PRESS MARK. 
 
 Press Letter 
 
 Shelf No 
 
 Back No
 

 
 Uram by S. Smith, from a Sketch ky E. Lot. 
 
 THE BLYAKGE STACK, 
 
 PtmbroktMrc, South Wala, 
 The Habitat of the Sea Mallow (Lavatera arborea).
 
 BOTANICAL LOOKER-OUT 
 
 AMONG THE 
 
 WILD FLOWERS 
 
 FIELDS, WOODS, AND MOUNTAINS, 
 
 OP r 
 
 ENGLAND AND WALES; 
 
 FORMING A FAMILIAR 
 
 MONTHLY GUIDE for the COLLECTING BOTANIST. 
 
 INTERSPERSED WITH 
 
 PICTORIAL GLANCES, BOTANIZING INCIDENTS, 
 
 AND NOTICES OF MANY 
 
 REMARKABLE LOCALITIES OF THE RARER AND MOST 
 INTERESTING ENGLISH AND WELSH PLANTS. 
 
 BY EDWIN LEES, F.L.S., 
 
 FELLOW OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, OF THE BOTANICAL 
 
 SOCIETY OF LONDON, ETC., FORMERLY HONORARY CURATOR OF 
 
 THE WORCESTERSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
 
 " Hours of relaxation so agreeably employed in Botanical 
 
 Rambles, with a numerous train of friends, then ardent and curious like 
 myself." &R J. E. SMITH, IN ENGLISH BOTANY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 TILT AND BOGUE, FLE ET- STREET; 
 
 AND 
 
 H. DAVIES, CHELTENHAM. 
 
 1842.
 
 " The only way to become Naturalists, in the most pleasing 
 sense of the term, is to observe the habits of the plants and ani- 
 mals 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 every-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 some- 
 thing 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 culti- 
 vated ground ; and in all kinds of weather and all seasons of the 
 year, Nature is open to our enquiry.'' 
 
 THE BRITISH NATURALIST.
 
 TO THOSE 
 
 FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS 
 
 WITH WHOM I HAVE ENJOYED 
 
 THE DELIGHTS 
 OP 
 
 BOTANICAL EXPLORATION 
 
 IN MANY AN EXCURSION, 
 FREE FROM THE PETTY FEELINGS 
 
 OF ENVY AND JEALOUSY 
 KNOWN ONLY TO LITTLE MINDS, 
 
 AND WHO WILL UNDERSTAND THE FEELINGS 
 WITH WHICH THIS VOLUME WAS WRITTEN, 
 
 IT IS NOW INSCRIBED 
 
 AS A MEMORIAL 
 
 OF PAST JOYS. 
 
 2090838
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I WILL admit in limine that I am not here writing to 
 instruct the professional student of Botany. Neither 
 do I aim to surprise my brother botanists by any new 
 arrangements in classification or discoveries in phy- 
 siology. 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 compre- 
 hend the sources of ray pleasure, and could not under- 
 stand on what principle I could experience delight in 
 making long journies, and taking fatiguing rambles,
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 merely in search of plants. On the other 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 understandings, 
 open to all the charms which the beauties of external 
 nature ever exercises upon sensitive minds who, per- 
 haps, fully understood the motions and orbits of the 
 planets, and knew their relative distances, their satel- 
 lites, and their atmospheres, and could even speculate 
 on the constitution of their inhabitants, while the 
 plants beneath their feet, on their own earth, were 
 unknown and almost entirely unregarded. Thus fully 
 realizing the old fable of the Grecian sages, who jour- 
 neyed to the moon, and returned 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 enjoy- 
 ment 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 occupa-
 
 PREFACE. VU 
 
 tion ; 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 while the stores of his col- 
 lecting-book will make " a wet day at an inn" very 
 different from "the wet day" so graphically de- 
 scribed 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 
 persons 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."
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 1 
 
 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 
 
 " Beneath 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 en- 
 quirer, 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. 
 
 It may be necessary to say, that this Work ap- 
 peared originally in detached pieces, in the pages of 
 the Cheltenham Looker- On, whence, without authority, 
 several articles were copied into London and Pro- 
 
 * Wordsworth.
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 vincial Periodicals. This spoliation seemed to imply 
 something worth taking, and hence I have revised, 
 corrected, and greatly enlarged the original papers, as 
 well as added others; and placed them as they now 
 appear, in the hope that they may incite many, who 
 may have leisure to do so, to commence botanical 
 rambles, and find the same enjoyment in them that I 
 have done. Science, poetry, and adventure, may all 
 be united in the investigation of the " garniture of 
 fields." 
 
 FORTHAMPTON COTTAGE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 
 
 May, 1840.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 1 Pages of landscape, tree, and flower, and brook." CLARK. 
 
 JANUARY. CHAP. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION Flowers in their relations to the Human 
 Race First aspect of the Year Evergreens Ivy and 
 Holly contrasted Natural History of the Mistletoe 
 Its stations on various Trees I 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Trees upset by the gales Localities of remarkable Yew 
 Trees Yew-in-the-Oak Groundsel, Dead Nettle, &c. 
 Stocking Gorse Aspect of Nature 24 
 
 FEBRUARY. CHAP. III. 
 
 Various Tints of Buds and Twigs in the Sunbeams Bril- 
 liant effects of a Frozen Shower Dandelion, Veronica, 
 Daisy Mosses in perfection of beauty Hellebore, 
 Periwinkle Sudden Snowstorm 33 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The awakening of Spring in the Country and the City Ap- 
 pearance of Gelatinous Fungi Miseries of a Thaw 
 Snowdrops 41 
 
 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 . . 49
 
 Xll . CONTENDS. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vernal Indications Various species of Violets Golden 
 Saxifrage, Tuberous Moschatel, White and Yellow Awl- 
 worts Daffodils and Sallows Windflower . . . . . . . . 57 
 
 APRIL. CHAP. VII. 
 
 An April Morning Primroses Dog-Violets, Anemones, &c. 
 Butterbur and Toothwort Celandines, Orchis, Cuckoo- 
 Flowers Migratory Birds of Spring Flowers of the 
 Wood Adornments of the Garden Denizens of a rus- 
 tic one 68 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Leafage of the Trees Willow, Sycamore, Elm, Pear Flow- 
 ering Orchards The Cowslip Marsh-Marigold, Blue- 
 bell, and other Flowers Account of the Arum Closing 
 
 Storm 81 
 
 MAY. CHAP. IX. 
 
 Seasonal Variations in the Flowering of Plants Six Flow- 
 ering periods described in detail, the Primaveral, Vernal, 
 Solstitial, yEstival, Autumnal, and Hibernal 93 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Scientific and Poetical Floral Influences Scenes of past 
 Wanderings May Flowers on the Welsh Mountains 
 and Cotswold Hills Dandelion and other Field Flowers 
 Hawthorn Horse-chesnut and other Forest Trees . . 105 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The Bonny 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 . 116
 
 CONTENTS. X1U 
 
 JUNE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Excitement to Botanical Wandering Habitats of Plants 
 those df the Bog, Wood, Meadow, and River-side Ro- 
 mantic Cliffs of the Wye Plants of the Sandy Beach 
 and Maritime Rocks Description of the principal 
 British Ferns Scene in Glyii Clydach with the Lady 
 
 Ferns 129 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Flowery Similies the Poppy announces the approach of the 
 Solstitial Flora the Yellow Iris, and other attendant 
 Flowers Grasses Legendary and Botanical account 
 of the Rose its Species and Varieties Symbols and 
 Sentiments connected with the subject 145 
 
 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 of Plants Influence of Lime-stone Pimper- 
 nel and other Meteoric Flowers 156 
 
 JULY. CHAP. XV. 
 
 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 Plants growing on Ruins Adventure 
 
 at Oystermouth 173 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 " Furrow-Weeds " and Brambles History and Economy 
 of the latter Poppy, Campion, and other Corn Flowers 
 Indications of the decline of the ^Estival Flora Ac- 
 count of the Nettle Evening in a Garden 1 86
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 AUGUST. CHAP. XVII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Love of Adventure inherent in Man his equal devotion to 
 the Love of Nature Pleasures of Botanical Hunting, 
 with an episodical storm at Lake Lynsavaddon Cha- 
 racteristic Water Plants White Water Lily, Lotos, 
 and Victoria Regina Contrasted aspect of the Hydro- 
 charis ...,,...,. ,.. 199 
 
 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 Toppling 
 Rocks Windy Adventure at Aberystwith Sunset .... 212 
 
 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 Moun- 
 tain Habitats Various Bell Flowers Rushes Flow- 
 ers of declining Summer Sunset on the Skirrid Vawr. . 227 
 
 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 Moun- 
 tain above Llantony Abbey Autumnal Landscape 
 Characteristic Flora of September the Parnassia Pa- 
 lustris Evening Prospect from the Litttle Skirrid .... 241 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Reflections awakened by a glance at the wilder tracts of 
 Flora's dominion Scene changed, and " at home " in. 
 the Garden Dahlias, Hollyhocks, and Sunflowers, with
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 their Associations Hydrangia, Chinese Aster, &c. 
 Adonis Autumnalis Smelling a Geranium Poetical 
 Ideas emanating from Flowers . . 255 
 
 OCTOBER. CHAP. XXII. 
 
 Autumnal Weather favourable for Exploration Adventure 
 at Maentwrog, Merionethshire Falls of Festiniog a 
 Breakdown Ascent of Snowdon Plants gathered on 
 its lofty Rocks A truce to Wandering 271 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Excursion to the Botanic Garden of Snowdonia Plants on 
 the Ravines and Rocks Fearful ledge above Llyn Idwal 
 A Contemplative Day on the Sea Shore Autumnal 
 Maritime Plants Sea-Side Sketch Search on Brean 
 Down for the White Mountain Cistus 284 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 A look ont upon the sere and yellow Leaf Reflections on a 
 Foggy Morning Colours assumed by the foliage of 
 Forest Trees Chemical suggestions on this Phenome- 
 non Mournful Aspect of Nature Superstitions apper- 
 taining to Groves and Trees Last glance at Floral 
 Beauty Ivy, Arbutus, &c. Farewell to Summer. . . . 297 
 
 NOVEMBER. CHAP. XXV. 
 
