principal cryptogamic tribes are, the Filices or
Ferns ; the Lycopodiacece or Club-mosses ; the Musci
or Mosses ; the Hepaticce or Liverworts ; the Fungi or

* Dr. DARWIN. t See LINDLEY'S Botany, in toe.

502 WILD TLOWEBS OF

Mushrooms ; the LicJienes or Lichens ; and the Algce
or Seaweeds. The Equisetacece or Horsetails, formerly
considered as cryptogamous, are now, according to
BEOGNIAET'S observations, to be considered as allied
in their fructification to the fir tribe ; and Dr. LTJSTD-
LET, in locating them in juxta-position with the latter
in his Natural System, remarks, that " we must admit
that Equisetacese are more like flowering plants than
flowerless plants ; and it seems to be most advisable
to consider them a degeneration of Conifera, to which
they have so much resemblance, rather than a race in
affinity with Ferns, with which they have really no
resemblance." The "Wood Horsetail has been previ-
ously referred to, nor is the Great Water Horsetail
much inferior to it in beauty, the latter often covering
marshy spots with a dense fir-like though compara-
tively dwarf vegetation. jEquisetum limosum is com-
mon in ponds, which it sometimes fills with its green
upright pipes, surmounted by their black catkins.
The Corn Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) shows its
brown fertile frond and catkins early in the spring,
the green much branched sterile plants appearing at a
later period.

I purpose, in this chapter, to dwell only upon the
curious and diversified structures denominated Fungi,
which now meet the observant eye in almost every
direction, but especially in the dark walks of the neg-
lected shrubbery, the thick wood, the old fir grove, or
even in open pastures, where they are often conspi-
cuous at a considerable distance in the outline of
those remarkable circles and segments commonly
called "fairy rings," from an ancient superstition that
they were caused by fairies dancing within these

NOVEMBER. 503

" green sour ringlets ;" and hence SHAKSPEARE makes
a fairy say in his Midsummer Night's Dream-

" I serve the fairy queen
To dew her orbs upon the green." —

as the fresh verdure of these rings was said to be
occasioned by the fairies watering them. Titania also
observes to Oberon in the same play — -

"Dance in our round,

And see our moonlight revels."

It would thus appear that the beauty of the " fairy
rings" consisted in their regularity of form and their
delicate viridescence amidst the extent of browner
pasture. To the observant eye of the Botanist, how-
ever, their beauty is greatest when their circumference
sparkles in the morning dew with a polished girdle of
Agarics, sprung up in the silent night, fresh and
spotless as so many new laid eggs ! Various species of
Agarics occur on the edges of "fairy rings," though,
perhaps, the brown gregarious A. oreades is most
common, though making a less regular figure than
others. A large Agaric, of savoury smell, which I
have chosen to call the " Dryad's Cup" {A. infundibu-
liformis, Bull.'), from its assuming the regular shape
of a goblet, sometimes filled with crystal dew, often
exclusively adorns rings in the vicinity of woods ;
while in open pastures the blue-stemmed Agaric (A.
personatus), occasionally forms so closely shielded a
satiny buff circle of pilei, that a snail might circumslide
the ring without any interruption to his course. Con-
tinued rain, unfortunately, soon destroys the elegance
of these evanescent fungoid orbs — for they are not
the cause of the permanent circles remaining in the
pastures, as these merely offer favourable nidi for the

50-1 WILD TLOWERS OF

growth of the Agarics. Some botanists have con-
sidered that the fairy ring was originated by an agaric
disseminating its spores in a circular manner, and a
small ring being thus formed, the size of the circles
increased with every succeeding year ; but it does not
appear perfectly clear that the rings do increase in
size, and certainly as regards the fungi upon them
they seem suddenly to appear at once in good sized
rings, but they are often very irregular in their out-
line. The old superstition that represented them as
made by the dancing of fairy elves surely implies the
sudden appearance of a large circle, nor have I met
with very small ones, as supposed in the above theory.
CLAEE, alluding to the fairy origin of the rings,

says —

" Light soon betrays 'em where their routs have been,

Their printing foot-marks leave a magic dye,

The grass grows gloomy in a darker green,

And look for years to come, and still the place is seen." *

The beauty of colour and diversity of form of the
race of fungi are very remarkable, and well repay
attentive inspection. Some, as the Amanita imperialis,
adorn the wood with caps of the richest scarlet on
white stems ; others, as the Ayaricus integer spot the
coppice with lake or crimson ; or in the A. violaceus
and callockrous, display the most beautiful hues of
purple and violet.

Hilly pastures are very favourable to the growth of
fungi, and I have often been delighted with the bril-
liant tints bespangling the turf upon the Malvern
hills at this period of the year, from, the splendid
yellow and orange hues of the sportive A. aurantius,
and the deep verdigrise hue of the stalk of A. psitta-

* Village Minstrel.

NOYEMBER. 505

cinus, intermixed with others of the most delicate
ivory white, or dark and shaggy with brown hairs.
Then a descent into some deep sequestered wood
offers a varied and charming spectacle soon as the foot
treads upon the crimp brown foliage, and the eye
peers about among the shadowed nooks still penetra-
ble with difficulty. Here, pillowed on a twig, like a
humming-bird's nest with eggs, appears the brown
Nidularia — half immersed in black mould a family of
crimson Pezizce meet the eye — the curious Hydnum
rises, its under surface all prickles — Auricularice* in
banded masses of dark plush or velvet, circle every
old stump — and the ground is strewed with coralloid
tufts of Clavarice, white, purple, or yellow. In short,
every heap of decaying wood, leaves, or other organiz-
ed matter, will be found teeming with these vegetable
vultures, whose office it seems to be to take posses-
sion of, if not to resuscitate the molecules of dead
or dying substances ; and thus by a continuance
of the vital functions keep on that healthy action,
between themselves and the surrounding atmosphere,
which, without their aid, would become contaminated
by the constantly increasing masses of putrescence.
Thus, the scents diffused by the fungi are almost
invariably of a grateful description, at least before in
their turn they decay; and in effecting this compensa-
ting object, the efficient contriver of their economy
has caused them to appear in the most singular forms,
such as cups, urns, bowls, globes, &c., and of every
tint and colour (though blues and greens are rare),
as if to deck even decay and ruin with beauty, nor
leave a single deformity to repress curiosity, or still
the voice of instruction.

* Or Thelephora, of recent cryptogamic writers.

506 WILD FLOWERS OF

Various arrangements of the fungoid tribes have
been propounded by botanists, of which the most cele-
brated in modern times is that proposed by FRIES,
who divides the whole order into four cohorts ; * but,
unfortunately, the names he employs are as indigesti-
ble as the substances treated of, and would probably
only annoy the observer who had not a life to devote
to the subject, or ample time for minute attention to
microscopical examination. As they meet the eye of
a " looker-out," we may consider them as casual or
uncertain, and fixed or constant. The latter are so
identified with the living or dead organic substance
on which they are founded, that like the vulture on
Prometheus they ever remain to feast upon their
prey, while its juices supply them with sustenance.
They may be considered as annual or perennial,
according as they develop themselves upon the foliage
of plants under the names of mould, blight, mildew,
&c., or as dry-rot expand in leathery masses among
the fibres of decaying timber, or appear upon hollow
or diseased trees in the shape of Boleti, Poli/pori, or
Dcedaleee, as large nabelliforin tiled masses, increasing
in bulk year after year.f

The smaller annual fungi, especially the JEcidii,

* Professor BURNETT observes, that though " Mycologists greatly differ
in their arrangements, they all, more or less agree with the popular dis-
tribution into Blights, Puff-Bails, and Mushrooms." — BurnetCs Botany,
p. 177.

t Some of the species of Polyporus grow very large in neglected spots,
becoming hard enough to sit or stand upon, the Willow Polyporus ( P.
igniarius) being often as large as a man's head. P.fraxineus forms very
hard brown jutting masses on ash trees, slowly increasing and long en-
during ; one is mentioned by Mr. M. J. BERKELEY that was nearly 42
inches across. Similar fungi attain a great magnitude in the southern
hemisphere, as Mr. ANGUS in his Savage Life and Scenes in Australia,
states that " the large shelving Fungi growing from the trunks of the
trees, near the roots, are so broad and strong as to form capital seats."

NOVEMBEE. 507

often dot the leaves of plants with orange and brown
spots in a very pretty manner, and with a lens put on
the appearance of a multitude of minute cheese cakes !
The ^Ecidium of the common Dock, which is pure
white, is peculiarly elegant, and furnishes an instance
of the extreme beauty often perceptible in the very
minutest objects. The genus Tricliia contains several
curious species, all found growing upon rotten wood.
The yellow-seeded Trichia (T. dirysosperma, Dec.},
may be often found in coppices during the autumn,
occupying the interstices of decaying stumps, with its
clustered yellow peridii, which resemble the small
cocoons of insects. These bursting display masses of
gold-coloured wool, enclosing the numerous minute
sporidice. Persons residing in the country, with
leisure at their command, need never want employ-
ment in examining the smaller tribes of fungi at this
season of the year, nor need they go far to find them-
every copse, hedge, and broken stick, teeming with
them, especially the diversified and numerous tribe of
the Spliceritf, which are nearly all attached to bark in
a rotten state, or decorticated wood, in this respect
differing from the Lichens, which are confined mostly
to living bark. No less than 201 species of Bpliceria
are enumerated in HOOKEE'S British Flora; one of
the largest and most obvious being the round black
S. concentrica, so often seen upon dying or dead Ash
trees. Almost every plant, not to say nearly every
leaf, indeed, nourishes some kind of epiphytical fun-
gus, such as the Puccinia or TTredo, conspicuous as a
red or yellow eruption upon the upper or under sides
of leaves, and they are so numerous and common that
it has been suggested by some botanists that their

508 WILD FLOWEES OF

appearance can only be accounted for by the supposi-
tion that they are " anamorphoses" of the cellular
tissue of plants.* Undoubtedly the minute sporidise
must be carried up into the system by the circulation
of the sap, and imbibed from the moisture amidst
which they were disseminated.

The great mass of casual fungi are well known by
the common names of mushroom and frogstool, and
their appearance seems to depend, in a great degree,
upon meteoric causes. Hence in wet weather various
species of orange, brown, or green Tremellince, appear
suddenly on the ground or branches of trees, as if
fallen from the sky; while in seasons of great drought
the edible mushroom is scarcely procurable, and
TcetcJiup becomes dear. On this account LIKNJETJS
called the fungi nomades or wanderers, from the curious
fact that their vagrant tribes may appear in a place in
the utmost profusion in one season, and then be alto-
gether absent for a number of years, or even never
return again — either lying dormant in the soil till the
meteorological circumstances under which they ap-
peared again arise, or else their viewless spores rising
in the atmosphere and borne by the winds to far dis-
tant countries, may there hurried downwards by rain,
once more spot the green earth. In corroboration of
this latter view, out of fifty-six species of fungi
gathered by BEETEEO in the distant island of Juan
Fernandez, two-thirds were found to be referable to
well-known European species. "With respect to the
former, I well remember gathering, many years ago,
the splendid crimson-red Agaricus rutilans, in a par-
ticular fir grove near "Worcester ; but though I have

* See HOOKER'S Brit. Flor,, Vol. II., Part 2., by BERKELEY, p. 326.