 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 Phe- 
 nomena Rapid growth of the Mushroom, and derivable 
 Similes . 313
 
 XVi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 FACE 
 
 Description of the Lichens their Aspect on Rocks and 
 Ruins- --Effect of Moisture on them, and their general 
 Economy Characteristic Notices of the different Fami- 
 lies Excursions to the Rocks where they abound .... 327 
 
 DECEMBER. CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 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 His- 
 tory and Distribution 348 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 Last Look-out upon the Aspect of Vegetation Appearance 
 and Economy of the Jungermanniae a December Morn- 
 ing Similies appertaining to lingering Flowers Ever- 
 greens of the Season Concluding Reflections " Give 
 me those Flowers." . 362
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 CHAP. i. 
 
 INTRODUCTION FLOWERS IN THEIR RELATIONS TQ 
 
 THE HUMAN RACE FIRST ASPECT OF THE TEAR 
 
 EVERGREENS IVY AND HOLLY CONTRASTED NATU- 
 RAL HISTORY OF THE MISTLETOE ITS STATIONS ON 
 
 VARIOUS TREES. 
 
 " 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." 
 
 E. COOKE. 
 
 GROVES, GARDENS, AND WILD-FLOWERS on 
 these blissful concomitants of the country we pur- 
 pose 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 exhibits 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
 
 2 WILD FLOWKRS OF JANUARY. 
 
 floral wreath we now 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 sometimes erratic, we 
 still hope to tempt the lovers of nature to join us 
 in our pilgrimage, while our indications will, at all 
 times, be useful to thf practical botanist, in what- 
 ever part of the year our pages may be consulted. 
 
 Flowers 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, aiul 
 flower*!"* 
 
 So we may trace them in idea as decking and adorning 
 every path of life on the brow of the smiling bride 
 in the path of the conqueror in the last sad grasp 
 of the withered senior and brought of old as an em- 
 blematical offering to the altars of the gods. 
 
 " Floribus et vino Genium mcmorera brevis aevi."-f 
 
 So to the Genius of the changing hours, 
 
 Mindful of life's short date, they offered wine andyfotcer*. 
 
 But the more particular aspect of the first month 
 of the year now claims to be examined and recorded, 
 although, perhaps, an uninitiated enquirer might ask 
 What, by any possibility, can the botanical explo- 
 rator do in the month of January ? All the dull, 
 gloomy, and horrific epithets language can furnish 
 
 * Janes Montgomery. t Horace, Epist. lib. ii. 1. 144.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 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 
 prophesy (without Murphy's aid) that it will be there 
 before the month has reached its termination. But 
 surely something may even now be looked at ; and 
 most certainly, if evergreens are ever beautiful, it must 
 be at this denuded season, when their aid in the shrub- 
 bery and the landscape is the only redeeming feature 
 that presents itself. Hence the evergreens now so 
 prominently visible in gardens and plantations, have 
 been thus allegorically distributed in the following 
 lines of a poem consecrated to this early portion of 
 the reign of two-faced Janus 
 
 " O'er the lover 
 
 I'll shake the berry'd missletoe, 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 
 B2
 
 4 WILD FLOWERS OF JANIIART. 
 
 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 requires experimental illustration, 
 and therefore I shall now say no more about it, than 
 that I have just been taking a cursory view of a very 
 fine speci-men, to which I took the opportunity of 
 escorting a fair maiden to expound a first botanical 
 lesson, which I have some faint hope may remain for 
 a season imprinted on her recollection. But let me 
 say a word about ivy, 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 luxu- 
 riance. Notwithstanding its green aspect about trees 
 and buildings at a season when every leaf is an acqui- 
 sition, 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 ?" 
 
 * Christmas ; a Masque for the Fire Side.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 5 
 
 "Owr 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. 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 ROW retain the bush only, 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 : 
 
 " $?0tly atrtr \)# merry men fl)cg &aiujm atrtf thru tfjwg, 
 3E6y anft fjur magttcnud tficjj tocjpjjn airtr tfjrii Jnryujj." 
 
 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, 
 rather feel inclined to say to this too fraternal hugger-^-
 
 6 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 " Paws off! " It is said by herbalists that a decoction 
 of the leaves or berries applied to the forehead gives 
 ease in the head-ache, and hence the propriety of the 
 appropriation of ivy to wreath the brows of bacchanals, 
 who are charitably supposed to require such a bandage : 
 but in modern practice the " fronde coronal " is super- 
 seded 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 unappropriately. 
 
 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 interest 
 that are alike noticed by the clown and the philo- 
 sopher ; and attracts the attention of the meditative 
 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."
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 7 
 
 Tl*e decorative effect of our domestic hearths garlanded 
 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 
 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 mystic rites of the mistletoe, deprecates 
 any unseasonable resistance on the part of ladies takea 
 
 * Matth. Comm. in Uioscoride*.
 
 8 WILt) FLOWERS OP JANUARY. 
 
 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-maidenism. It appears 
 that the berries of the plant alone constituted its pri- 
 vilege ; 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. 
 
 " One single berry yet remains 
 
 Untouch'd by rude and vulgar swains ; 
 By all unpluck'd, it seems to say 
 Whate'er has passed 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 growth. It is always 
 found growing upon and imbibing its support from the 
 juices of some tree ; it has never been met with 
 attached to earth, nor can any treatment induce it to 
 grow there. It is, therefore, termed by analogy a 
 parasite ; but a vegetable parasite is somewhat dif- 
 ferent 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 Shakspeare 
 denominates parasites as 
 
 " Moat 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 hold
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 till death. Epiphytes are very common among veget- 
 ables, the greater number of the Lichen tribe being so, 
 as well as many of the fungi ; but it is rather uncom- 
 mon to find a true parasite, the epiphytes only living 
 upon other plants as a nidus, and not deriving sub- 
 sistence from them as is the case with the mistletoe. 
 
 Some have considered the ivy to be a parasite, tho' in 
 reality 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 ofHciousness 
 sooner than deprive themselves of the pleasure of your 
 company. The Orobancheee, the Lathrcea squamaria, 
 and the Listera Nidus-avis, have all been considered 
 parasites, but in fact they only seem to shelter them- 
 selves among the roots of trees as a secure asylum, 
 their very nature demanding shade and obscurity. 
 But the nodular masses of matter replete with juices 
 at the base of Orobanche major, the succulent scales 
 from which the Lathrcea springs, and the nidiform 
 bulbs of the Listera, all denote that these plants, how- 
 ever suspicious their nature, require no foreign pro- 
 vision for their sustentation. It is very different with 
 the mistletoe, and apparently also with a little local 
 phenogamous plant, called Dodder (Cuscuta), which 
 are, perhaps, the only true parasites among flowering 
 plants known in Britain. The Boleti, PoJypori, 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 diaecious 
 plant, of which the females seem to be by far the most 
 numerous, producing from their tetrandrous corolla
 
 10 WILD FLOWERS OP JANUARY. 
 
 and inferior ovary, a white globular viscid berry of 
 one cell, containing one seed. The embryo is dicoty- 
 ledonous, 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 diaecious> 
 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 nutri- 
 ment to the young plants till they have penetrated 
 with their sucker-like radicles, which are devoid of 
 fibrills, into the sap-wood of the tree. As the 
 mistletoe derives no nutriment from the earth, and 
 has therefore no necessity to fall to the ground, its 
 dissemination is wisely entrusted to birds, who are 
 tempted to feed on its white berries when other sup- 
 plies 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP JANUARV. 11 
 
 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 bene- 
 fitted 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 redwings; 
 and as these generally fly in flocks, keeping in one 
 line of direction, it is not unusual to see a correspond- 
 ing 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 con- 
 tinued from the nearest tree that presented itself on 
 the opposite side of the water. I remember once 
 observing a long line of hedge overtopped by strag* 
 gling 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 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 developes itself, the radicles penetrate 
 no farther than the sap-wood. The mistletoe, there- 
 fore, seems only to act the part of a pseudo-bud upon 
 
 * Perhaps where the mistletoe is searce, 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 belong- 
 ing to the thrush family. See Analyst, vol. 2, where there are remarks 
 on the mistletoe, by Drs. Davies and Streeten.
 
 12 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 the tree, no doubt extracting from it nourishment that 
 would have developed a large branch, but not doing 
 material mischief, unless 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 dichotomization 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 ach 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 " frig ore viscum,"* the wintry mistle- 
 toe. 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 of the 
 descent of the sap in trees before winter, and its dor- 
 mant state in that season ; for if it were so, how could 
 the parasitical mistletoe, which derives its subsistence 
 entirely from the imbibition of the juices of the tree 
 on which it is found, flourish as it does in winter, if 
 
 * Virg. jn., lib. vi., 206.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 13 
 
 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 con- 
 trives 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 analagous 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-yach, all-heal,^ and distri- 
 buted at certain times with remarkable solemnities as 
 a precious gift. " When the end of the year ap- 
 proached, 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 
 these words : The new year is at hand, gather the 
 mistletoe/ 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 
 
 * 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 uil-icem-h."
 
 14 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 never been yoked were then brought forth and offered 
 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 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 Davies, 
 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 Burnet says, that the curious basket 
 of garlands with which " Jack-in-the-Green" is occa- 
 sionally 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 
 
 * 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.
 
 WILD FLOWKRS OP JANUARV. 15 
 
 tune of " Hey derry down, down down derry," which 
 literally signified In a circle move we round the oak. 
 Whether the Druids really capered about to the tune 
 of " Derry down," as stated by the learned professor,* 
 I shall leave to Carabro- Britons, and bards interested 
 in the matter to decide at their leisure. There are 
 certainly oak woods in Monmouthshire still called 
 " the Derry ," and Ovid, at any rate, affirms that the 
 Druids used to sing to the mistletoe. 
 
 " Ad viscum Druidse cantare solebant." 
 
 Fosbrooke thus details the ceremony, perhaps how- 
 ever amplyfying 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 ; after- 
 wards came a herald, the caduceus in his hand, fol- 
 lowed by three Druids, who walked in front, carrying 
 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 
 veneration for the number three, and as the berries of 
 the mistletoe may be often found clustered in threes, 
 this may probably have enhanced their esteem for the 
 " celestial plant." 
 
 * Armenitas Querniio. 
 
 t Sacerdos, canaida veste cultus, arborem scandit : falce aurea demetit . 
 PLIN. HIST. NAT. LIB. xvi., cap. 44. 
 
 t Fosbroke'g Kucy. of Antiquities, 4to vol. ii., p. 74!>.
 
 16 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY'. 
 
 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. 
 
 ON THE APPLE extremely abundant ; and why it 
 is so 1 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. 
 
 SYCAMORE, (Acer Pseudo-platanus) scarce. 
 
 A fine old tree with much mistletoe upon the 
 under sides of the branches, may be seen on 
 Lansdowne, Cheltenham, by the side of the 
 Gloucester Road, pointed out to me by Mr. 
 J. Buckman, a very observant botanist of 
 that place. 
 
 MAPLE, (Acer campestre) not unfrequent. 
 
 MOUNTAIN ASH very uncommon. In the 
 
 vicinity of Ledbury, and about the Malvern 
 hills.
 
 WILD FtOWERS OF JANUARY, 17 
 
 ON THK WHITE BEAM, (Pyrus Aria) unfrequent ; 
 but on the rocks, near the western portal of 
 Chepstow Castle, is a fine tree with much 
 mistletoe upon it. Also on the Cotswolds. 
 
 . ..... HAZEL of very rare occurrence, and 
 
 esteemed by the Druids next to that on the oak. 
 
 ELM in one locality only, near Bushley 
 
 Park Farm, in the vicinity of Tewkesbury. 
 
 RoBiNiA-PsEUD- ACACIA local; though in 
 
 shrubberies in Worcestershire I have several 
 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 Forth- 
 
 ampton, 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 Worcester- 
 shire, as literally to bend some of the trees 
 towards the ground ; yet on old poplars 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 
 c
 
 18 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 this country, perhaps upwards of one thousand years, 
 old, not one has mistletoe upon them. Even the Rev. 
 W. Davies, in his Flora of Anglesea, once the head 
 quarters of druidism, is unable to mention a single 
 locality where the mistletoe now grows there.* A 
 few years ago I had a long ramble in Surrey after the 
 mistletoe of the oak. Being in London, an enthusi- 
 astic friend came to me one day and said, exultingly, 
 that he had just heard that the mistletoe had been 
 seen on an oak at Bookham Common, and that in the 
 woods of Surrey it was not uncommon. The next 
 morning off we started over bush, brake, and scaur ; 
 and 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/ At last, however, on June 
 the 7th, 1837, I was fortunate enough to behold a 
 young oak, about seventy or eighty years old, with 
 four fine bushes of mistletoe growing upon it, in Earl 
 Somers's park, at Eastnor, near Ledbury, on the side 
 of an old British road, at the western base of the Mai- 
 vern hills, called " the Ridgway ;" but on the strictest 
 enquiry and examination, among natural oak woods 
 there of more than three 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 London's Magazine of Natural 
 
 * The island of Anglesea is taken to be one of their (the Druids) chief- 
 est seats in Britain, because it was a solitary island full of wood, and not 
 inhabited of any but themselves ; and then the isle of Mum; which is 
 called Anglesea, was called yr Inys Dotcyll, that is the Dark Island. 
 And after that the Drudion were supprest, the huge groves which they 
 favoured and kept a-foot, were rooted up, and that ground tilled. 
 To LAND, HIST. DRUIDS, 222.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 19 
 
 History (vol. 5, p. 203), that he once saw the Mistle- 
 toe growing well upon the oak, " and what is more 
 singular, hanging almost over a very grand druidical 
 cromlech," in the Marquis of Ariglesea's park at Plas 
 Newydd, in the island of Anglesea. 
 
 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 Loranthus Europteus 
 was the real druidical plant, which is an untenable 
 opinion the Loranthus, though common on the con- 
 tinent, having never been seen wild in Britain in the 
 present day. 
 
 No author that I have met with gives any satifac- 
 tory solution as to how the term mistletoe has arisen, 
 though German and Danish have been brought for- 
 ward for the purpose.* But I think I can give the 
 etymology without going so far. Now there is an 
 obsolete old English word called mistion, which is em- 
 ployed even in the writings of Boyle ; and this is 
 denned in Dr. Johnson's original folio edition of his 
 Dictionary, as " the state of being mingled.'' Now this 
 is truly the state 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 
 
 * See Withering's Bott. Arr. in loc., and Loudoa's elaborate Arboretum 
 Britunnicum. 
 
 c2
 
 20 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 English tod or toe, signifying bush, we have at once 
 the derivation meaning the mingled or compound 
 bush. 
 
 Anciently, as we have seen, the mistletoe was con- 
 sidered a remedy for ALL diseases ! The older medical 
 writers, however, regarded it as ministering chiefly to 
 fertility and parturition, thus, in fact, continuing in 
 part the old superstition ; and it is also said to have 
 been worn as an amulet against poisons. Ray men- 
 tions it as a specific in epilepsy,* and as useful in 
 apoplexy and giddiness ; and Sir John Colbatch pub- 
 lished a " Dissertation concerning the Mistletoe, a 
 most wonderful specifick remedy for the cure of con- 
 vulsive 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 
 of its growth would be of little consequence, incre- 
 dulity 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. 
 Woodville in the " Medical Botany," whatever may 
 be yet argued in its favour, " the colleges of London 
 and Edinburgh have, perhaps not without reason, 
 
 * Rail Syn. 464. 
 t English Flora, vol. iv. p. 237.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 21 
 
 expunged it from their catalogues of the materia 
 medica." 
 
 The mistletoe seems still, however, to maintain a 
 precarious place in rustic empirical practice. I asked 
 a farmer, who lives in the neighbourhood of my resi- 
 dence, a short time since, what he knew on the sub- 
 ject ; and he said that the mistletoe of the oak, when 
 it could be met with, was a capital thing for a sick 
 cow! but especially 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 i-ts 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 simi- 
 lar to Indian rubber, for its sap is viscid as well as 
 the berries, which were formerly used to make bird- 
 lime, whence the latin appellation viscum. 
 
 I shall now close this account, which I have takea 
 the license of the season to treat in a diversified man- 
 ner, with the following lines addressed to that identi- 
 cal mistletoe-adorned oak, which I before adverted to 
 as still existing in Eastnor Park, a short distance 
 from Ledbury.
 
 22 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARt. 
 
 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 inoviits to the summit, the leaves flagging down, 
 
 And thou standest a king with thy magical crown. 
 
 But tell me what hand, in the silence of night, 
 
 Array'd thy tall stem for the mystical rite ? 
 
 And tell me, how long a meet subject for story, 
 
 King of all thy compeers, thou hast stood in 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 ; 
 And no white-rob'd priests shall thy honours proclaim 
 No chieftains surround thee with joyous acclaim. 
 
 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 their lineage, and honouring thee. 
 
 And now thou art nothing ! the clouds from the bill 
 Roll o'er thee, and leave thee regardlessly still ; 
 And the deep mound above thee-f no longer displays 
 To the blue-painted Briton the beacon's red blaze. 
 
 * During the last summer (1840), I had again the felicity of looking up 
 with druidical feelings at this botanical curiosity, in company with a 
 fellow wanderer of " auld lang 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, ingloriously, to attain our 
 object with turfy and cloddy missiles, and in the encouuter, accident, or 
 the wounded dryad of the tree, stove in the crown of my friend's hat 
 with a recoiling clod ! 
 
 t The fortress on the Herefordshire Beacon, Malvern Hills; which is 
 supposed by Dr. Card, Vicar of Great Malvern, in a learned treatise on 
 this camp-hill, to have been once occupied by Caractacus
 
 'WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 23 
 
 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' offspring now linger'd before 
 
 Thy trunk, upward gazing, I could not feel more ! 
 
 His glories are past ! the same fatal decree 
 
 Leaves now undistinguish'd thy once divine tree : 
 
 A spirit hurries o'er its 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 1
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY* 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 TREES UPSET BY THE GALES LOCALITIES OF REMARK- 
 ABLE YEW-TREES YEW-lN-THE-OAK GROUNDSEL, 
 
 DEAD-NETTLE, &C. STOCKING GORSK ASPECT OF 
 
 NATURE. 
 
 " Oh ! happy they who shun the strife 
 
 Of pride and passion's hours ; 
 
 And glide along the calms of life, 
 
 Like me dispensing flowers !" 
 