NOVEMBER. 509

since hunted the spot over year after year with the
nicest search, I could never detect its golden gills
there again. So in the spring of 1841, I found, to
my surprise, the rare and curious long-stemmed
Morell (Morcliella semiliberci) in several spots near
Tewkesbury, and actually in the orchard close to my
own -entrance-gate, at Eorthampton, although I had
never previously met with it in my life — another year
it may not be found. I once also gathered the Tur-
reted Starry Puff-ball ( Geaster fornicatus,) in a lane
where I could never again find it, and the appearance
of the curious Helvella mitra is very uncertain. In
this tribe, then, in particular, the collecting botanist
should act upon the principle of " carpe diem" — or
the opportunity may be lost for ever of minutely
inspecting these fugaceous structures-

" Whose tapering stems, robust or light,
Like columns catch the searching sight ;
Like fair umbrellas, furl'd or spread
Display their many-colour'd head,
Grey, purple, yellow, white, or brown,
A Grecian shield, or prelate's crown,
Like freedom's cap or friar's cowl,
Or China's bright inverted bowl." *

Some of the Pezizas are exquisitely lovely, especially
the crimson coloured P. coccinea often seen upon
black decaying sticks under hedges, or the Orange
Peziza (P. aurantid), scattered upon the ground like
pieces of bright orange-coloured saucer-shaped jelly.
The little blood-red P. Jiumosa is very pretty when
seen scattered among verdant mosses ; and I lately
had in my garden a gregarious species on a piece of

* Bishop MANT.

510 WILD TLOWEKS OF

wood, resembling an air bubble encircled with a ring
of the minutest pearl beads. Others are like minute
Roman urns, shells, or saucers ; a few are even globu-
lar and wax-like.

The "Jew's-ear'; (JExidia Auricula- Judce}, is a
singular brown flabby fungus occurring on old elder-
trees, and so called from its plaited surface frequently
exhibiting the form and depressions incident to the
human ear. Witches' Butter (Exidia glandulosa) in
greenish or black gelatinous masses, is another species
not uncommon on fallen branches of trees. Paste
and froth are similated by some fungi ; and mildews,
moulds, &c., are only other forms of this singular
omnipresent and versatile parasitical vegetation.

Several of the Fungi have subterranean habitats, as
the Sclerodermata, and the curious Truffle, which
usually grows beneath the shade of Beech trees,
whence it is scented out by dogs trained for that pur-
pose. NEES VOK ESSENBECK mentions a poor crippled
German boy who could detect truffles in the earth
with a certainty superior to the best dogs, and so
earned a livelihood.

It seems to be the allotted office of the Fungi to
disperse organic matter into the smallest possible
particles, and with the view to their dissemination,
several tribes have mechanical contrivances not un-
worthy of attention. Every body is familiar with the
puff-ball, or " devil's snuff-box," whose subtle powder
pervades the air at the slightest touch, though few,
perhaps, consider the millions of sporules they thus
playfully set at liberty, will, in due time, develop
other structures, as large as the parent plant from
whence they arose, although now seemingly dissipated

NOYEMBEE. 511

and lost in air.* Many of the TricUas put forth a
glossy coloured wool, which is in like manner acted
upon by the wind ; and the congregated Splierololus
stellatus, after the manner of a mortar, shoots forth a
small globular sporangium or seed vessel, which rises
to some height in the air. As BTJLLIAED mentions
Puff-balls of the enormous size of nine feet in circum-
ference, and some of the tropical fungi it is said have
been mistaken for sleeping lions ;f they seem to fur-
nish a picture analogous to MILTON'S spirits, that in
their spacious hall —

"Swarm'd and were straiten'd ; till the signal given,
Behold a wonder ; they but now who seem'd
In bigness to surpass earth's giant sons,
Now less than smallest dwarfs."

So under circumstances of brooding moisture, the
fungi in the autumnal season put forth their deceptive
strength, till grove, field, and hill swarm with their
multitudes ; but sudden as is their appearance, their
short duration is as surprising ; and the largest drop-
ping into liquidity or rising as dust in the air, soon
" reduce to smallest forms" their monstrous shapes.

Much has been written on the edible qualities of
the fungi, and Dr. BAD HAM has lauded " the extem-

* The Rev. J. M. BERKELEY observes in the second vol. of HOOKER'S
British Flora, that — " In saying that these bodies are analogous to seeds
and embryos, some little latitude must be allowed, as the mode of reproduc-
tion in perfect plants and Fungi is so different : it having been ascertained
that multitudes of sporidia conspire to produce an individual fungus." It
seems mercifully ordained that meteoric contingencies are required for the
production of these tribes, which prevents their plentiful recurrence, ex-
cept at uncertain intervals ; otherwise they would become the locusts of
phanerogamic vegetation, and deform and destroy every other plant by
their insidious attacks ; for such is their fertility, that in a single indivi-
dual of the species forming the smut in corn, (which is only noticeable in
legions,) Professor FRIES calculated there was ten millions of sporules.

t See Professor BURNETT'S Outlines of Fungologia, in his Botany,

512 WILD FLOWERS OF

pore beef steaks growing on our oaks in tlie shape of
Fistulina Jiepatica!" as well as commending with
Apician gusto " Hydna good as oysters," Puff-balls
compared to sweetbread , Agaricus deliciosus " remind-
ing us of tender lamb kidneys," &c. — but except as
sauces, catchups, or pickled, they are best avoided,
for even the genuine mushroom disagrees with some
persons, and all too often swarm with the larvae of
insects soon after they are gathered. SCHWJEGKICHEN,
indeed, a German botanist, is reported to have lived
for weeks on raw fungi, bread, and water, with "rather
an increase to his strength ;" and such a diet might,
therefore, probably meet favour with the lovers of
"total abstinence" in the present day. On the other
hand 'many fungi are most virulent poisons, and no
certain antidote is known against their deleterious
properties.* Toads were formerly supposed to have
communicated this poison to the fungi, and hence the
name of Toadstool. Perhaps, however, the Grerman
tode or todt (death), the frequent result of eating such
indigestible things, may be the more correct deriva-
tion. On the whole this beauteous tribe are but the
attendants of damp and corruption, and as direful
diseases have arisen from the use of food infected by

* Dr. BADHAM in his work upon esculent Fungi has observed, that
" the Mushroom proper like other funguses should be eaten fresh ; a few
hours making all the difference between its wholesomeness and unwhole-
someness ; nor need this surprize us when we consider how many princi-
ples enter into its composition — how short is the period of its existence —
and how liable it must be to enter into new combinations in consequence.
VAQULEIN found in its flesh fat, adipocere, osmazome, an animal matter
insoluble in alcohol, sugar, fungine, and acetate of potash. What a med-
ley! and what wonder if the changes induced during decomposition
should cause the indigestions suffered by those who have eaten them in
this state! The Mushroom having the same proximate principles as meat,
requires like meat to be cooked before these become changed."

NOVEMBER. 513

them, they seem to symbolize that golden fruit de-
scribed by MILTON as presented before the longing
metamorphosed fiends of Pandemonium, which glit-
tered before their eyes, but became nauseous bitter
ashes when they attempted to partake of it.

When the atmosphere is favourable for the produc-
tion of some of the fungoid tribes, the celerity of their
growth, and the strength they put forth in their
emergence, is most astonishing in plants of such
tender construction. A good-sized Mushroom, if ac-
cidentally located beneath a flag pavement, has power
to force up a paving stone of the usual size, an inch or
more above its level ; and this was actually remarked
in one of the most crowded thoroughfares of Chelten-
ham, in the autumn of 1840. Professor BTJBNET
records a similar fact as having occurred in 1830, in
the town of Basingstoke, where two Mushrooms ele-
vated a large paving-stone, weighing eighty-three
pounds, an inch and a half out of its bed ; and other
stones getting deranged in a similar way, much alarm
was given to the pavement contractor, who had but
recently finished his work — " for it seemed doubtful
whether the whole town of Basingstoke might not
want re-paving during the term of his contract." *
This energetic evolution is shewn still more remark-
ably in other fungi, as the Phallus, which bursts its
volva, and rears its singular stipiform columella six or
eight inches in two or three hours ; while the large
Bovista or Puff-ball has been stated to distend itself
at the rate of a million of cells per second !

The rapid growth of the Mushroom has often sug-
gested the satirical application of the term to

* BURNETT'S Botany, p. 239.
2 L

">

514 WILD FLOWERS OF

who may have sprung up suddenly into notice from
obscurity, or who from some hiatus in their genealo-
gical scroll, may be unable to prove positively their
descent from Noah ! But this simile, in fact, hardly
applies more to the mushroom than to any other
annual plant. The sporule of the mushroom germi-
nates, it is true, hidden from view ; and though called
a flowerless plant, it would be more correct to consider
the pileus that elevates itself above the grass as all
/lower, the real stem being subterraneous, and this
pileus, if not accidentally crushed, often endures much
longer than the flowers of the garden, whose fugaceous
petals wither and die in an hour or a day. In support
of this view some species of agarics have from ten to
fifty pilei or "blossoms" rising from a single stem.
If we proposed a simile at all, we might rather con-
sider the agaric as symbolizing the fate of modest
merit, having every energy rife for action, yet oppres-
sed and obscured by unfavourable circumstances ; but
the moment the concurrent opportunities coalesce, the
irrepressible effort of genius presents itself, sudden,
indeed, and unexpected as the meteoric plants we
have been considering, that stud the fields and woods,
unable to display their forms till the saturated atmos-
phere and reeking pasture gives that impulse to their
latent powers, which the Great Former of all intended
from the beginning.

If the " fungous fruits of earth," as COWPER calls
them, are not so poetically exciting in themselves as
the pencilled corollas of the higher tribes of vegeta-
tion, yet the search after them leads to scenes which
have their peculiar charms, and where the mind can
revel in its own imaginings surrounded by the sancti-

NOVEMBER. 515

ties of Nature. The Fungi mostly appear in the
autumnal season, when the finger of decay solemnizes
the country, and fogs plunge into the long-extending
woods amongst fallen sticks and mosses, calling up
with their moist breath new forms of vegetable mor-
phism which might not otherwise have appeared, and
giving splendid colours to dissolving particles of mat-
ter. So with the Fungi our thoughts are connected
with particoloured trees, withered heaths, and autum-
nal gusts and gleams — the mushroom brings in its
train mists and shortened days, and so we must

" Think of yellow leaves, of owlet's cry,

Of logs piled plenteously :"

for the evenings then require a cheering blaze upon
the hearth after a long hunt through damp woods and
over green aftermaths.

I have many pleasant recollections of rambles
among autumnal woods for Fungi, poring among dead
leaves, or brushing through dwarf bushes and among
broken stumps studded with black earth-tongues
(Geoglossum) , and then suddenly coming on a charcoal
circle brilliant with the vermillion TJielepliora carbo-
naria. Beech woods, in their sylvan aisles and deep
brooding recesses, produce many local and curious
fungi, and among those that so finely adorn the Cottes-
wolds I have gathered the large brown Club Clavaria
(C. pistillaris), and the tall attenuated C. Ardenia.
Sometimes the wanderer comes upon a dank obscure
and secluded shadowy place in a park, where wood has
been stored for years, and fallen timber saturated by
the rain, rots unnoticed on the dingy soil. Such a
spot I remember to have noticed in company with my
friend the Rev. A. BLOXAM, well known for his bota-

2 L2

516

WILD FLOWEKS OF NOVEMBER.

nical acumen, in Gopsal Park, not far from his resi-
dence at Twycross, Leicestershire. In the deep shade
lay enormous imbricated masses of Potyporus giganteus
like the crested heads of dragons, every trunk was
densely fringed with bright coloured dewy masses of
buff or purple Thelephorce, and the black Bulgaria
inquinans covered with its glue-like balls, the bark of
those trees not entirely fallen off, as if the timber
which they covered had been charred by the sack and
fury of some bellicose outrage.

But the mycologist at his own free will may traverse
more open and diversified scenery, where by the brook
side some tottering old willow bears a crop of golden
agarics or sweet-scented polypori ; and thus the prac-
tical study of these curious structures, where some-
thing new is almost certainly to be found, may be
strongly recommended to the young naturalist, as
well observed by Dr. BADHAM, " not only for the
beauty of the objects he is sure to come upon," but
because " whether at home or abroad, it brings the
wanderer out of beaten paths, to fall in with many
striking views which he would not otherwise have
explored."