 J. K. HERVEY^ 
 
 IT may, pfcrhaps> be considered somewhat difficult 
 to " dispense flowers" literally in Britain during the 
 month of January ; but the botanist, who really looks 
 out instead of snoozing half the morning away between 
 snug warm sheets, hugging himself in fancied security 
 as he hears the stormy blast blustering without, and 
 shivering at the frosty finger-marks of Old Winter 
 upon the windows, may always find some> aye, even 
 at this dull period, called in the " Calendarium Na- 
 turale" NIVALIS or the SNOWING-TIME, when, says 
 Forster, " the weather is on an average of years cold, 
 and the snow often falling or lying upon the ground.'* 
 No doubt about it, and we'll venture to back Forster's 
 assertion to any amount, let Murphy, or any other 
 " Weather-prophet " guess what they like or dare 
 about the matter. Of late years fearful gales have
 
 WILD FLOWERS 0V JANUARY. 25 
 
 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 destruction 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 east- 
 ward, thus showing that the gale has blown from the 
 opposite quarter. It is remarkable that when a fruit 
 tree has been thus placed apparently hors de combat, 
 if it survives the shock, it becomes more luxuriant and 
 flourishing, 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 be- 
 ing blown down, but not so the rigid church-yard 
 yew, which once fallen, can rise no more. There it 
 is, laid prone in the dust by the midnight hurricane, 
 after a warfare with the 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 growing solitary, although 
 a diaecious tree ; and in winter and early spring its 
 funereal boughs appear in moody state very conspicu- 
 ous amidst its deciduous brethren in the forest. 
 Sometimes the yew is met with in greater quantity 
 than usual, as in the wood on the basaltic hill of Are- 
 ley, Staffordshire, where its sombre branches over-
 
 26 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 shadow a babbling 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 recollec- 
 tions. 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 
 wandered with soothing influence about my sylvan 
 cell. Many of the Welsh and Monmouthshire church- 
 yards are black with a multiplicity of yew trees; for 
 instance, that of Mahmilade, between Abergavenny 
 and Pontipool, which has twelve or thirteen, several 
 most luxuriantly cinctured with ivy, and one, whose 
 monstrous bole is thirty feet seven inches in circum- 
 ference. The Llanfoist yew, in the same county, is a 
 noble tree ; and in the churchyard of Mallwyd, near 
 Dinas Mowddy, Merionethshire, are several singular 
 time-honoured individuals with excessively distended 
 branches, spreading forty feet from the bole on every 
 side, in singularly gloomy grandeur. One of the 
 islands in the lake of Loch Lomond is stated to bear 
 a wood of several thousand yews, a circumstance, per- 
 haps, unparallelled in Europe. The yew occasionally 
 presents itself in very curious positions, from its
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 27 
 
 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 is now 
 growing within an oak near Ribbesford, Worcester- 
 shire ; and from its size and the wrenching power it 
 has exerted upon the broken trunk of its sustainer, 
 has evidently grown there for a period exceeding a 
 century. The intertwining of the contrasting foliage 
 of the two trees has a most remarkable effect. The 
 ordnance surveyors have even recorded the circum- 
 stance, and " the yew-in-the-oak " appears marked in 
 their map. 
 
 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 
 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 fSenecio vulgarisj , like all 
 those of the Linnsean class Syngenesia to which it be- 
 longs, 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, be- 
 comes a pericarp or seed-vessel, surrounded with a
 
 $8 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 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 re- 
 present. 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 herb alone, 
 preserved in a syrup, 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 purpureum}, 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, hope is not quite extinct. And last 
 of all, somewhere or other, the Prickly Furze (Ulex 
 Europsus), with its bright yellow clusters often glazed 
 with the hoar frost, and daring a touch from any in- 
 truding finger, marks with one remand of beauty the 
 else desolate and cheerless waste.
 
 WILD FLOW*RS OF JANUARY. 29 
 
 " It is bristled with thorns, I confess, 
 
 But so is the much-flattered Rose ; 
 Is the sweetbriar lauded the less 
 
 Because among prickles it grows ? 
 'Twere to cut off an epigram's point, 
 
 Or dis-furnish 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 Gorse 
 a thorn less, except stern destiny insert one in his 
 fingers or toes. We well remember a rough 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 suf- 
 fered considerable diminution from enclosures in all 
 directions, we conclude there is little 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 suppose, 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-
 
 30 WILD FLOWEKS OP JANUARY. 
 
 sented to the notice of a student^f 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 calm and brilliant as summer, and the 
 Missel Thrush keeps ceaselessly singing ; or in 
 sterner mood, blasts bellow among the hollows of the 
 mountains, clouds scud before the western gale, 
 vapours majestically stalk like phantoms over the dis- 
 tant 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.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 31 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR JANUARY. 
 
 THE practical Botanist need not be idle in fine weather, 
 even at this seemingly ungenial season; for Cryptogamic 
 vegetation is now in its highest perfection among several 
 tribes. Rocks, and gloomy pattering spots among trees, 
 should now be examined for the minute but exquisitely 
 beautiful and curious Jungermannice, many of whose 
 matured thecas may be perceived in perfection. These, 
 if collected in a semi-expanded state, may, by the applica- 
 tion 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 chain-like 
 processes, the use of which has not been determined. I, 
 however, conceive them to be intended to scatter the 
 sporules from the theca by their violent contraction and 
 dilatation at the time it unfolds, which may be thus exem- 
 plified: 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 irrita- 
 tion thus occasioned by the light appears to cause a violent 
 contraction 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
 
 32 WILD FLOWERS OF JANUARY. 
 
 the most dreadful agonies, and combating each other with 
 immitigable 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 soli- 
 tudes, 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 any distance 
 of time, when exposed to the external atmosphere.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 VARIOUS TINTS OF BUDS AND TWIGS IN THE SUN- 
 BEAMS BRILLIANT EFFECTS OF A FROZEN SHOWER 
 
 DANDELION, VERONICA, DAIST MOSSES IN PER- 
 FECTION OP BEAUTY HELLEBORE, PERIWINKLE 
 
 SUDDEN SNOWSTORM. 
 
 " 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 nubila 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 coines. 
 The budding of deciduous trees never appears to better 
 perfection than in this month, and the various divan? 
 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, arid his horizontal beams light 
 
 D
 
 34 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 up the groves and trees, what vivid tints rise as by 
 enchantment at the heads and extremities of the 
 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 presents its buds of pale green ; the still 
 paler catkins of the Birch are seen amidst its quiver- 
 ing branches and silver stems ; in dark array the digi- 
 tated polished buds of the Witch 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 envelop 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 spieulse 
 falls about on all sides, scaring the chattering Field- 
 fares 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF PBBRUARY. 35 
 
 nook where " folly is shut out," and yet where the 
 warm sunbeams penetrate to and cheer us after a long 
 perambulation along the hill-side, over crisp brown 
 brakes and 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 overhead 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 faintly glim- 
 mering pool and swamps below, the sable bird " with 
 orange-tawny bill," is whistling his cadences to 
 hasten on Spring from amongst the yet unexpauded 
 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 blue-eyed 
 Veronica (either Po'ita or HederifoliaJ , languidly 
 opens her azure blossom, and a band 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. A 
 favourite with us as with Dryden, and the father of 
 English poetry, we cannot resist a few verses on it as 
 thus displayed the earliest among Flora's piimavera} 
 train.
 
 36 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 THE DAISY. 
 
 " Of ali flouria the floure." 
 
 CHAUCER. 
 
 No sooner does the sun appear 
 
 From out the vapours hazy, 
 Thau, first bright offering to the year, 
 
 Expands the little Daisy. 
 
 While fogs are dense, and winds are bleak, 
 Safe hous'd and shut up, stays-he ; 
 
 And will not blanch his crimson cheek ; 
 Too tender is the Daisy. 
 
 Yet, should the suu but venture out, 
 In splendour on his gaze, he 
 
 In smirking silver turns about 
 A courtier is the Daisy ! 
 
 The sun withdraws his radiant fires, 
 
 To tarry would be crazy ; 
 So quick the wary flower retires 
 
 A mimic is the Daisy ! 
 
 Up with the sun, his petals spread, 
 
 In plenitude of rays, he 
 Gathers them up, and nods to bed, 
 
 A sleeper is the Daisy t 
 
 Thus truly called the " eye of day," 
 His course alternate, stays-he ; 
 
 Sleeps till his curtains catch the ray 
 Of morn and opes the Daysie ! 
 
 Ah ! thus a lesson may be gain'd 
 
 Unthought of by the lazy ; 
 Make speed while light can be obtain'd, 
 
 Just like the red-ting'd Daisy t
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARYS 37 
 
 It is hardly worth while to look at the garden yet-, 
 though, if snow and frost do not entirely errainize 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. 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 Polytrichi, 
 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 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 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 
 rom the bright piliated caps of the Polytrichi; 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 over.;-, 
 with dense masses of the Funaria hyyromettca. 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 every season's change.
 
 38 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY; 
 
 Through every 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 warms e'en Philomela's breast ; 
 
 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 from 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 trea- 
 sures up in his thoughts to enjoy orer again in an 
 afternoon nap at such a time as this. In Lapland 
 curious portable bedding is made of the Golden-hair 
 Moss, and mattresses and door-mats in the north of 
 England. The Bog Mosses (Sphagna) form tire 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 enumerated. 
 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 wanderer. 
 *' 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.
 
 
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 39 
 
 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 luxu- 
 riantly even at this cheerless period of the year, as if 
 it were sensible it would be utterly passed over as un- 
 worthy of notice at any other time. This is the Fetid 
 Bearsfoot (Hellzborusfcetidus), conspicuous where it 
 does grow amidst the rubbish that environs it, by its 
 dark digitated leaves and dirty green involute petals, 
 edged with deep purple. The following characteristic 
 lines well describe the aspect of the plant just re- 
 ferred to: 
 
 " Within tke moist and shady glade, 
 What plant in suit of green array'd, 
 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 
 afternoons 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 
 sunbeams. The coppice is abundantly -overspread 
 with the evergreen leaves of the lesser Periwinkle 
 
 * Mant's British Month*.
 
 ., 
 
 40 WlLD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY* 
 
 (Vinca minor), entangling itself in every direction, and 
 forming 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 Bombylius medius poises as if 
 fixed in air again to vanish with the vagrant sun- 
 beam. It is gone ! a cloud involves the setting sun, 
 and in a moment shrouds him from view blasts 
 sweep pitylessly from the north, and bear along a 
 volleyed cloud of snowflakes through the realms of 
 air mountain, wood, valley, and river, alike disap- 
 pear amidst the blinding storm ; and in the succeed- 
 ing 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.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY) 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 THE AWAKENING OF SPRING IN THE COUNTRY AND 
 
 THE CITT APPEARANCE OP GELATINOUS FUNGI 
 
 MISERIES OF A THAW SNOWDROPS. 
 
 " Already now the snowdrop dares appear, 
 The first pale blossom of the unripened year." 
 
 MRS. BARBACLD. 
 
 Methinks 1 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 ex- 
 panse. The Spurge Laurel (Daphne Laureolaj, with
 
 42 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 its shining deep green leaves, is now about to expand 
 its pale green flowers that would be scarcely noticed 
 at any other time, and which Linnseus says are " sad 
 in colour, ungrateful in scent, and blossoming in a 
 gloomy season ;" but Linnaeus 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. 
 
 The leaves only of the Arum are now pleasingly 
 dotting the banks ; and here and there an occasional 
 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 spot- 
 less as the snowflake itself, are " coming out" for the 
 season. The little sprightly Aconite, too, is now 
 seen flaunting in green and gold beside the border ; 
 
 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 tinusj, is now displaying joy- 
 ously its profuse clusters of white flowers. Even in 
 the garden SPRING is AWAKENING ! 
 
 * Clare.
 
 'WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 4$ 
 
 In the country the naturalist now hears dulcet 
 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 attempts a 
 brisk but imperfect madrigal. The Blackbird com- 
 mences 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 virtuoso is sure to be 
 dusty), out pops a blue-bottle-fly, weakly buzzing as 
 he inspects the state of affairs ; retiring again with 
 the 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 ! 
 
 In the boudoir fair ladies now smile to see that 
 their Hyacinths (all varieties of the oriental Hyacinth, 
 H. orientalisj, are giving evident signs of speedily, 
 or even now, exhibiting a show of rich fragrant 
 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
 
 44 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 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 
 wet weather prevail, (for on the average of years the 
 month will not bely its name of " February fill- dyke,'') 
 that various coloured gelatinous substances present 
 themselves on sticks, poats, 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 un- 
 able to luxuriate except in an atmosphere saturated 
 with moisture. Hence, under the influence of the 
 eun 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 deli- 
 quescens, frequently seen on old posts and decayed 
 stems of annual 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 similar
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 45 
 
 to the brains of animals. All present singular aspects, 
 and probably nourish peculiar minute animalcules. 
 
 In reference to the wet weather that often occurs 
 at this season, Forster 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, there- 
 fore, perhaps better to keep within doors at present, 
 unless the doctor be wanted. " All things are drip- 
 ping with wet : it hangs upon the walls like a heavy 
 dew : it penetrates into the drawers and wardrobes of 
 your warmest chambers : and you are surprised 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 con- 
 sumptions, 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 all objects 
 have a dirty and disconsolate aspect. In the country 
 the roads are full of mire, and you have naked hedges, 
 
 * Perennial Calendar,
 
 46 WILD FLOWERS OF FKBRUARY, 
 
 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, "f 
 
 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 sea- 
 sonable weather that the season itself demands for 
 
 " Now old Aquarius from his rainie urne, 
 
 Pours out the streams, and fills both loch and burnc ; 
 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. 
 
 * Hewitt's " Book of the Seasons." t W. Scott.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 47 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR FEBRUARY. 
 
 The Jungermannia should still be attended to on the hills 
 and among the woods, and lichenizing will also employ the 
 cryptogamic botanist advantageously. The Crab's-eye and 
 Tartareous Lichens appear in full fructification on rocks 
 and precipices ; and sometimes a wall of sand-stone will 
 exhibit a wide and beautiful array of the singular Beomyces 
 riifus ; while the trunks of trees inhabited by the Spiloma 
 greyarium are splendidly decorated with patches of crimson 
 sporules. Many an old barn door too is painted with green, 
 e, or golden yellow, by the Lepraria flava and other 
 
 "ir v -?n3. On old oaks, rugged with furrowed bark, as well 
 
 1-. n decayed paling, crops of several species of Calicium 
 
 ear like crowded black sprigs stuck into the wood. 
 
 'ous genera of MOBSKS now decorate " the solitary 
 . ., 'ovely in their urn or cup-like fructification, espe- 
 cially the Grimmice and Gymnostomi, while the very minute 
 Phascum almost eludes the eye to find it. Yet the Phas- 
 ^spidalum, with its brown polished theca, without 
 r opening, maybe now perceived, if sought for, in al- 
 y shrubbery. In similar spots the Dicranum taxi~ 
 distinguishable by its broad sharp-cut leaves, and 
 ypni and Tortulce, the latter with their singular 
 twisted peristomes, are abundant every where. 
 
 At this damp time the Fungi offer an abundant source 
 for examination and research, especially the smaller kinds 
 of Trichice, Pezizee, &c., and the curious Tremellini. It 
 may be easily noticed how the flabelliform 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
 
 46 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY, 
 
 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, "-f- 
 
 while the garden or grove dripping with the 
 torrents, presents only mournful objects for the 
 repose upon. But this humidity is the procj 
 nature requires, by which sufficient moisture 
 stored up in her secret repositories to form a 
 to nourish the numerous flowers that she even, 
 contemplates in embryo, and which she will 
 time awaken and produce. Therefore, at pre 
 will not proceed beyond our tether, but take 
 sonable weather that the season itself demands fol 
 
 " 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 i? 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. 
 
 * Hewitt's " Book of the Seasons." t W. Scott.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR FEBRUARY. 
 
 The Jungermannia should still be attended to on the hills 
 and among the woods, and lichenizing will also employ the 
 cryptogamic botanist advantageously. The Crab's-eye and 
 Tartareous Lichens appear in full fructification on rocks 
 and precipices ; and sometimes a wall of sand-stone will 
 exhibit a wide and beautiful array of the singular Beomyces 
 rufus ; while the trunks of trees inhabited by the Spiloma 
 greyarium are splendidly decorated 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 
 as on decayed paling, crops of several species of Calicium 
 appear like crowded black sprigs stuck into the wood. 
 
 Various genera of MOSSKS now decorate " the solitary 
 place," lovely in their urn or cup-like fructification, espe- 
 cially the GrimmicR and Gymnostomi, while the very minute 
 Phascum almost eludes the eye to find it. Yet the Phas- 
 cum cuspidatum, with its brown polished theca, without 
 fringe or opening, maybe now perceived, if sought for, in al- 
 most any shrubbery. In similar spots the Dicranum taxi~ 
 folium is distinguishable by its broad sharp-cut leaves, and 
 the Hypni and Tortulae, the latter with their singular 
 twisted peristomes, are abundant every where. 
 
 At this damp time the Fungi offer an abundant source 
 for examination and research, especially the smaller kinds 
 of Trichice, PezizcR, See., and the curious Tremellini. It 
 may be easily noticed how the flabelliform 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
 
 48 WILD FLOWERS OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 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 Phlebia mesenterica often ap- 
 pears very conspicuous, as well as the intricately lobed 
 varieties of Thelephora, and the hairy fingers of Clavariee, 
 In woods the labyrinthal Dadalea Qaem'no has a curious 
 aspect at the roots of trees.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 
 
 HAP. V. 
 
 A MARCH MORNING ON MALVERN HILLS CROCUSES, 
 
 MEZEREON, APRICOT, PYRUS JAPONICA, ETC. FLOW- 
 ERS 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 blustrations are to take effect, this de- 
 ponent saith not. Let any one, however, who is un- 
 familiar with these " blustering railers," only pay a 
 visit to the iced mountain-top, or even to such hills as 
 Malvern or the Cotswolds, 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 
 impressed upon our memory. So furious was the 
 
 B
 
 50 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 
 
 rush of the wind over the summit, that we were unable 
 to stand against it, and clung prostrate to the rock 
 for security; while its vehement thunder rendered it 
 impossible for us to hear each other speak. But the 
 scene to the eye, looking towards the Cambrian 
 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 legiti- 
 mate province, we only undertake to strike the aver- 
 ages 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 So- 
 ciety's Garden at Chiswick. " Early in Lent," says 
 Mr. Forster, " we frequently see Crocuses flowering
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 51 
 
 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 Mignionette, too 
 often scarcely seems to contain vegetable life within 
 its creaky boundaries. 
 
 Just now the Mezereon (Daphne Mezereon), makes a 
 beautiful |ppearance all flowers let the weather be 
 ever so severe, and its empurpled dyes and perfumed 
 fragrance render it an universal favourite at a period 
 like this, when floral joys are scanty. Its transient 
 purpose answered, it meets with the " common lot," 
 and, as Summer comes brightly on, the Mezereon 
 is entirely forgotten, till, amidst denuded foliage and 
 dearth of sweets, its humble aspect, " thick beset 
 with blushing wreaths," forces itself upon the ad- 
 miring observation. Not meaning 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 hold out." 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 
 
 K2
 
 52 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 
 
 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 enduring 
 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. 
 
 If the Apricot (Prvyms Armeniaca), now exhibits a 
 few flowers against the sunny wall as it ought to do, 
 it is a sign that Spring is progressing well, for in a 
 very severe season it will be a month later before the 
 flowers appear; this, therefore, is a harbinger that 
 may be depended on. 
 
 The sunny wall is now, also, brilliant with the rich 
 scarlet flowers of the Pyrus Japonica, which make a 
 fine show ; and the Corchorius begins to shew its yellow 
 roses, though at first rather sparingly. The odorous 
 Jonquil, too, (Narcissus odorus), pleasingly spangles 
 the flower-border. 
 