WILD FLOWEES OF NOVEMBEB.

(CONTINUED.)

^^\XV\^/W/NX\/''^N^Ny'\/'W/V\/'V^VS.

CHAP. XXVII.

DESCRIPTION OF THE LICHENS — THEIR ASPECT ON ROCKS
AND RUINS — EFFECT OF MOISTURE ON THEM, AND
THEIR GENERAL ECONOMY — CHARACTERISTIC NOTICES
OF THE DIFFERENT FAMILIES — EXCURSIONS TO THE
ROCKS WHERE THEY ABOUND.

' We came to the hall of the king where it rose in the midst of
rocks ; rocks, on whose dark sides were the marks of streams
of old. Broad oaks bend around with their moss." — OSSIAN.

" This black den which rocks emboss,
Overgrown with eldest moss."

GEORGE WITHER.

THE most unbotanical observer cannot but have
noticed whenever he has passed a grove of ancient
trees, or even a shrubbery of modern times, that many
of the branches are grey, bearded, and overgrown with
what, on a mere cursory glance, would appear to be
moss, and so it has been denominated, not only by
poets, as in the quotation of OSSIAN above, but even
by the older botanists themselves, as may be seen by
reference to old G-EBABD' s description of the " moss of
the oak," in his well-known ponderous herbal. The
grey and bearded aspect above alluded to, is caused by
a tribe of plants denominated LICHENS, which hitherto
have escaped our notice. But though a careless
observer may confound the moss and the lichen, the

518 WILD FLOWERS OF

difference in their fructification, will, when pointed
out, always abundantly distinguish them; and inde-
pendently of this, curiously enough, the lichen is
mostly grey or white, seldom green, while the moss is
almost always green, and scarely ever white, except in
the sphagnum, or bog-moss. The designation of the
tribe I am about to notice, is taken from the Greek
word leilcen, applied to scurfy substances, or signifying
a wart, which the fructification of many of the lichens
is thought to resemble, but it is rather similar to
minute saucers. In botanical language these saucers
are called apoihecia, while the plants that bear them
are said to have either a tkallus, crust, or frond. "With
better taste the expressive English term time-stains
has been bestowed upon the lichen tribe, from the
coloured hues which time's unimaginable touch
bestows upon rocks, precipices, towers, and old struc-
tures of every description, by the aid of these humid,
pulverulent, or filamentous structures.

Maritime rocks are often resplendent with orange,
yellow, or burnt-sienna tints, from the various lichens
that there luxuriate in the damp sea-air; walls and
roofs are copiously blotched with large patches of
white or brilliant yellow, from their constantly extend-
ing growth ; and who has not in his rural ramble oft
gazed curiously at the old, broken, crusted, ragged,
and diversified tumble-down barn door, that in its
disjointed feebleness

" Like rock or stone it is o'ergrown
With lichens to the very top."

The ruins of castles and abbeys are, in like manner,
generally overspread with these coloured impressions
of the damp fingers of time; and they are enumerated

NOVEMBEE. 519

by BEENAED BAETON, in his lines on Leiston Abbey,
Suffolk, among the vegetable tracery overspreading
that edifice, though, as before adverted to, confounded
with mosses, in thus apostrophizing the ruins : —
"The mantling ivy's ever verdant wreath
She gave thee as her livery to wear ;
Thy wall-flowers, waving at the gentlest breath,

And scattering perfume on the summer air,
Wooing the bee to come and labour there ;

The clinging moss, whose hue of sober grey,
Makes beautiful what else were bleak and bare ;

These she has given thee as a fit array,
For thy declining pomp, and her delightful sway."
CEABBE, who, from having studied botany in his
younger days, when a village pill-compounder, has
often enriched his compositions with agreeable floral
gems, manifesting the acute eye with which he sur-
veyed the face of nature, has thus alluded to the
effect produced by the lichens in harmonizing to the
eye of the painter, those bald roughnesses which so
offend correct taste in most new buildings, while at
the same time he very correctly alludes to their mode

of growth : —

" Yon bold tower survey,

Tall and entire, and venerably grey,
For time has softened what was harsh when new,
And now the stains are all of sober hue :
The living -stains which Nature's hand alone
Profuse of life, pours forth upon the stone :
For ever growing ; where the common eye
Can but the bare and rocky bed descry ;
There science loves to trace her tribes minute,
The juiceless foliage and the tasteless fruit;
There she perceives them round the surface creep,
And while they meet, their due distinction keep ;
Mix'd, but not blended ; each its name retains,
And these are Nature's ever-during stains."

520 WILD FLOWERS OF

While great part of the fimgi are geodical, deriving
their nutriment from the earth, though called into
their transient existence by meteoric causes, the
lichens may be considered as aerial, for though peren-
nially fixed to the rocks on which they grow, and hence
called by LIHMIUS vernaculi, or bond-slaves, yet in
fact they derive all their nutriment from the air, and
the more that is saturated with vapour, the more they
nourish and extend themselves. Hence misty moun-
tain tops, damp groves, and the vicinity of the sea,
nourish more lichens than other places, and indeed it
may be said that the lichen tribe only increase and
extend themselves in wet weather. How often with
mournful eye do we look up to the sombre skies which
at this season of the year pour their dripping trea-
sures with melancholy pattering upon the fallen
leaves and denuded trees ; how often is the misty
vapour that wreathes the mountain's brow, and in-
volves the streams and woods in its monotonous
mantle of grey, regarded with a muttering murmur,
as it rolls nearer and nearer, and at last flaps its dewy
fingers upon our window panes, while some martyr to
the rheumatism vainly turning his stiff and aching
shoulder, slowly staggers to his easy chair ! But, sad
as this aspect of things may at first sight appear,

" When rain in torrents wood and vale deform,
And all is horror, hurricane, and storm,"

there are many things to answer by it in the economy
of nature, and among these is the growth and spread
of the lichens. As the rain descends, how these crus-
taceous plants, almost invisible before, extend them-
selves on every side, rioting in the moisture they drink
up, and which they must enjoy while they can, for,

NOYEHBEB. 521

like the Esquimaux Indians, they have often to endure
long fasts, and when the sun in summer blazes some-
times for continuous weeks, they seem shrunk up,
bleached, and utterly dead. Yet, a single shower
awakens their dormant vitality; they prick up, and
distend their tJialli, and imbibe the " mountain dew '
till they appear so fat and bloated as to be utterly un-
like their former selves — " disguised in liquor" as used
sometimes to be expressively said of the old race of
jovial topers, in these degenerate days put to flight
by the incessant assaults of the tee-totallers ! The
ciliated Borrerian lichen (Borrera ciliaris,) that often
abounds on old ash trees, or hawthorns, giving them
in the dimness of morn or eve the aspect of an aged
man, "wi' locks o' siller gray," so dilates and swells
its fronds in rainy weather, and assumes such a lurid
green colour, as to seem at first sight quite a different
plant. I recollect, too, a species of the collemate, or
gelatinous lichens, which I have many times observed
in showery seasons on the walls of Aberystwith Castle,
black, fat, and bloated, with brown prominent scutellce;
but in a few days after the rain had ceased, not a ves-
tige could be discovered of it, even on the closest
inspection. In like manner the stones of a court-yard,
or steps of a door, appear in dry weather to be com-
pletely free from extraneous substances ; but a fall of
rain is sure to disclose something green upon the
stones, which, if carefully scraped off, and examined
with a lens, exhibits the first rudimentary vegetation
of the germinating powder of the lichens, which scat-
tered in air, has fallen upon the stone, and is now
called into existence by the teeming moisture to tinge
and carpet the humus where it has been deposited.

522 WILD FLOWEBS OF

Thus the lichens, being adapted to form the first
clothing of the naked, rugged, rock, have the simplest
re-productive organs, or rather may be said to be ana-
logous in their multiplication to some of the zoophytes;
for not only do the apothecia contain sporules to
disperse the plants, but the divided medullary layer
of the thallus itself is viviparous. In fact, among the
lichens, the proliferous system seems to be carried
out to its utmost extent, a wise provision in a tribe
of such intermittent growth ; for those "mealy warts,"
common on several lichens, and whose use has been
disputed, are doubtless nothing more than thalliaceous
expansions of the plants on which they occur, strug-
gling to extend and multiply their species. It is
instructive to mark any stony memorial, cross, pillar,
or tower, and behold these apparently weak instru-
ments of an Almighty Power, commencing the work
of destruction on the monument that was to stand " in
perpetual memory" of some proud action or vaunted

hero — •

" Who under the grey stone

So long has slept, that fickle fame

Has blotted from her scroll his name." *

First, the continued shower softens the surface of the
stone, and forms a minute concavity on which the
reproductive particle of the lichen can rest. It grows
and extends with every dash of moisture, spreading
out into broad plates, like ulcerous crusts on the skin
of animals ; it now corrodes and scoops out the stone
into large cavities, like the still deepening water-
furrow down the brow of the rugged mountain, and
these hollows become filled up in time with the old
decayed particles of the crust of the lichen. Mosses

* SCOTT.

NOYEMBEE. 523

are now able to effect a landing on the degraded
rock, and as the old herbage of these die, fresh soil is
created, till the fern and the flower in their turn
appear with a load of ivy and berry-bearing trees.

" Braving the inclemencies of every climate and
season," says Professor SPKENGEL, " Lichens are the
never-failing companions of the travelling botanist ;"
and so I have fonnd them, and at a time when most
other plants, except mosses and fungi, are in a dead
or denuded state, their diversified hues and crowded
apothecia, " make glad the solitary place." In the
crowded forest upon every tree, mystic characters ap-
pear, like old Cufic, Persian, or Chinese inscriptions,
from which, as Sir JAMES SMITH playfully remarks, a
fairy alphabet might almost be formed — these are the
curious graphidece, so called from the resemblance of
their apothecia to writing. OpegrapTia scripta and 0.
varia are particularly remarkable in this respect, and
0. elegansj which is rarer, displays its large grooved
black characters upon the oaks of the forest, as if
presenting some dark enigma for a lover of the Dry-
ades to decypher. The young branches in plantations
of oaks are often so covered with the Opegraplw
macularis, as to seem as if purposely blackened with
gunpowder, or stained from an explosion of the same
"villainous" material.

Another family forming the genus Calicium7 have
stipitate fruit, presenting to view a crop of fairy gob-
lets, in some species rising from the brightest golden
crust, which finely adorns the stateliest oaks of the
grove. Verrucaria displays a great number of species
on rocks, or the trunks of trees, distinguished by their
bearing numerous black tubercles on the thallus. The

524 WILD FLOWEES OF

Leprarice are extremely common on old trees, and
palings, which they stain so freely that they might be
called white, green, yellow, black, or sulphur washes.
These consist entirely of minute granules, and are
therefore the simplest form known of the lichen tribe.
The species of Variolaria are known at a distance
from the large white circles they form on many trees,
with numerous white pustules. V. discoidea and V.
faginea are the most common. The latter may be
always known from the intensely bitter taste of its
spreading adnate thallus. The common Urceolaria
(JT.scruposa), often covers sandstone rocks, old crosses
in church-yards, towers, buttresses, &c. to a great
extent with its hard, thick, grey, crustaceous thallus,
scarcely differing in substance from the stone on
which it grows, abundantly interspersed with minute
rugged hollows, which are its immersed apothecia.
CRABBE probably had this species, with Z7. calcarea,
Verrucaria rupestris, Lecanora atra, and other saxico-
lose lichens in view when describing the appearance
of his church tower overspread with

" The enduring foliage ; — then we trace

The freckled flower upon the flinty base ;
These all increase, till in unnotic'd years
The stony tower as grey with age appears ;
With coats of vegetation thinly spread,
Coat above coat, the living on the dead."
Many of the old oolitic altar tombs in the church-
yards among the wind-blown Cotteswolds, are com-
pletely encrusted with a stratum of grey Urceolaria —
a note of Time written down by moisture, yet more
permanent than any inscription. Perhaps the most
curious of these armadilloed lichens is the Beomyces
rufus, whose granulated crust is at a little distance

NOVEMBEK. 525

undistinguishable from the rock itself, over which it
widely spreads, and it would therefore almost escape
notice but for its singular apothecia, which, though
hard, in summer, as the stone they are upon, present
in shape and colour a striking similitude to minute
mushrooms, or agarici.

Of Lecidea, with its shield-like apothecia, Sir J. W.
HOO&EB enumerates 68 species in his British Flora,
and we may refer to two in exemplification of it.
The JJ. parasema, or common black-shielded Lecidea,
abundant on the bark of trees, and the pretty L. ulmi-
cola, whose crowded orange-coloured shields have a
most elegant aspect wherever they present themselves.
The Map Lecidea (L. geographical) , also merits notice
as a very remarkable denizen of granitic or trap rocks
in mountainous and sub-alpine countries, where it
spreads its bright yellow thallus in a very conspicuous
manner, cracked with black lines that seem to repre-
sent the courses of rivers, and their hundred tribu-
taries, while the black apothecia mark to the eye of
fancy the position of towns or villages. On the slate
rocks of Cumberland beautiful specimens may be easily
detached, but in general it is not easy to unchain this
vegetable Prometheus, unless, indeed, the explorator
feels inclined to carry away rock and all from its high
position ! The summits of the Malvern hills,* in
"Worcestershire, pleasingly display the Map Lecidea
in many places, and in the autumnal season, while
exploring those romantic heights, the snow wreath or

* In my Botany of the Malvern Hills, (Published by Lamb, Malvern?)
I have catalogued 248 distinct Lichens as growing upon these beautiful
ridges so often bathed by the mist and rain-cloud, and in hot summers so
burnt up that few of the Phanerogamous tribes can then flourish there,
except the hardy Gorse, dry Verbascum, and succulent Cotyledon and
Sedum.

526 WILD FLOWERS OF

the fog has frequently surrounded me ; or while the
storm in its utmost artilleried fury has been sweeping
over the plain below, some of those islet-like hills that
dot the level country of this beauteous part of Eng-
land, have shone forth splendid as meteors, wrapped
in the radiance of the declining sun, unscathed by
the hurricane around them, like men of purer mould
elevated above the crimes and passions desolating and
destroying inferior human nature.

Lecanora numbers thirty-two British species, among
which L. subfusca, with its brown polished shields
often beautifies the trunks of old ash trees ; and L.
varia of a pale olive green, and the yolk-of-egg Leca-
nora (L. vitellina), distinguished by its bright yellow
colour, are not uncommon on old rails, gate-posts, &c.
L. atra, with its clustered black apothecia is a very
common object on rocks, walls, and stones in church
yards ; while the Crab's-eye Lecanora (L, parelld),
and the Cudbear (L. tartarea), abundantly adorn the
rocks of our higher hills and dark heathy mountains.
Hence their characteristic home is in stern alpine
solitudes, for the Lichen tribe nourish at a loftier
elevation than is attained by any other plants, as thus
intimated by DARWIN —

" Where frowning Snowdon bends his dizzy brow
O'er Con way, listening to the surge below ;
Retiring Lichen climbs the topmost stone,
And drinks the aerial solitude alone."
In the genus Sq/uamaria, the yellow wall species
(S. murorum), forming orbicular cracked and plaited
thalli, may be referred to as a well-known example ;
and the grey tree lichen (P. canescens), abundant on
most elm trees, among Placodium. There are thirty-
one British species of Parmelia, among which are

NOVEMBEE. 527

some of our finest foliaceous lichens. The sulphur
Parmelia (P. caperata) grows very large, and is a con-
spicuous object on orchard trees, while P. saxatilis
grows every where on trees, stones, rocks, and walls.
P. ompJialodes is also very abundant on rocks in
exposed situations, especially in the vicinity of the
sea, where it wholly covers extensive surfaces with its
deep purple thalli.

The vicinity of old ocean is very favourable to
lichenic growth, for the humid fogs for ever arising
from its surface even in summer, and sleeping among
the twilight woody glens through which alpine rivulets
steal to the roaring monarch's embrace, nourish the
species that in more inland situations would vainly
struggle for extension amidst the continued burning
heats of summer. Thus it has occurred to me to
find more luxuriant specimens of Lichens on the rocks
about Yarmouth, North Wales, than I any where
else remember to have seen. Here the beautiful
Parmelia Icevigata covers the massy stones on the
margin of the beach, profusely covered with large
bright chesnut fructification ; P. perlata spreads to
a great size upon the rocks above, accompanied by the
pitchy-brown thallus of P. Fahlunensis, and the closely
adnate lobes of the tanned sun-burnt Parmelia (P.
aquila.) In the groves about Tan-y-bwlcJi, I also no-
ticed that the trees were profusely adorned with the
very beautiful orbicular Green Parmelia (P.lierbaced),
in exuberant fructification. Limestone rocks often
display species almost peculiar to that kind of stone —
as the tiled Sq_uamaria crassa, and the leathery Endo-
carpon miniatum, so abundant on the rugged carboni-
ferous limestone of the romantic cliffs of Cheddar,

528 WILD FLOWERS OF

The yellow wall Parmelia (P.parietina), is a species
extremely common on walls and roofs, and no Lichen
abounds more upon old thorns, which it often com-
pletely invests as it were with coloured gloves, and
when, as is frequently the case, a little bright pink
tremelloid substance, the rose-coloured Illosporium
(Z roseivni) bestuds the bright orange of the Parmelia,
the effect produced is very beautiful. The inflated
Parmelia (P. pliysodes), is a very common denizen of
rocks, old pales, &c., whose interstices it covers as it
were with a profuse grey beard.

Among the members of the genus Sticta, the Lung-
wort (S. pulmonaria), is very remarkable, investing
trees in sub-alpine countries with its large green
fronds, curiously pitted and reticulated, from whence
the name has arisen. The pitted S. scrobiculata is also
not uncommon among rocks, which it closely covers as
with an extensive glaucous-hued cloak of many folds.

The genus Collema has thirty-three species, all of
a skinny or gelatinous nature, of which the Bat's-
wing Lichen (C. nigrescens), not uncommon on the
damp trunks of trees, may be adduced as a specimen.
These dark foliaceous and plaited substances are gene-
rally very obscure except in wet weather, and are,
no doubt, often passed by the unobservant eye. They
are, however, very curious, for, in fact, on the com-
mencement of rainy weather they spring up from
their unnoticed retreat like new creations.

Peltidea almost always appears upon the ground on
mountains and heaths, and is easily known from its
size, lurid aspect above, white beneath, and its brown
peltate apothecia, resembling finger nails. Several
varieties occur, but P. canina is the most common.

NOVEMBER. 529

P. venosa, and P. aphtliosa are very beautiful, but
these only occur in mountainous districts.

Gyrophora and Umbilicaria have a very singular
appearance, and might almost be mistaken for large
flakes of soot, were it not for the central root by which
they are fixed to the rocks where they grow. The
QetraricB are northern or alpine plants, though the
glaucous Cetraria often adorns heaths and stony
places with its wide spreading glaucous-grey thalli, in
spots where the white-runiped Wheatear is sure to
be seen flitting about. Roccella is a maritime Lichen,
which yields a most valuable dye.* Borrera ciliaris
et tenella, Evernia prunastri, Hamalina farinacea, and
Usnea plicata et Jlorida, either together or in separate
divisions, form those hoary flakes, fringes, and pendent
floccy masses, which in winter and early spring give
such a spectral aspect to the branches of the trees
they clothe ;t as if nature had robed them with a
permanent hoar frost —

" There fibrous, floating in the air ;
Here — hoary, curl'd, and light ;
Like tresses fine of maiden's hair,
Or hermit's lock of white."

To some of these Lichens, more particularly, per-

* Many of the crustaceous and foliaceous lichens might be used in
dyeing processes, but the Roccella or Orchell, brought from the Canary
islands, is most valued, and has been most employed. The price of this
in the market is now about ^290 per ton, and at particular times it has
risen to nearly ^1000 !

t This is an appearance noticed by many poets, but with a want of
botanical exactness, the grey lichens producing it are termed erroneously
Mosses — thus Dr. DARWIN mentions—

" The moss-grown antlers of the aged oak ,•"

and SOUTHEY, in a beautiful sonnet descriptive of Winter, makes the same
mistake — " A wrinkled crabbed man they picture thee
Old Winter ! with a ragged beard as grey
As the long moss upon the apple tree.1"

But this " long moss" is certainly the pendent lichen Usnea plicata.

2M

530 WILD FLOWERS OF

haps, Evernia prunastri, the name " Death-Moss" has
been popularly applied, as denoting that the term of
the tree's healthy endurance has arrived when these
pallid locks, assimilating to the grey hairs of man,
appear upon the bark — hence it is said, such timber
should fall. Rcvnialina scopulorum often appears very
copiously upon maritime rocks, to which its stiff
glazed pendent thalli give a most remarkably grizzled
aspect, visible from afar. The Ash Eamalina (E.
fraxinea), often depends from old ash trees in fronds
five or six inches long, these " hoary locks" giving a
most picturesque aspect to the weather-beaten vete-
rans, pitted and reticulated as they are, and covered
with copious apothecia. The weather side of a range
of paling is also often made a conspicuous greybeard
by the farinaceous, stringy, and other Lichens. The
broad-leaved Hamalina (JR.pollinaria), when occurring
in profusion, gives a similar tattered appearance to
old elm trees and neglected or unused barn doors.

But there are other families of Lichens that prin-
cipally affect the bare ground, moors, and heathy
mountains, which, in the absence of other vegetation,
thev cover with a white or brown crispy robe. Such
is the celebrated Reindeer Lichen—

" The wiry moss that whitens all the hill," *
whose intricate tufts adorn the lofty mountains of
every part of the world, and which in the winter forms
nearly the entire support of those herds of Eeindeer
that constitute the sole wealth of the Laplanders. No
vegetable, Limosus states, grows throughout Lapland
in such abundance as this, especially in woods of scat-
tered pines, where for very many miles together the

* CRABBE.

ISTOYEMBEK. 531

surface of the sterile soil is covered with it as with
snow. How beautifully on the maritime rocks of
Pembrokeshire this snow-white lichen contrasts with
the rich golden laciniated thallus of Borrera flawcms,
with which it grows intermixed ; while the forked
Cladonia and the coral-like Isidium, contribute to
clothe -the otherwise barren steeps, with a garb which
even poetry would fail to imagine in the beauty and
delicacy of tint and form that it presents.

" You are enthusiastic in your Lichens (likings)"
said a fair punstress on one occasion to me, as on
turning over part of my herbarium before some bota-
nical friends, I was descanting on their variety of
form and hue. And truly I may be so, for many
glorious imaginings — many never-to-be-forgotten ex-
cursions do I owe to them. They have tempted me
on bleak Plinlimmon, where I have gathered the
silvery Stereocaulon ; they have led me panting, yet
enraptured, winding my course among maritime rocks
all day till I was as brown as the sun-burnt Parmelia
that I scraped from the granite ridge ; how oft have
they lured me to gather the blistered UmbiUcaria, the
wiry "Kock Hair," or the pointed sad-coloured Cor-
nicularia, on the syenite of Malvern, the sooty Sticta
and fringed Gyropliora upon Snowdon and the Ar-
renigs, or the curious Socket Solorina, whose apothecia
is buried in round pits sunk in the thallus, amid the
water-swept ravines of the Glyder Vawr. Still I seem
to see the horrid precipice of Craig«y-Deryn, near
Tal-y-Llyn, all riven and blasted, with its tottering
crags, pointed peaks, and broken ledges, stained with
the ordure of the myriad screaming sea birds that
haunt it, and with the bearded lichenic growth- of

2 M 2

532 WILD FLOWERS OF

centuries bristling its face, to which I pilgrimaged
from Cadir Idris, not without emotion, and from
whence I now see in my herbarium the pitted Sticta
and the brown Nepliroma, still ever as I gaze recalling
the sensations with which I gathered them. Up that
frightful cliff, said my informant, as I turned to take
my farewell of its awful form, two youths were climb-
ing where you just stood, but they were seeking bird's
eggs. They were half way up its scarcely practicable
ascent, when a thunder storm suddenly swept on, and
clouds shrouded them from view. Awed by the
elemental conflict, they were unable to advance or
retreat. Long they clung one above another to the
dreadful precipice, but at last, blinded by lightning,
one fell, and at once paid the forfeit of his life. As
the storm abated, the other shrunk sadly from his
high position, slowly retrograded, and escaped. I
turned from Craig-y-Deryn, or the Cliff of Birds,
with a sigh, and proceeded on my course among the
mountains.