 But now for an examination of the woods and fields. 
 The brisk air and enlivening gleams of March are a 
 capital antidote to melancholy hence a walk out at 
 this time is sure to prove invigorating, for every thing 
 now seems alive. The sun now rises earlier, and gives 
 light as soon as he is up, an intimation which Dr. 
 Franklin was of opinion should be communicated to 
 the world by morning discharges of artillery. True, 
 it is a difficult thing " to turn out," but once up, how 
 delightful and animating ; birds singing, insects hum- 
 ming, trees and shrubs waving in the sweet balmy air,
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 53 
 
 and plants opening their flowers, and diffusing fragrant 
 scents around; the very smell of fresh turned-up 
 earth, how refreshing ; the sound of water how sooth- 
 ing now to the ear, because it is not rattling down 
 upon our heads as in February, but is diffusing in rills 
 and brooks nourishment and verdure, while the ground 
 itself is becoming dry. Flora now prepares for the 
 delightful work before her, and lays on her ground 
 tints. The young Wheat and the orchard pastures 
 are assuming a green of the brightest and most charm- 
 ing aspect. Here and there on dry limestone banks, 
 or even on the brown ploughed land, the golden stars 
 of the Coltsfoot (Tussilago Farfara), surprise the eye 
 without the contrast of a single green leaf they come 
 afterwards. On rocks and walls, like silver scattered 
 amidst the moss, the small white cruciferous flowers 
 of the Witlow Grass (Drabaverna), present themselves 
 in countless numbers; and here and there beneath the 
 hedges, or on the warm banks, several species of blue- 
 eyed Speedwells (Veronica), emulate in their tiny blos- 
 soms the azure of the cloudless sky above them. A 
 gleam of gold varies the moister hollows where the 
 Pilewort (Ficaria vernd), has located itself, and spreads 
 out its golden star above its shining heart-shaped 
 leaves, on which the verdigris Oil-beetle may be some- 
 times seen feeding. TheChickweed, and hairy Cuckoo- 
 flower (Cardamine hirsuta), now shew their argent 
 petals, and the barren Strawberry is sure to gladden 
 the eye of the wanderer in the woods; while every 
 vagrant boy displays those soft downy ' ' Pussy-cats " 
 which the Willows evolve as precursors of their un- 
 protected golden stamens. The Hazle also profusely
 
 54 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 
 
 hangs its long catkins containing that fertilizing dust, 
 which now blown about and falling upon the bright 
 ruby pistils situated beneath them in a separate posi- 
 tion, offers a familiar illustration of that curious struc- 
 ture 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. The Yew, 
 being a dioecious species of tree, evidently flowers at 
 this season that the farina of the male blossoms 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 structures 
 adapted to fulfil the purposes assigned them! " Flow- 
 ers 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 pleasing to the 
 eye, when the sun darts his rays bright upon them. 
 But amidst storms and blasts, too often the concomi- 
 tants of the season, they may be altogether unno- 
 ticed. 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP MARCH. 55 
 
 the tenacity of their endurance in the hedgerow, that 
 more than any other tree it now forms a characteristic 
 feature in the scenery of an English landscape. Hence 
 the " Elmy Grange," at once recalls to the eye of 
 memory the old English timbered mansion, with its 
 carved gables and tall brick turretted chimneys, with 
 the moat half filled up and half remaining on the gar- 
 den side, with steps leading down to it from the 
 terrace-walk, and the whole shaded by majestic sur- 
 rounding 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 fa- 
 vourite old Elm, of large dimensions, sanctified by 
 some local name, often on a common or beside a rustic 
 inn, the resort of buoyant childhood, left perhaps for 
 ever, and yet a hallowed landmark in the tearful vista 
 of memory. Such road- side Elms are often picturesque 
 objects, and attract the curious eye of the passing 
 traveller as the Crawley Elm, on the road from 
 London to Brighton, which contains an apartment 
 paved with brick; the Rotherwas Elm, near Hereford; 
 and Piff's and Maul's Elms, near Cheltenham. 
 Often, however, this tree puts on a very distorted and 
 wenny appearance, swelling especially about the roots, 
 and when too often pollarded, becomes so black, 
 stumpy, and hollow, as to seem as if the row in which 
 it stands had been subjected to all the horrors of a
 
 56 
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 
 
 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 caw- 
 ing that tells of coming vernal hours, and sounds not 
 ungrateful to the ear of the observant naturalist. 
 
 The Wytch-hazle (Ulmus montanaj, whose gnarled 
 twiggy stumps grotesquely impend above many a 
 ravine or ancient holloway, has its spreading branches 
 now amply covered with a conspicuous inflorescence. 
 
 MAUL'S ELM.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH, 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 VBRNAL INDICATIONS VARIOUS SPKCIBS OF VIOLETS 
 
 GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE, TUBEROUS MOSCHATEL, WHITE 
 
 AND YELLOW AWLWORTS DAFFODILS AND SALLOWS 
 
 WINDFLOWBR. 
 
 " 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 some- 
 thing 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. But even the ad- 
 mirer of nature's beauties only, who takes a walk at 
 this season, cannot fail to be roused into poetical ex- 
 citement by the return of those indications which are 
 bound up with the remembrances of former days. 
 Three things at least now in turn speak to the eye, 
 the ear, and the senses. In the balmy freshness of
 
 58 WILD FLOWERS OP MARCH. 
 
 morning, the hoarse cooing of the Ringdove sounds 
 singularly plaintive upon the ear. Called into life by 
 a steady burning ray of light, upsprings to amuse, 
 allure, 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 perceptible. 
 
 " 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 woodside, 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 I" yes, but we must first 
 find out where they are, and these " lowliest children 
 of the ground " are often difficult to get at, though the 
 fragrance they diffuse around is so very obvious. 
 Don't tell me of the garden; I must now have genuine 
 loild violets these were the charmers of my early 
 days, and these alone can recall the past vision now. 
 Ah ! 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!"
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 59 
 
 Short 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, present 
 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 exploration of the moralist or poet. 
 Two are in flower now, Viola suavis, a white violet of 
 fainter scent than the true odorata, and the hairy violet 
 (Viola hirta). Then there is the beautiful little marsh 
 violet, (V. palustris), that crouches its fair gem amidst 
 dripping mosses and bogs, and the Yellow violet, that 
 confines itself to the bleak mountain side, and must be 
 sought among the heights of Siluria and Dimetia; and 
 there are yet two other familiar violets that flower 
 all the summer in every waste spot common and 
 valueless as that universal production advice the 
 V. arvensis or field Violet, and the V. tricolor, Hearts- 
 Ease or three-coloured violet, from the latter of which 
 all the large and showy varieties of the Garden Pansy 
 have originated. But alas! there is no smell to these 
 violets. Form can be astonishingly varied by horti- 
 cultural 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. 
 
 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 brookside, 
 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
 
 60 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 
 
 hail upon his hapless head from the capricious hand of 
 surly March no great respector of persons when in 
 pettish mood. These plants are the tuberous Mos- 
 chatel (Adoxa moschatellina) , and the alternate- leaved 
 Golden Saxifrage (Chrysoplenium alternifoliumj , the 
 botanical names of both, when written in a tolerable- 
 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 1 This epithet tempted me to perpetrate 
 " an address " to little Miss Adoxa, 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. 
 
 For pale as thy leaflets appear, 
 
 And pale as appears thy green corol, 
 
 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 I
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 61 
 
 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 charm in their time and their station 1 
 
 Who doubts it should open his eyes, 
 
 Once purg'd, they'll reveal unknown wonders;' 
 
 So the cloudlet that sails on the skies, 
 
 Joins the throng that embattles the thunders. 
 
 There is another little wild flower, very character- 
 istic of the primaveral Flora, 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 
 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
 
 62 WILD FLOWKRS OF MARCH. 
 
 growe verie little white flowers ; which being past, 
 there come in place small flat pouches, composed of 
 three filmes ; which being ripe, the two outsides fall 
 away, leaving the middle part standing long time after, 
 which is like white satin." Mossy roofs often present 
 a pretty appearance at this season, when the sun 
 shines out upon the expanding argent petals of this 
 fairy plant. 
 
 The yellow Draba aizoides is now in flower on its 
 only known habitat in Britain, the deserted walls 
 of the secluded fortalice of Pennard Castle, in the 
 peninsula of Gower, Glamorganshire, and the adja- 
 cent limestone rocks. Its singular aspect there, will 
 be noticed more in detail under the month of Septem- 
 ber, at which time, in 1839, I visited the spot. 
 
 The garden is now gaudy with the yellow glories 
 ^jf the well-known daffodil, which, showy as it is, 
 and therefore gladdening the exploring eye, has in 
 such a position only the redeeming feature of its men- 
 tion by Shakspeare, as coming 
 
 " Before the swallow dares," 
 
 and thus appearing in the advance of more permanent 
 delights like a portrait that can only give satisfac- 
 tion 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 be unable at present to maintain. In 
 the woods and on the hills, however, where this 
 " Pseudo-Narcissus " of the botanist, and " Daffy- 
 " downdilly" of the rustic, spreads its roots by
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH, 63 
 
 thousands, and now droops in glorious array an innu- 
 merable host of lemon-tinted bells, in contrast with 
 the dark boundary of branches that lift their laby- 
 rinthal tracery against the deep blue sky, as we have 
 seen with rapt pleasure, about the Malvern Hills, and 
 in the undulations of the Forest of Dean, Gloucester- 
 shire, it is in its proper locality. There alone, when 
 after a long ramble through deep lanes and brarably 
 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 pennons 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 remembrance of the scene. Wordsworth 
 has well described such a sight among the romantic 
 scenery of the lakes : 
 
 " I wander'd lonely us 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.
 
 64 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 
 
 The waves beside them danced, but they 
 Outdid the sparkling waves in glee : 
 
 A poet could not but be gay 
 In such a jocund company." 
 
 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 
 any pool, or even by the way-side. This is presented 
 in the golden catkins of the Sallow (Salix capraa), 
 now in full glory; 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 splendid 
 hued dust or farina which the golden male catkins be- 
 fore-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 wind for their 
 voyage ; in the other, as in the yew, . the hazle, and
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MARCH. 65 
 
 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 seeds be produced by the plants thus 
 curiously circumstanced. 
 
 Where the Alder (Alms glutlnosus) 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 Red Star Windflower (Anemone 
 portensis), has a very ornamental effect, producing a 
 succession of flowers throughout this month, at a 
 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''"" 
 
 * Smith's Amarynthug,
 
 66 WILD FLOWERS OP MARCBf. 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR MARCH, 
 
 IN this month the underwood of forests and coppices 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 abounding there. Seeds of them, it is true, re- 
 main in the deep dungeon of the earth, but each successive 
 year only increases the profoundly 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 
 f 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 - r 
 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 1" 
 
 Then it is that the cleared ground, once more exposed' 
 to the influences of light and air, reproduces those plants 
 that had seemingly become extinct for many years, and the 
 botanist, therefore, should carefully explore those woods 
 as the season advances, where these falls of underwood 
 have taken place. It sometimes happens, too, that rare OF
 
 WILD FLOWBRS OF MARCH. 67 
 
 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- 
 togamic botany still claims much attention, while the 
 flowering tribes are as yet far from numerous.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 AN APRIL MORNING PRIMROSES DOG-VIOLBTS, ANE- 
 MONES, ETC. BUTTBRBUR AND TOOTHWORT CB- 
 
 LANDINES, ORCHIS, CUCKOO-FLOWERS MIGRATORY 
 
 BIRDS OF SPRING FLOWERS OF THE WOOD 
 
 ADORNMBNTS OF THE GARDBN DENIZENS OF A 
 
 RUSTIC ONB. 
 