But it is among the wildness of such localities that
nature ever delights to place her favorites, for the
stormy blast that shakes the mountain, and the pour-
ing rain that floods the valley, merely increase the
facilities of these plants to grow, extend, and perform
the economy for which they were designed. The
mosses retain the falling water to ooze it forth in the
dribbling chrystal drops of summer, and the Lichens
spread profusely to form those tufts upon the uplands,
which show their tips of crimson no where else.
" Ah me ! what lovely tints are there !
Of olive green, and scarlet bright,
In spikes, in branches, and in stars,
Green, red, and pearly white ;

NOYEMBEE. 533

And cups, the darlings of the eye,
So deep in their vermillion dye." *

The objects thus pleasingly alluded to are the Cup-
lichens, or ScypliopJiori, whose multifarious varieties,
whether seen upon the sandy heath, the silent moun-
tain waste, or upon the humble cottage pales, like
brown fairy goblets sometimes one within another,
cannot' fail to awaken in the Botanical Explorator,
admiration, if not gratitude to that Power who has
made all things beautiful, that solace may be found in
his works to counterpoise the baleful effects of those
passions that desecrate the moral world, and soothe
those pangs that still ever accompany the struggles of
man in the physical one.

* WORDSWORTH.

EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES EOE NOVEMBEE.

" Where late the wild-flower bloomed, the brown leaf lies."

GRAHAME.

WITH this month it would almost seem that botanical
exploration must terminate, and of course it is so with
phanerogamous vegetation, while rainy or foggy days
often involve the whole country in a continual drip,
that renders the forest shades no enviable place of
meditation. Yet, there is no pause in the operations
of nature, and when a fine day does occur, how exhili-
rating to climb the heathy hills, where the green Cup-
mosses and silvery Eein deer Lichens are putting
forth their scarlet or brown tubercles, while, perhaps,
on some old weather-beaten stump a Lecidea appears
in fine fructification, never observed before. Erom
the Holly-trees, now showing their ruddy berries, and
assuming an importance in the sylvan scene they did
not before possess, hosts of Eieldfares flit as if thrown
up casually into the air, while deeper within the wood
is heard the harsh scream of the Jay. Below the eye
the level country seems wrapt in a cold, dull, impene-
trable mantle of fog, a calm but desolate sea of vapour;
yet above this stratum the sunbeams light up the hill-
side in radiance, and glance upon the green or brown
Eerns, and, especially where, amidst the intricacies of
the crisp bracken, some lonely autumnal flower —
perhaps even the Harebell, lingers as if it hoped to
pass scathless through the coming brumal rigours.

EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES FOE NOVEMBEE. 535

As the tempest of every night now makes continual
progress in clearing of its frondage any hesitating tree
that had been permitted thus long to retain it, the
landscape assumes new features in many directions,
and often, indeed, discloses beauties to the eye, unob-
served or unexpected while the cloak of summer
leaves spread so thickly over the country. How often
at this period have I been struck with the picturesque
aspect of the old timbered farm-house of the true
hospitable old English times, with its peaked gables,
and wide, lofty, turret-like chimnies, now fully obvious
among the leafless orchards around it, and often ac-
companied by its sober, unvarying companion, the
battered but enduring Yew, recalling a thousand
recollections of old times — and then, along side of
them extend, frequently, those abbey-like barns, whose
timbered ribs and lofty doors are all thickly encrusted
with the sacred cryptogamic crust of centuries, like
emblazoned letters in time-worn volumes. There is,
alas, no beauty in the modern brick barns, and but few
plants to be obtained from them,

The denuded trees now exhibit palpable signs of
the approaching season in the Mistletoe, with its white
berries prominently nestled in many of them, and the
trees on which this curious parasite occurs, may at
this period be more advantageously observed than at
any other time. A stroll among the mossy labyrinths
of the wood may conclude the explorations of the
year. Here all is silent and mournful, the ground
thickly covered with a soft yielding carpet of accumu-
lated leaves, while the tall trunks of the forest trees
wave with a thick crop of Evernia prunastri and the
ramaline, and other frondose and filamentous lichens,

536 EXPLOEATOEY NOTICES TOE NOVEMBEE.

like the deserted columns of a ruined temple ragged

with weeds.

" The Hawthorn there,

With moss and lichen grey, dies of old age." *

Yet here, occasionally, the eye of research is rewarded
by observing some rare and curious fungus, as the
Agaricus odorus, scenting the shade, the huge Poly-
porus squmnosus, its lobes piled high upon each other,
or the singular varnished grotesque P. lucidus, besides
numerous more minute ones. We have occasionally
spent an amusive hour in proking with a stick among
the damp fallen leaves in a coppice. Numerous cu-
rious and even elegant Fungi were thus disclosed to
view, such as the Beech-mast and other Pezizce, Cra-
terium pedunculatum, minute coloured TricMce, &c.
In this way an industrious mycologist may find food,
especially with the microscope, to employ many a
dreary winter's day.

But a pelting storm breaks in upon the studies and
delights of the exploring botanist ; and beneath some
ivied oak, projecting brambly bank, or bower of wild
feathery Clematis, he is forced to seek a temporary
shelter as the howling storm vents its fury upon the
darkened landscape. It breaks in pealing uproar
upon the forest, and the lofty branches creak and
groan around — the deluge falls in one continuous
splash upon the soaked leaves— but lo, a break of
light ! a sudden impulse hurries the dark squadrons
far on, and a brilliant iris starts up irradiant at the
foot of the pleased shelterer.

* GRAHAME.

WILD FLOWEKS OF DECEMBEE.

CHAP. XXYIII.

GLANCE AT THE BRUMAL ASPECT OF NATURE - - THE
MOSSES IN THEIR NUPTIAL HABILIMENTS — SIMILE IN
RELATION TO THEM — THEIR BOTANICAL CHARACTERS-
BEAUTIFUL ASPECT IN THE WANE OF THE YEAR — POLY-
TRICHUM, AND OTHER FAMILIES — THE SPHAGNA OR
BOG-MOSSES — THEIR ECONOMICAL HISTORY AND DIS-
TRIBUTION.

" When on the barn's thatch'd roof is seen
The Moss in tufts of liveliest green,
When Roger to the wood-pile goes,
And, as he turns, his fingers blows,
When all around is dark and drear,
Be sure that CHRISTMAS-TIDE is near."

Christmas, a Masque for the Fireside

" ankle deep in moss."

COWPER.

IF we felt disposed for a lounge upon the sofa at this
chill and vapoury season, instead of keeping a good
" look-out" to the end of the chapter, we might now
abruptly drop the curtain upon all further research^
by exclaiming with THOMSON —

" How dead the vegetable kingdom lies."

But though poets, with a superficial glance, may make-
such an exclamation, the botanist can by no means
allow the strict application of such language to be

538 WILD FLOWEBS OF

correct ; for if the umbrageous multitude of leaves
that lately decorated the forest have fallen to the
ground, yet there are a host of " little plants that
lowly dwell," * that far from being dead, take advan-
tage of the prevailing humidity to put forth their
frondage and fruit, and assume a visible importance
they made no pretensions to before — among these,
shining with brilliant viridescence as signs of approach-
ing Christmas, the beautiful tribe of MOSSES appear,
called in botanical language Musci frondosi.

Even in summer, the wanderer who has penetrated
into the deep recesses of the woods, seeking shelter
from the burning refulgence of noon, has oft blessed
that mossy carpet softer than velvet yielding to his
tread, which has cooled and refreshed his tired feet.
The mountain rambler, wearied with the toil of esca-
lading slippery barren rocks, parched and burning
with reflected heat, turns from his path along the dry
ravine to where the plashy springlet oozing from its
mossy bed, diffuses around its green cradle delicious
coolness, and invites to mental and bodily tranquility
within its sequestered recess. Then even the unin-
quisitive poet looks out for his " mossy cell," and,
though shrinking from botanical initiation, still ex-
claims with SHEFSTONE —

" Beside some fountain's mossy brink,

With me the muse shall sit and think."
But he should be dragged to the "moss-fringed
stone" in winter, to behold this fairy tribe in all their
delicacy and beauty, and SPEJSTSEK, indeed, has not
altogether forgotten the picturesque aspect they put
on at this season, when he thus apostrophizes in his
characteristic Shepherd's Calendar: —

* SPENSER.

DECEMBER. 539

" You naked trees, whose shady leaves are lost.
Wherein the birds were wont to build their bowre,
And now are cloth' d with Moss and hoary frost,
Instead of blossoms, wherewith your buds did flowre ;
I see your tears that from your boughs do rain,
Whose drops in drerie ysicles remain."

LINNAEUS' s vivid description of the Mosses, penned
with, his usual imaginative power, has never yet been
surpassed. " When," says he, " all things around us
languish and sleep, when the streams are frozen, the
groves silent, the fields hidden with a covering of
snow, and sorrow every where apparent, as the face
of nature is pale and sad with the image of death ;
then the Mosses present themselves amidst the ruins
of vegetation, and mantle the stones and rocks with a
silky vesture glowing with the brightest colours."

The most incurious observer must have noticed
that as the pale descending year hastens to its conclu-
sion, the roof of almost every thatched shed, barn, or
outhouse, assumes the most vivid green colour from
the various Mosses that have domiciled upon its
slopes ; every wall top glistens with their brown or
yellow seed-vessels and purple stalks, while the driest
tiles, stones, or bricks, are dotted with the grey
cushion-like tufts of the little Grimmia pulvinata,
whose capsules or thecae are buried amidst the leaves
that rise up, each furnished with a long white pellucid
hair. CLAEE has noticed these "flowers" of the
Mosses, in his observant Poems —

" Even Moss that gathers on the stone,
Crown'd with its little knobs of flowers is seen."

In hot weather the Mosses become crisped, curled up,
discoloured, and apparently lifeless ; but they imbibe
moisture with such rapidity, that the slightest shower

540 WILD FLOWEES OF

restores their pristine freshness — thus emblematical
of the power the slightest change of circumstances
has upon the condition of man himself. See the son
of genius toiling on his up-hill course, and vainly
craving that single drop of patronage that would invi-
gorate all his powers ; but it is denied him, and like
the parched moss he shrinks into obscurity and
neglect. But should the golden shower fall at last,
how suddenly he starts up into activity and fame —
drinks up unsated the vivifying stream, expands all
his latent powers, and at a single bound overleaps the
unpitied wrongs of years, just as the parched moss
rises from its long sleep, to sprout and fructify amidst
the teeming moisture.

Mosses are not furnished with conspicuous flowers,
but they are said to be in fruit when certain brown
cases appear among them analogous to the capsules of
the phanerogamious tribes, and generally elevated on
long stalks. These cases are called tJiecce or urns ;
their summit is crowned with a calyptra or veil, which
covered the theca entirely before the latter lengthened,
tore the calyptra from its support, and bore it upon
the tip. "When the calyptra has dropped off, the urn
is seen closed at its mouth by an operculum or lid, and
as the whole becomes mature the lid drops off, disclos-
ing in most cases an elegant peristome or fringe, often
double, which protects the mouth of the theca, and
the teeth of this fringe varies in number from four to
sixty-four, but in all cases' is some multiple of four.
When at last the minute sporules or seeds within the
urn are fully ripe, the fringe withdraws itself, becomes
reflex, and allows them to escape into air to be borne
upon the wind to rise up as young plants wherever

DECEMBER. 541

Nature may require their services. But besides the
fruit that every kind of moss exhibits, some species
bear leaves spread into a starry form ; among which
lie a number of cylindrical whitish-green bodies, trans-
parent at the point, and filled with a cloudy granular
matter. These have been considered as anthers by
some botanists, while the cluster of greenish pipe-like
filaments that precedes the appearance of the thecse
were described as pistils. SPRENGEL, however, over-
turns this opinion by stating that he has seen the
supposed anthers drop off, and strike root like gemmce,
or off-set buds, which he supposes they are ; still it is
remarkable that the star-bearing plants never produce
urns, nor the urn-bearing stars. Dr. LHTDLEY con-
siders that the calyptra, operculum, and teeth of the
peristome of mosses are all modified leaves, and that
therefore the urn is more analogous to a flower than a
seed-vessel. However this may be, the urn at any rate
contains the minute dust or sporules from which
young plants germinate, and this has been proved by
Mr. DRTJHMOND, who succeeded in raising more than
thirty different kinds of mosses from seed. Mosses
have been arranged in genera, according to the pre-
sence or absence of a fringe at the mouth of the urn,
the number of its processes, and whether single or
double. I shall here only advert to a few of the more
remarkable, referring the enquirer to HOOKER and
TAYLOR'S Muscologia Britannica, where all the mosses
of Britain are described, and many of them figured.
According to LESTDLEY, about eight hundred species
are now known, but probably a considerable number
remain to be described.

Whoever enters upon the study of these minute

542 WILD FLOWEKS OF

yet beautiful structures, must not imagine that his
researches are to be confined wholly to the days of
summer ; even in mid- winter, when the sun, blazing
for a moment on his eastern pillow, sinks oppressed
amidst the rhimy vapours that spread on all sides from
the dripping woods and saturated fields ; when the
north-westers hurry amongst the creaking, splitting,
and denuded boughs, scattering the last leaves upon
the paths all slimy with moisture and rotten foliage ;
when mud, sludge, mire, and puddle combine in the
romantic rural lanes with ruts of depth profound,
whose treacherous edges sink mid-knee deep at once
in the vainly-attempted passage ; when it seems cold
enough to ensure a frost, and yet so gloomy, foggy,
and tempestuous, that the black wood already in idea
echoes to the pealing rain, and the cawing crow is the
only visible inhabitant of the eclipsed day — even in
these decembral hours of gloom, the muscologist must
be abroad to behold the objects of his delight in their
perfection. Nor will it do merely to " look-out" in
the shrubbery for a moment, and run in like a cat
from the drip of the trees ; — the mosses, even at this
time in their brightest luxuriance in winter, must be
sought for on the spungy sward of the bleak exten-
sive moor, or the " moss-clad stones " swept by the
bitter mountain blast, or in the wildest depth of humid
woods, midst

lt Wither'd boughs grotesque,

Stript of their leaves and twigs by hoary age,
From depth of shaggy covert peeping forth
In the low vale, or on steep mountain side." *

For had their oozy foliage and plumose stems, voices

• WORDSWORTH.

DECEMBEE.

543

to mingle with the weeping patter of the woodland
rill, truly might they sportive cry
" Where we are it is no place
For a lazy foot to trace ;
Over heath and over field

He must scramble who would find us ;
In the copse-wood close conceal'd,
With a running-brook behind us."

Here we go, then, dash at once upon beds of silken
velvet Hypni ; or the Dicranum scoparium, covering
the bank with its long pecteniform foliage, offers a
seat of unrivalled softness — a thousand moss-encrusted
stalwart forest arms form around us a labyrinth of
dim melancholy obscurity; so with the "hoary gown"
about us, we may at once look the character of the
hermit, whether of MILTON, PAEKELL, or any other
poet, in strict keeping with the occupation allotted by

COLEEIDGKE in his Ancient Mariner, to the
" Hermit good, who lives in that wood

Which slopes down to the sea.

* * * *

He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve-
He hath a cushion plump ;

It is the moss that wholly hides
The rotted old oak stump."

Having thus, under the guise of botanical searching,
introduced our friends into this gloomy forest recess,
we might here inflict a long moralization with impu-
nity; but we shall imitate Nature in her beautiful
contrasts — like the luminous vapour's march along
the mountain — and now exhibit a beam of brightness
from a poet who was no botanist, but who, as a close
observer of nature, images his love as " a lovely little
flower ' in a cave, by which I presume he intended a
beauteous moss, and, thus circumstanced, defies the

WILD FLOWEES OF

"raging winter." Tempted alike by the literal and
tlie symbolical flower, let the neophyte resist the
invitation I give him to search amongst the caves if
he can !

" Without my love, not a' the charms

O' Paradise could yield me joy ;
But gie me Lucy in my arms,

And welcome* Lapland's dreary sky.

My cave would be a lover's bower,

Though raging winter rent the air •
And she a lovely little flower,

That I wad tent and shelter there." *

One of the most beautiful of the mossy families,
and very conspicuous in moist woods or on mountain
sides, is Polytriclium, nearly all the members of which
have golden-brown hairy calyptra or caps to their urns
or capsules, which gives them a singularly splendent
appearance, and hence P. commune, the glory of our
mossy woods, has been called Goldilocks. It is the
largest of the tribe, and where it abounds, door-mats,
beesorns, and brooms are formed of its stems, and as
furnishing bedding to the Laplanders it has been
highly celebrated.

With this specious family may be contrasted the
genus Pkascum, whose capsules scarcely equal the size
of a pin's-head, and without lid or fringe, fade almost
from unassisted vision ; or the curiously-minute and
elegant Gymnostomi, without peristornes, one species
of which HASSELQTJIST found so abundantly on the
walls of Jerusalem, that he considered it the
"hyssop springing out of the wall" that Solomon
was acquainted with.

The Tortulce, seen very frequently on walls, are

* BURNS.

DECEMBER. 545

distinguished by the spiral twisting of their thirty-two
teeth, which gives to their capsules the appearance of
so many little torches, from the bright yellow colour
of the fringe. Tortula ruralis is a large species whose
leaves end in long white hairs, and which often densely
covers thatched roofs. The Encalypta has its calyptra
exactly fashioned like an extinguisher ; that of Ortlio-
tricJium like a fool's-cap studded with hairs : while the
round fruit of Bartramia pomiformis deeply furrowed,
is peculiarly elegant seen amidst its light green tufts
on sandy rocks. Almost every one who has walked
in woods where charcoal has been burned, or trees
fallen, must have marked masses of little green or
orange-tinged fruit bundled together, with scarcely
any foliage, luxuriating on the round bare plots thus
left by the woodmen. This is the Funaria Jiygrometica,
a singular moss that delights in charred ground, which
it is thus the first to gladden again with vegetation,
often with a purple- stalked companion, Didymodon
purpureum.

The Brycs are a very numerous tribe of the mosses,
amongst which B. liyulatum, with its long tongue-
shaped leaves and brown scales at the base of its
stalks, presents the appearance of a miniature Palm ;
while the reticulated leaves of B. punctatum, an inha-
bitant of marshy spots or mountainous rivulets, have
a very beautiful appearance. The little Bryitm argen-
teum, often seen on rocks or old roofs, is very palpable
from its peculiar silvery aspect, and Bryum c&spititium
is frequent upon stones in subalpine spots generally
with tufted masses of green conspicuous fruit. Every
where on banks, old trunks of trees, walls, and in
the deep recesses of shadowy woods, appear the

2 -s

546 WILD FLOWERS OF

wide-spreading, soft and flossy mosses belonging to
the Hypnum tribe, distinguished by their double
Peristome, each consisting of sixteen teeth, filiform
processes being frequently placed between the seg-
ments of the inner fringe. There are sixty-seven
British species of Hypnum. Many of these combine
to beard old walls and ruins with a reverential aspect
that tinges them as if with an artistic pencil, -
So looks

" Th' embattled tower o'ergrown with bearded moss,

And by the melancholy skill of time,

Moulded to beauty." *

The genus SplacJmum presents some of the rarest
and most beautiful species known in the world. $.
vasculosum, with its globular rich brown shining cap-
sules, is the queen of British Mosses, but she is only
"at home ''' on Ben More and the Breadalbane moun-
tains in Scotland, at three thousand feet elevation.
By far the most important though humble ministers
in the economy of Nature are the Sphagna, or bog-
mosses, whose hoary tresses clothe the misty moun-
tains to such a vast extent, forming those turbaries
within which the niightest rivers are nursed in their
flossy cradles, fed by the waters imbibed by them from
the flying vapours, and gently led with flowing urns
to the mouths of those ravines down which they
plunge in foam and spray, hurrying along their loud-
voiced waters to grace and fructify the plains beneath.
What botanist is there whose heart does not bound
within him at the recollection of those bogs upon
whose margin or within whose plashy verge
" Where fairy water-breaks do murmur on
For ever," —

* BUCEE.

DECEMBER. 547

he has gathered some of his brightest and most che-
rished favourites ! There, whiter than snow, waves
the silken Cotton-grass ; the red-leaved Sundew shines
revealed upon the ermine moss on which it floats; the
delicate Rose-pimpernel almost immersed, just shows
its roseate flowers; and the Bog- violet (Viola palus-
tris), or the fringed petals of the lovely Menyanthes,
charm the gazing eye amidst a host of delicate Carices.
But the bog-moss itself is beautiful, in its several
varieties — of a lurid green as it floats in the water,
pure white on the edges and surface of the morass
above which the screaming plover wheels, and of a
beautiful rose-colour when the moisture has altogether
left it. Ah ! how often have my wandering feet trod
delighted on the soft snowy bog-moss — on the blue-
topt "Wrekin where I first gathered among it the blue
greasy-leaved Pinguicula — on the western descent of
oft-visited Malvern — mixed with the lowly Cranberry
on the borders of Bomere's fair watery expanse in
Salop, — with the fairy ivy-leaved Bell-flower on the
margin of Llyn Teivy and its sister lakes — where
Growrog's lonely pool and gray stones, near St. David's,
receives amidst its barren wildness a few stray shreds
of beauty from the golden corolls of the Hypericum
elodes, and the silver flowers of the floating Alisma
natans, amidst its dreary marshy waste — on the black
morasses of Cardigan, wedded to the beauteous pink-
flowered Andromeda — on the shores of Pembroke,
lulled by the murmur of the sea amidst the fragrance
of bushes of Bog Myrtle — or

" Amid the heart of many thousand mists,"

where the young Severn frets timorously in silver
lines shrouded in the scowling passes of drear Plin-

548 WILD FLOWERS OF

limmon, hid in perpetual clouds, and blown by never-
ceasing blasts.

The destruction and renovation perpetually taking
place throughout nature is apparent in the history of
the Mosses. An old decrepid forest becomes decayed,
moss-grown, and is at last overthrown by the winds.
The rains fall upon its remains, and they are covered
and obscured by standing water. Here the Sphagnum
or Bog-moss begins to vegetate — the waters are by
degrees absorbed, and a peat-moss finally formed, from
whence the black timber and half-consolidated mosses
are dug out, dried, and used for fuel. Thus the
bog-moss becomes the instrument of its own de-
struction, it forms a pabulum for other plants and
flowers to grow in, and at last, by the operation of
draining, is converted into fruitful meadow land, or
again waves with forest-trees as it did hundreds of
years before.