 - " April comes, 
 
 And lightly o'er the living scene, 
 Scatters her freshest, tenderest green." 
 
 GRAY. 
 
 APRIL is a tearful mouth, full of gleams and showers 
 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 chuckling 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'erwbelms us in its dripping embraces 
 again and compels us to look out for shelter, in com- 
 mon with the bee and the too venturesome butterfly. 
 But suppose a morning of unclouded brightness.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 9 
 
 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 
 leisurely the gems of creation before us. We have 
 reached a little valley among the hills, where emerg- 
 ing from rocky woods a brawling streamlet urges its 
 froward 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 
 overturned 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 occa- 
 sionally the Oxlip (P. elatior), occurs. From the 
 latter 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. Raw meat applied to the roots of Auriculas 
 is accounted very beneficial to them, and Withering 
 suggests that a similar application would increase the 
 size and beauty of Polyanthuses. This is, indeed, only
 
 70 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 an extension of the principle of manuring, which 
 aflects 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 we 
 might have regarded with pleasure and satisfaction. 
 No 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. nemorosd), bending before 
 the wind, inspires far different emotions it now 
 whitens o'er the damp copse, closing its petals at sun- 
 set, or before rain, and expanding them in the fervid 
 rays of noon. As it is a social plant, the numbers 
 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 flowws, 
 
 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."* 
 Clare.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 71 
 
 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 ap- 
 pearing 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 fit them for. The 
 flowers of the Hybrid Butterbur, which is rarer than 
 the common kind, have a peculiarly elegant aspect. 
 Another curious plant, only seen at this season, and 
 that but rarely, is the Toothwort (Lathr&a 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. 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 Earl Mount- 
 norris'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 is its goldea
 
 72 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 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. mascula). In the marsh the 
 splendid Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) , presents 
 her specious glories, and far and wide are scattered 
 the lightpurple Cuckoo- ftowersfiardamine pratensisj , 
 
 " 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 (Chry- 
 soplenium oppositifolium) , now makes a pleasing ap- 
 pearance, the Hawthorn is evidently becoming leafy, 
 the Wild Cherry beautifully displays its innumerable 
 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 trees.* 
 
 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 
 
 * Graharoe.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 73 
 
 the melody of birds among the budding branches. 
 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 Ramsons;* 
 there the warblers are sure to resort, and there, too, 
 the botanist repairs to seek for his well-remembered 
 favourites ; while the Thrush, from amidst a bush of 
 flowering Sallow, below which her blue-spotted eggs 
 repose, or the Black- cap or 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 unmarked 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 wanderer 
 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 estrangement 
 from once loved friends, has caused slowly but con- 
 
 * Allium ursinum, Linn.
 
 74 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 stantly 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 has fallen, and the branches shake 
 Sprinkling the raindrops on our heads below ; 
 The sun breaks forth Oh ! now's the time to take 
 The rural ramble, and behold in blow 
 Vetch with its pendants piak, and Stichwort's braids ef snow. 
 
 Cuckoo 1 a thousand exstacies 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 1 
 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. 
 
 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 75 
 
 song, while a pattering stream is plunging with 
 repeated splashing and gurgling fur 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 listlessly 
 by the high road, still as the sunbeams blaze upon a 
 length of hedge where the Blackthorn (Prunus spinosaj, 
 has encamped, and now puts forth its crowded clusters 
 white as a snow-drift along the side of a hill, it is im- 
 possible not to pause and admire their lovely aspect; 
 while almost certainly the Whitethroat 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. As it flits 
 about, exercising the acutest eye with its swift mo- 
 tions, it pours forth a soft, intermitting, shrill, but 
 not unpleasing melody to delight the observer. 
 
 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 " Robin-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 be- 
 longing to the Vernal Flora now arise to view, and 
 claim botanical attention. Among these the Wood 
 Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides), is very conspicuous 
 
 * Of course artistically, as a painter would say.
 
 76 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 with its red stem, and the Stichwort (Stellaria 
 graminea), with its trailing stems and white flowers, 
 is peculiarly characteristic of this period. Two ele- 
 gant plants appear also at this time in the sheltered 
 glade, and often in juxta-position, that are very orna- 
 mental ; and when contrasted with each other, present 
 a feature that would charm even a non-poetical eye. 
 One of these is the White Meadow Saxifrage (Saxi- 
 fraga granulata), generally occurring on dry banks, 
 but said to indicate the proximity of water under- 
 neath. 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 beau- 
 teous valley of the Wye. The other plant to which I 
 allude, as of frequent occurrence in the central coun- 
 ties of England, is the Wood-Scorpion-Grass (Myosotis 
 sylvatica), whose broad hairy leaves are well observ- 
 able 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 frequently 
 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 Worcester, (a 
 loved haunt of many a blissful day in boyhood), the 
 effect of their azure and white contrasted 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 Rush (Luzula campestris), appears amidst the
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 77 
 
 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 acetosella), which now appears 
 studding with its " veined flowers,'* the sides of 
 romantic ravine-like lanes, amidst stones, and moss, 
 and fern, or not unfrequently its tri-une 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 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 throag 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 con- 
 trasted hues of other objects. On the banks of cop- 
 pices, however, the goldilock Crowfoot (Ranunculus
 
 78 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 auricomus), 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 
 abortive, and the little hairy-leaved Ranunculus parvi- 
 florus seldom exhibits more than three petals. 
 
 Lady botanists and florists should be now on the 
 alert looking over their pots, mourning over the de- 
 struction 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 gar- 
 den, 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), now looks well, 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 suc- 
 cession, the gardens will be studded with the early 
 vernal flora, the primaveral being hardly yet gone 
 out. Wall-flowers, Anemonies, Early Tulips, Ranun- 
 culi, Narcissi, Jonquils, Hepaticas, Gentianellas, 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 perceiv- 
 ing 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 79 
 
 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 aoon 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 " Lily of the turbancd 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 
 oat 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 pos- 
 sesses 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 
 juices, which are not only rejected by the bees, but 
 refused by all kinds of insects." 
 
 The chequered Fritillary (FritiUaria meleagris), 
 now shows its pendulous flowers in some old gardens, 
 or spots that once were gardens; and occasionally 
 the American cowslip (Dodecatheon Meadia), adorns 
 the border with its gracefully drooping brilliant lilac 
 umbels. The Double Daisy (Bellis perenni, var. plena 
 flora) " O commendable floure," as father Chaucer 
 hath it, is not to be despised in its aspect, at this 
 season, as a border plant; nor its favourite eurious- 
 rustic variety, the proliferous or Hen- and- Chicken 
 Daisy. There is something extremely pleasing in
 
 80 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 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 crocuses 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, 
 Training the trailing peas in bunches neat, 
 Perfuming evening with a luscious sweet, 
 And sun-flowers, 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." 
 
 CLARK. 
 
 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, now make one of the most pleasing 
 exhibitions of spring.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 LEAFAGE OF THE TREKS WILLOW, SYCAMORE, BLM, 
 
 PKAR FLOWERING ORCHARDS THE COWSLIP 
 
 MARSH-MARIGOLD, BLUEBELL, AND OTHER FLOWERS 
 ACCOUNT OF THE ARUM CLOSING STORM. 
 
 " I never see the broad-leav'd 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 
 expand, an appearance very agreeable to the eye. The 
 young verdure of the Larch, too, has now a very en- 
 livening effect in plantations; here and there a veteran 
 a
 
 82 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 Hawthorn will be seen with a scanty verdant mantle 
 about his aged loins ; and in moist coppices the elegant 
 Birch-tree is arrayed in the most delicate and unsullied 
 frondage. In fact one genial April shower has often 
 such a magical effect, that woods and groves will, 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. 
 
 A pleasing writer has thus alluded to the foliation 
 of the beech woods of Gloucestershire, which is, of 
 course, applicable to other districts. " Virgil has 
 elegantly given to the vernal season the epithet of 
 blushing, 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. Unenlivened 
 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 transient 
 gleams of sunshine which eeem to light up the face of 
 nature with a smile. But the effect arises 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 the signal for a general 
 foliation; and he who retires in the evening, casting 
 a. look at his beloved woods, rather wishing than ex-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 83 
 
 pecting that another week will cover them with leaves, 
 often rejoices the next morning to observe that the 
 whole forest has burst into greenness and luxuriance."* 
 
 The Sycamore is a tree that very early puts forth 
 its fine broad frondage, a beautiful object wherever it 
 stands by the road-side and old farm-house; the 
 Weeping Willow is now also green, and the Hazel 
 and White Willow 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 designated as 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 (Ulmus campestris] flowers 
 early in March, long before the foliage appears, as 
 does the Witch-Hazel (Ulmus montanaj, a true British 
 denizen, often of distorted aspect, whose hop-like 
 clusters of capsules begin to appear very conspicuous. 
 
 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 leafing 
 time. A south-west wind is very favourable to their 
 appearance, and they will thus often be seen in num- 
 bers 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 prim- 
 
 * Annals of my Village, a Calendar of Nature, &c. 
 G2
 
 84 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 roses, where a coppice is divided by a gurgling' 
 stream, on a bright April morning the notes of the 
 Nightingale, Titlark, Blackcap, 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 Thrush, or the echoing flourish of the Wood- 
 pecker. 
 
 Deep in the dangling foliage I beheld 
 The sportive Willow- Wren 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 could I 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 Alchemilld 1 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; in such rough 
 spots many a lofty spreading Ask stands leafless, yet 
 bearing dark clusters on its branches, which are the 
 naked organs of its fructification. The wild Wood- 
 bine has now fully expanded its leaves, and festoons 
 many a hazel with a rich verdant wreath-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. S5 
 
 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 beau- 
 tiful spectacle; and after a light shower, as the sun 
 again breaks through the parting clouds, and pic- 
 turesque white cumuli appear dotting the blue heavens, 
 scarcely any thing can be more exciting than to 
 ramble through a series of pear orchards, 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. 
 