"Wherever the atmosphere is moist, there Mosses
grow in every part of the world, though more com-
mon in temperate than tropical climates. They are
the first vegetation that begin to dot any new soil
with verdure ; careless of snow or rain they push out
their leaves and capsules in the most tempestuous
weather, and even treasure in the former as materials
for fresh soil, the sandy or quartzy particles brought
down with the rain. They plunge into the deepest
ravines, forming those " shaggy banks," which are
the delight of sylvan wanderers ; they rise upon the
alps of Germany and Switzerland to the height of
5,500 feet, and amidst the eternal snows of Spitz-
bergen or New South Shetland, are still seen strug-
gling for existence. Trifling and insignificant as they

DECEMBER. 549

seem, they have many uses in Nature's economy;*
the birds construct their nests of them, they protect
the roots of larger plants from cold, and preserve,
amidst their dense tufts, myriads of minute insects,
without which provision, doubtless, many birds would
perish in the winter months. Everywhere, moors,
woods, rocks, fields, and the banks of streams and
marshes abound with them, so that they in fact con-
stitute no mean portion of the vegetable clothing of
the globe.

" It is this universality of the mosses," observe the
authors of Muscologia Britannica, "this disposition of
them to grow everywhere, even in such spots as are
incapable of producing any other plants, that has
much contributed towards making their study a
favourite occupation with us. Upon the summits of
our highest native mountains, — upon the most lofty
alps of Switzerland, and the still more elevated ones
of Savoy and Piedmont, — upon the morasses and
volcanic tracts of Iceland, — have we received amuse-
ment and instruction, though the inexperienced eye
could discover nothing more than seemingly barren

* " God and nature," says Linnaeus, in his Acad. Amcen., " have made
nothing in vain ; and posterity may discover as much in Mosses, as of
utility in other herbs." Mosses are doubtless the great ministering
assistants of nature in the creation of sozV, the constituents of which they
imbibe from the atmosphere, and accumulate in masses about their roots,
thus in a short time forming a nidus for larger plants even upon the
barest rocks. This may be easily tested by any careful observer. In
March, ISiV, I took from the tiled roof of an out-building at Malvern
Wells, a tuft of the Bryum crtpillare, a moss very common on walls and
rocks. This tuft, with the black soil collected at its base, weighed six
ounces, and en carefully extracting the mould by repeated washing, the
actual vegetation that remained did not amount in weight to one ounce —
the moss having thus, on a bare surface of tile, upon which it had been
cast by wind or rain, not only subsisted itself, but amassed by its reten-
tive qualities a rich humus above five times its own weight.

550 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER.

wastes." Nor is the pursuit of these vegetables
confined to the summer season alone, as is the case
with most other departments of botany. The Mus-
cologist needs not to wait for the heralds of Spring to
announce to him the time when he may set out, with
a prospect of success, upon his excursions. With
the Moss it is a continual spring ; a very great num-
ber of them are in the highest state of perfection in
the middle of winter, and there is no season but will
afford some or other of them in a state for examina-
tion and study. A great advantage in the study of
Mosses is that they are more easily preserved, always
continue green and beautiful, and may be at any time
revived on the application of water. Thus they
appear to the eye as beautiful images of the past, yet
like an unappropriated thought, standing ever ready to
be developed into the active and sensible present.
They are, in fact, what the Amaranth was only fabled
to be — imperishable !

WILD FLOWEES OF DECEMBEE.
(CONTINUED.)

CHAP. XXIX.

LAST LOOK-OUT UPON THE ASPECT OF VEGETATION —
APPEARANCE AND ECONOMY OF THE JUNGERMANNI^E —
A DECEMBER MORNING — IVIED TREES, SHRUBS, AND
BERRIES — SIMILIES APPERTAINING TO LINGERING FLOW-
ERS— EVERGREENS OF THE SEASON — REFLECTIONS CON-
NECTED WITH BOTANICAL INVESTIGATION — WINTER
PICTURE OF FALLING SNOW UPON THE BARE BOUGHS
OF DECEMBER, SHROUDING ALL VEGETATION — CONCLU-
SION.

u Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields ;
And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race
Their sunny robes resign." THOMSON.

" Bring the last December rose
Frosted o'er with wintry snows,
Let the fading petals fall,
O'er the year's funereal pall.

From the wood some oak-leaves bring,
That were green in early spring ;
Scatter them about the bier
Of the now departing year."

Christmas, a Masque.

THE " last December rose," alluded to in the above
lines, must of course be a Chinese, or monthly one,
some of which continue blooming, trained against

552 WILD FLOWEBS OF

walls, windows, or trellis-work, even amidst falling
snow ; but there will scarcely be one left by the last
day of the month. The " ruler of the inverted year,"
now makes steady progress — the meadows in early
morn are white with hoar frost, destroying the last
surviving plants and flowers that might have hoped
to escape the storm ; then, as the feeble rays of the
sickly sun tell upon the crisp grass, rising vapours
hang cowering upon the dank meadows, or gloomy
arable enclosures, till dampness is condensed upon all
created things, rain is precipitated upon the leafless
groves in pealing torrents, muddy brooks pour their
red rippling waters over the plain, and the swelled
rivers break their bounds, and mournfully splash upon
the bending hollow pollard willows, ranged in broken
ranks upon their borders. As the red inundation
still rises, the spoils of autumn are borne upon its
waters, and a black line of leaves and sticks marks
the current of the river, that swiftly carries onward to
the ocean the once gay verdure of the woods, now
dark and rotting, as the joys of the past are them-
selves swept remorselessly away. — So the current of
life bears all things along.

The garden and shrubbery now presents its most
desolate aspect, for rampant weeds struggle with the
stalks of dead annuals ; all are dying, or so inter-
mingled with fallen foliage and wind-driven fragments,
as to appear dead, and as yet there is no evident
symptoms of revivification —

" No mark of vegetable life is seen,

No bird to bird repeats the tuneful call,
Save the dark leaves of some tall evergreen,
Save the lone redbreast on the moss-girt wall."

DECEMBER. 553

And yet, as tlie rays of morning feebly strike upon
the tall columnar forms of elm, or ash, or beech, or
oak, which seem marbled with rings of white, or
grey, yellow, or green, some faint traces still present
themselves of continuous vegetation, though in a
diminished form ; and if the eye strictly scrutinizes
these verdant tufts and mosaic markings on the vari-
ous barks, a host of what at first sight appear to be
minute flowers, are seen rearing their tender forms
from purplish brown imbricated fronds, or bidentated
leaves of the tenderest green. These are the urns or
capsules of the Jungermannice, a distinct race from the
mosses, though closely allied to them in habit, which
part into four divisions, scattering around their brown
sporales of dust, intermixed with minute chain-like
bodies, whose precise use has not hitherto been cer-
tainly defined.* The urns of the Jungermannice
mature rapidly in damp weather, and some of them
are elevated upon such transparent stalks, that they
appear to simulate the Grordian worms often met with
amidst their tiny foliage.

Bogs, mountains, and damp rivulet sides, are the
habitation of the Jungermannice, where they flourish
in perfection, and no doubt contribute, by their spongy
retention of water, to form those chrystal-dropping
fountains, that delight the eye and refresh the lips of
the weary traveller, who pauses, half worn out with
toil, amidst the dim overshadowing glens into which
he has penetrated. Even the rocks on the sea shore
are often covered with the armour' like foliage of these
minute plants, which of a sombre purple, finely con-

* In the Exploratory Notices for January, I have mentioned what
appears to me the purpose they are designed for.

554 WILD FLOWERS OF

trasts with the golden, or cream-coloured lichens
amongst which they grow, thus contributing to the
formation of those harmonious tints, that, painted on
the sombre weather-worn brow of the impending ma-
ritime cliff, inspire glorious imaginings in the mind of
the true worshipper of nature. Thus, nothing is made
in vain ; — and to behold in the dead of winter, these
curious plants spreading their labyrinthal mazes pro-
fuse with auburn fairy urns about the dark boles of
the patriarchal trees of the wood, unquestionably
inspires admiration, and leads the contemplative mind
to the consideration of that power whose eye never
sleeps, and whose wonder-working finger is always
tracing out some latent object, as if to extort astonish-
ment and praise from the thoughtless and unenquir-
ing. None of these plants are in the slightest degree
hurtful, and many of them possess a peculiar fragrance,
which makes the "fine-nosed herbalist" sensible of
their presence, when he is perhaps about to cross the
rustic bridge of some bubbling brook, chafing the
round stones among which it gurgles, while perhaps,
the blue kingfisher darts, like an arrow, across the
water, to hide among the platted roots of the old
alder ; or the yellow wagtail quivers its bright-stained
plumage on the little pebbles where the waters undu-
late with simmering bubbling.

Of the lowly JtwgermwmicB, above two hundred
species have been enumerated ; and as much labour
and microscopic research must have been required to
elucidate their history, the late Professor BURNETT
has justly observed, that " the study of these plants
has forcibly struck me as being a more decided proof
of a disinterested love of science than the investigation

DECEMBER.

555

of other richer, arid more directly rewarding tribes."
At all events, if there be any thing worthy or exciting
in the perusal of any production of liuman genius, it
must be self-evident that there is something still more
worthy, more exciting, and of a purer nature too, in
the investigation of even the minutest emanation from
the wisdom and energy of the Divine mind. With
this 'sentiment, then, the botanist can satisfactorily
answer any contemner, if such there be, of his explor-
ing, innocent, and unambitious pursuit.

But now for a final glance at the out-of-door aspect
of the features of the waning year. For one brief
day December glooms subside — lines of white strati-
fied clouds are pillowed upon the horizon, and the sun
spreads forth his beams from a coerulean sky upon
leafless groves, sullen hills made rusty with the faded
brake, dull purple patches broken by the plough, and
wide green commons, whose hundred brimfull pools
without a weed upon the surface, gleam and sparkle
in the shadowy landscape, where the rays shift and
glance, and chase each other, as if exulting at their
temporary emancipation from the deep dungeon of
the rifted clouds. Some tracts, too, of vegetable
beauty appear, where the glossy ivy has encased a
lofty pear-tree, riven pollard willow, or —

" the moss-grown oak,

Tenacious of its leaves of russet brown."

Ivy indeed is the robe of honour with which time
loves to invest the objects that have become maimed
in his service, and aged trees thus covered stand out
in winter as "green-robed senators" glorious and
venerated in their decrepitude. So rapine and dese-
cration is hushed up and concealed by the enveloping

556 WILD FLOWERS OF

Ivy that covers the char of fire and the indentation
of rage, and the naked ruin that stood sullen with
desolation is taught to smile in romantic beauty with
ivy-mantled walls and turrets, inspiring only pleasing
or pensive thoughts — like some rankling injury that
religion and charity have combined to cover with good
deeds. Thus wherever the Ivy twines it conciliates
the past and effaces the memory of wrong, it gives a
pictorial grandeur to destruction which is a redeeming
feature in itself, and charms the fancv to be satisfied

V

with the present scene. A modern poet has well
depicted the honourable garb given to ruin by the
Ivy's ever verdant tapestry ! —

" Every where the torn and mouldering past
Hung with the Ivy. For Time, smit with honour
Of what he slew, cast his own mantle on him,
That none should mock the dead."*

The shrubbery, now, with spiry fir, dark pine, and
graceful cypress, looks refreshing to the eye, mixed
with the sienna-tinged foliage of the retentive beech,
while high in air, the round bushy mistletoe once
again exhibits its strange flaccid leaves, and white
mirth-inspiring berries reminding of the approach of
merrie Christmas. Here and there the orange-colour-
ed clustered berries of the bryouy deck the hedge,
and occasionally a deep - indented elder - tree, with
neglected umbels streaming in the air like the raven
tresses of some love-lorn and bewildered maniac dam-
sel. " Peep, peep, peep," rings in the ear, should we
approach the mossy edge of the dark frowning wood,
from a troop of little long - tailed " Mumruffins,"^
following their leader in gliding order among the
budding branches ; and in spots like this, the wild

* " The Roman," a Poem, t The Long-tailed Tit.— (Parus caudatus.^

DECEMBER. 557

Clematis or traveller's joy, often clusters, with its
white plumose seeds, as if all ready for a start at the
breaking-up.

Sometimes, even in the unnoticed lap of the dying
year, a few flowers of earth glisten before the almost
unconscious eye. They are either too early or too
late, and we take no note of them, for they fail to
awaken our sympathies. They may be like, they are
like — gifts to a dying man — success, when hope has
died away and cannot be awakened — like joys that
might once have charmed us in fancy's younger hours,
they now only mock the deadened heart steeled
by disappointment, and so encrusted by the rust of
care, that imagination finds no pulse to throb to its
appeal. The flowers of youth, the flowers of spring,
these are worth possessing; they inspire hope, they
promise joy, they picture love, they portray in their
fragrance and lustre beauty and happiness ; but the
flowers of winter are like the dregs of the bowl : who
cares to drink them ? — age may indeed " play with
flowers" in its second childhood, amidst misty and
fitful gleams of memory, but like the spoiled magnet
they attract no longer — the charm is gone, and no
bright vision wakens up, inspired by their contact.
To pluck an opening flower, to give or to ofier it at
the shrine of beauty, might once have thrilled the
soul to extacy ; but, from the shrivelled and benumbed
hand of age, who cares to pluck a flower, or who
exists to deem it worth while to present one —
take them away! — So the year fades with all its
"dreams of greatness," and withered leaves and
dead stalks, like prostrate hopes, are its appropriate
accompaniment.

558 WILD FLOWEKS OF

Yet notwithstanding all the desolation that may be
pictured or imagined to exist out-of-doors, it is not,
however, to be forgotten that

"The love-lit winter home,"

has peculiar charms at this period, and fortunately
the " Botanical Looker-Out," is licensed to glance at,
if not to mingle in, the pleasures of the season, when
he looks round and sees the market-place overspread
with glistening broad-leaved laurel; tortuous ivy,
glossy-leaved and black-berried ; holly, glorious,
secure, and long-enduring, with its curling spinous
leaves, and thick-clustered scarlet berries ; and boy
after boy, laden and overwhelmed beneath the weight
of toppling bushes of white-berried mistletoe. Still,
then, old customs endure ; there is a demand now for
evergreens at this season, as there ever has been, from
the days of the sylvan Druids, downwards — aye, and
"in the old times before them;" and yet, strange
to say, this poetical clinging to old observances
remains only in the middle, or, indeed, more exclu-
sively, in the lower classes of society. Perhaps the
Botanic Gar -den •, or the Botanical Register, with their
coloured plates, may adorn the drawing-rooms of the
wealthy cultivators of science, the green-house bou-
quet sparkle in the china vase, or hyacinths stud the
sideboard, in their coloured glasses : but the bright
holly, the green ivy, and the white-berried mistletoe,
with all their mirth-inspiring associations, are banished
to the hall, the kitchen, and the cottage. Here, and
in the song of the poet, they take their refuge ; and,
as even the symbol of mirth and enjoyment, charms
the mind, so the cottager, hoisting the old-remembered
evergreens, fondly fancies, that at the name of Christ-

DECEMBER. 559

mas, he is entitled to participate in that annual rejoic-
ing, which he has been taught angelic bands once
proclaimed to shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem,
and which, he, for his part, has no wish to forego.

"Glad Christmas comes, and every hearth

Makes room to give him welcome now;
E'en want will dry its tears hi mirth,
And crown him with a holly bough.

*

Each house is swept the day before,

And windows stuck with evergreens ;
The snow is besom'd from the door,

And comfort crowns the cottage scenes.

Gilt holly with its thorny pricks,

And yew, and box, with berries small,

These deck the unus'd candlesticks,
And pictures hanging by the wall." *

After all our looking-out, then, we must now look
in ; there the festal board, the cheerful fire, and the
recollections of past enjoyments in the fields and
woods, may reconcile us to our curtained pavilion ;
and the roar of the external storm, and the fierce
patter of the rain, shall only heighten the luxurious
felicity of our easy chair — for now, after many a
thoughtful pace of wood and lawn, and many a strug-
gle with the winds and clouds, by earliest dawn, at
noon, and dusky eve, our "web is wove," and nought
remains of leaf or flower, to tempt our further
movements ; —

" The fields that lately bloom'd and smil'd,
Are flowerless, desolate, and wild ;
Cold as Despair's unceasing tears,
And silent as departed years."

Here, then, we pause, in accordance with the plans

* CLARK.

560 WILD FLOWERS OF

of Nature, prepared to renew our explorations at a
future time ; for let it be borne in mind, that the
beauties of vegetable Creation can never be suffi-
ciently investigated at one transient view. In this
respect the wonder-working hand of Divine Provi-
dence is strikingly manifested to the botanist. Long
as he may reside at any particular spot, he will always
find somefresJi plant, year after year, presenting itself
to his notice, and, occasionally, so numerous will these
strangers appear, that he will feel the greatest sur-
prise that they could have escaped his observation
before — and yet, strange to say, years may again
elapse before they present themselves, and, perhaps,
in the same locality, never. This should be a hint to
the Botanical Explorator never to neglect gathering
an unknown plant the first time it is noticed, under
the deceptive hope that a more favourable opportunity
may occur. The investigation of Nature's vegetable
beauties has always in some degree the charm of
novelty for the enquirer, who sees the landscape under
every change of weather, and tracks the flower as well
in the gloomy tempest as the sunny gleam. Thus
the excursion awakens observation and opens the mind
to reflection, while the abstraction from care which
the scene bestows, exercises a poetical if not a hallow-
ed influence. As one well authenticated fact is worth
a hundred theories, so a curious observation, treasured
in the memory, will, in all probability, be more likely
to lead the mind to elaborate study and minute
investigation, than the mere statement of the laws of
vegetable organization laid down with dogmatical pre-
cision, or the enforcement of any peculiar system
loaded with harsh verbiage, painful and annoying to

DECEMBER. 561

the recollection. Hence I have rather aimed to direct
the student's attention in the first instance to the
fields of Nature in their novelty and beauty, implying
the after study of those objects, rather than to turn to
Nature after imbibing the systems of Man. Let us
be first pleased, and then instructed. Yet to system
we must turn at last, and as it is an object of impor-
tance in any study easily to ascertain the names of
the objects that come under examination, let the
student by all means take the Linnsean classification
for his primary guide, the facility here given to
naming plants being far greater than in any other, as
respects the Phanerogamious tribes.*

On this point it is needless to dilate further, for
although in the present day the "Natural System"
has been lauded to the skies as the most philosophical
method of ascertaining the properties and affinities of
plants, while the Linnaean has been proposed to be
only remembered as a system that has passed away, I
do not hesitate to declare that the humble collecting
Botanist, seeking chiefly for pleasure and delight, in
continually coming upon " some little document of
poetry in the blossomed hawthorn, the daisy, the cow-

* Let it be remembered that I have no wish to depreciate the Natural
System, which the professor and systematic botanist, with a life to devote
to the subject, must necessarily study — but I think few can master its
intricacies in the first instance without a sacrifice of time which every
lover of vegetable nature has not to spare, even if there was but one
accredited "Natural System," instead of every writer attempting changes
to fabricate something more to his own liking. As a case in point I may
remark that I once came in contact with a gentleman who had heard
lectures on the Natural System from learned Professors, and well under-
stood theoretic botany and vegetable physiology, but having become a
family man, he told me he wanted to inform his children the names of
the common wild flowers occurring by every hedge side, and felt himself
unable to do so. Under my advice he soon found the Linnaean system
a ready key.

2o

5(52 WILD FLOWERS OF

slip, the primrose, or some other simple object that
has received a supernatural value from the muse," * —
must be contented with the simpler references and
more practically useful appliances of the Linnaean;
— at least until he is familiar with the common vege-
table forms, or has the happiness to have abundant
time for closet botanical study and patient microsco-
pical investigation at his disposal. It has indeed
become usual with the advocates of Natural Systems
to assert strangely and inconsistently enough that
Linnsean botany leads only to a knowledge of names,
forgetting the heavy catalogue of names they them-
selves inflict upon the overloaded memory of the
student. The charge is most absurd, since the name
of a plant is a key that conducts to the various works
where a full description may be found of every thing
known concerning it. This is the primary thing
wanted, and as Dr. DRTJHMOKD has well remarked —
" to ascertain a plant when seen, and learn its scien-
tific appellation, is the very first and the most
important step to all botanical knowledge, and, in
leading to this, the system of Lonojus leaves every
other at an immeasurable distance." *

These reflections will prepare us for another bota-
nical campaign in the Spring, when we can once again
look out upon vegetable structures with renewed
activity ; the season now calls us to the timbered hall
of some old hospitable farm-house, where the spirits
of the grove shelter like ourselves in view of the
hearth's genial blaze ; for powdery snow noiselessly

* Sketch Book.

* Obsenwtions mi Natural Systems of Botany. By JAMES L. DRUM.

M.ONM), M.B., p. 49.

DECEMBER. 563

falling spangles the country far and wide, and the
frozen north revels in glittering uniformity.

" If aught remains of loveliness,
Of summer's charms in winter's dress,
'Tis in those lightsome shrubberies seen,
Where the young fir's undying green
Peeps out the cumbering snow between ;
'Tis in those laurels bright and bare
Shaking their stainless load in air ;
'Tis in those shining hollies found,
\Vith coral berries studded round;
And those proud oaks, upon whose breast
The saffron leaves still love to rest."

Looking out upon such a scene beneath a friend's
social sheltering roof, the bright evergreens on the
walls typifying the past and the present, wintry
glooms sink upon the face of nature unheeded, and
the Christmas feast slowly, joyously, yet pensively,
passes away.

Thus the country is shrouded from view in its
brumal winding-sheet, and beauteous as is the spec-
tacle of unstained universal snow coating meadow,
wood, and mountain to the far horizon, yet before a
cutting north-east wind drifting the powdery frozen
chrystals sharply along, all out-door botanical investi-
gation must cease. But if vegetation be hidden and
apparently dead, it is only to revive again ; and if our
investigations close with the year, they must revive
with another. December is indeed the RAMINTTDIAST
or BARE-BOUGH MONTH ; for we have watched the
budding verdant branches through a year of storm
and sunshine till they are denuded of every leaf. Yet
if we study their forms even now, and notice the
slightest of their sprays, incipient hopes yet appear,

•

501 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBEE.

and amidst the dark intertwining skeleton of ramifi-
cation, there is the rough outline that shall shape the
future picture of frondescence. Thought and hope
revives in like manner ; — the scenes we have pictured
and the rambles we have taken may seem for a time
to lose their colours and be bare as the December
bough, but awakened memory robes them again.

By mountain, haunted stream, or sacred grove, still
will our foot-steps stray as the vales are strewed with
flowerets or the seasons take their wonted round, nor
can storm or flood turn us from our purpose to mora-
lize along the cowslip-scented or leaf-strown path,
We have plucked roses in the sunny bower, " babbled
o' green fields" by the river's copsy brink, we have
whispered instruction on the lonely shore, and (start
not fair ones) murmured of love in the moonlit hazel
walk. Mowers may fade and summer-days may wane,
but the wreath we have here gathered is a perennial
one, that will revive month after month, in after
years, like the undying moss at the touch of moisture
whenever it is applied to at the proper season.
Our researches in the fields with nature will remain
then in the memory, ever ready to be appropriated
when the voice of Spring, or a sound or thought of
landscape poetry wakens exploration up again in our
minds.

Printed by BAILY & JONES, Cirencester.

t