 The Cowslip (primula veris), one of the mostljeautt- 
 ful of British plants, now appears dotting the moist 
 meadows, especially upon 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 afield 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 found in the thicket ? Then, who does 
 
 * The Cowslip is scarcely found in Devonshire, where there is a con- 
 siderable tract of red marl. But the observation in the text applies te 
 the borders of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.
 
 86 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 not 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 Cowtlip," 
 
 And recur also to the " Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 where these " crimson drops " are denominated " ru- 
 bies, fairies favours." Very rarely the Cowslip is found 
 altogether of a bright red colour. Its scent, though 
 weak, is very agreeable; and the wine made from the 
 blossoms is of the sweetest and most harmless in 
 existence scarcely, indeed, deserving to appear even 
 in the Index expurgatorius of a tee-totaller ! In some 
 places the children of the peasantry sell the flowers, 
 divested of the ovaria, to some advantage to the 
 wholesale wine-makers. 
 
 TO THE COWSLIP. 
 
 Cowslip, with thy golden bells 
 
 Deck'd with pearls of chrystal lustre, 
 
 Fairer than the oyster-shell's, 
 Hanging in a blooming cluster I 
 
 Half afraid in March's train 
 
 Trembling from thy couch to rise, 
 
 Till young April on the plain 
 Promises serener skies. 
 
 Thee I hail the floral queen, 
 Filling every meadow wide, 
 
 As upon the stile I lean 
 
 Musing on thy golden pride ;
 
 FLOWERS OF APRIL. 87 
 
 Visions rise before my view, 
 
 Brilliant as thy golden bells ; 
 Fairer tban the ruby hue 
 
 That within thy blossom dwells. 
 
 Life once seem'd to me as fair 
 As thy velvet stalk and flower ; 
 
 As the perfume nestling there, 
 Now exhaling from the shower. 
 
 Let thy perfume lead me back, 
 As I drink its Lethean stream, 
 
 To the bounds of memory's track, 
 While again I sweetly dream. 
 
 In damp meadows the bright specious flowers of the 
 Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) , make a fine show 
 with their golden petals : 
 
 " 'neath the shelving bank's retreat 
 The Horse-blob swells its golden ball ;" 
 
 Here and there a Dandelion, in a snug warm birth, 
 spreads out the star of his order ; and on the margin 
 of the 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 conjener by the 
 purple colour of its stamens, and the nauseously bitter 
 taste of its foliage. Almost in the water itself appear 
 the two allied golden Saxifrages (Chrysosplenium oppo- 
 sitifolium et alternifoliumj. Trailing on the ground 
 the Bugle (Ajuga reptans), presents its head of dull 
 blue flowers to view. 
 
 But to the wanderer who, at this period of the year, 
 penetrates m the early morning into the dewy copse,
 
 88 WILD FLOWERS OV APRIL. 
 
 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 botanist has, in 
 his morning's ramble, merely gathered some humble 
 plant on which to employ his systematic or specula- 
 tive powers. True, he bears some fairy blossom from 
 its hidden retreat, and so far has extended his know- 
 ledge; but he has done more than this he has com- 
 muned with his own spirit amidst rocks and clouds ; 
 and amidst the 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 the month the Blue-bell 
 (Scilla nutansj opens its flowers Forster intimates on 
 St. George's Day, with which it appears the Blue-bell 
 is associated; but the hue of heaven is not actually 
 profusely transferred 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 Linnaeus 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 morning, excites
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP \PRIL. 89 
 
 the most rapturous delights, especially to any one 
 deprived for any time of so fair a spectacle. 
 
 Clare has associated the Arum or Cuckoo-pint 
 ('Arum maculatum) with this month. Its leaves often 
 spotted with black, are among the earliest to catch the 
 eye, and its curious flowers surmounted by a purple 
 spadix, and enclosed in a large green hood, like a 
 friar's cowl, have been always the object of popular 
 notice. They bear various familiar names, as " cows 
 and calves," " lords and ladies," &c.; as thus noticed 
 by the Northamptonshire poet. 
 
 " How sweet it us'd to be, when April first 
 Unclos'd the Arum leaves, and into view 
 Its ear-like spindling flowers their cases burst, 
 Beting'd 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 
 Shakspeare, as " long -purples," though it is generally 
 contended that the immortal bard had the purple 
 Orchis in his view. But the name of " dead- men's 
 fingers," by which the " cold maids " designated the 
 flowers of the plant, decides the question in favour of 
 the Arum, as the flowers of the Orchis would never 
 suggest such an idea; while 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
 
 90 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 by the name of " dead men's fingers.'' The cluster 
 of scarlet berries, which in the autumn ripens after 
 the spadix is totally withered, is not generally consi- 
 dered to have sprung from those minute bead-like 
 ovaria 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 symetrically ranged. Such 
 are a sample of the plants of April ; but the botanist 
 and every body else is now anxiously looking out for 
 May, whose arrival we shall soon have to greet. 
 
 But we must close April with a storm such as 
 must occasionally occur to every " Botanical Ex- 
 plorator," and which lias, 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 oaks, sheep, 
 in a compact body, take the shelter of a hedge; birds 
 scream, and are lost amid the branches of the dark 
 wood. But where shall we fly, for a furious and over- 
 whelming snow-storm drives along, and we are sur- 
 prized upon the bare hills! But the clouds fly swifter 
 than the vicissitudes of life far on the storm pursues 
 its mad career, and resplendent pointed silvery cumuli 
 rise majestically above the black clouds on the westera 
 horizon.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 91 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR APRIL. 
 
 The Botanical Explorator can now delay no longer to 
 commence his collecting labours in earnest ; 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 has been generally recommended for putting 
 plants into when gathered, but though this is convenient 
 for Mosses and Fungi, or Junyermannia and Marchantiae, 
 it is very detrimental to the beauty of delicate flowers, 
 especially if any number be collected, which have thus to be 
 jammed together in one heterogeneous mass. I have, there- 
 fore, long laid the tin box aside, with the exception just 
 adverted to, and in its stead, I recommend a folio or quarto 
 blank book of cartridge, brown, or thick cap paper to be 
 carried. The cover of this may be of leather, green can- 
 vass, or simply half bound, according to individual taste, 
 but the paper within should be interspersed with a number 
 of what bookbinders term "guards," which will allow of 
 many plants being placed within the book without increa- 
 sing its thickness. Plants thus placed between the leaves 
 of the Collecting Book, may be preserved for examination 
 for several days without detriment, though it will be ad- 
 visable to shift them into fresh papers as early as possible, 
 and dry the leaves of the book. 
 
 As it is expedient in many cases 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 should 
 be obtained from some ironmongers. This will probably 
 have to be ordered on purpose, and consists of a broad stiff
 
 92 WILD FLOWERS OF APRIL. 
 
 blade six or eight inches in length, fastened into a strong 
 handle, and fitted with a stout leather sheath. It would 
 not be amiss to have a smaller book or old pamphlet which 
 could go in the breast pocket, for the more delicate plants ; 
 and this, with a magnifying glass hung round the neck, 
 and Smith's Compendium of the English Flora, in the 
 pocket, will complete the equipment absolutely necessary 
 for the practical Explorator. 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 ex- 
 ternal pockets, one or two withinside sufficiently large to 
 contain the collecting book.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN THB FLOWERING OP PLANTS 
 
 SIX FLOWERING PERIODS DESCRIBED IN DETAIL, 
 
 THB PRIMAVERAL, VERNAL, SOLSTITIAL, FESTIVAL, 
 AUTUMNAL, AND HIBERNAL. 
 
 " Let mother Earth now deck'd with flowers be seen, 
 And sweet-breath'd Zephyrs curl the meadows green." 
 
 DRUMMOXD 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 color, white, red, brown, and blue, 
 Balmy in dew, and gilt with Phoebus bemys." 
 
 CHAUCER. 
 
 BEFORE gathering " May-flowers" it will be conve- 
 nient to subdivide the garland of the year into charac- 
 teristic Floras, which may perhaps be made more 
 tangible by the peculiar flowers comprised within them, 
 than the mere artificial divisions of the months. 
 They will also be more natural, as these Floras will of 
 course remain the same whether the seasons be earlier 
 or later ; while even in successive years there is often
 
 94 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 a very considerable difference in the dates of flowering 
 of many plants, according to the mildness or severity 
 of the weather. Thus in the stormy and ungenial 
 springs of 1837 and 1839, the Blackthorn (Prunus 
 spinosa), which in average seasons usually blooms 
 about the middle of April, was not in flower till May 
 1st, although in the very hot spring of 1840, 1 noticed 
 it in flower at Stanton in Worcestershire on April 1st. 
 The Hawthorn (Cratagus 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 1st of May was 
 copiously in blossom. The Pear Orchards ought in 
 genial seasons to be copiously 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 till 
 May 15th, although in 1840 their flowering was over 
 by the 1 st 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 ia 1837 this tree only came into flower on 
 May 25th. Thus temperature, and the occurrence or 
 non- occurrence of bitter frosts and ungenial storms in 
 
 * A Periodical, then edited by Neville Wood, Esq., but since discontinued.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 95 
 
 April and May, make a great difference in the aspect 
 of the Flora Spectabilis, for while in 1839 the bitter 
 frosts of April and May so cut up the vernal flowers, 
 that Lilac and Laburnum scarcely exhibited their 
 flowers at all, and while in 1837 they only displayed 
 their beauty in the middle of June ; on May 6th, 1840, 
 both shone in the shrubberies with the utmost gor- 
 geous effulgence and profusion. I find the following 
 observation in my Journal for 1837, and the foliage 
 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 
 expanded ; 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- 
 ehesnut, the foliage fully out, but not any flowers ;. 
 Lime, only just opening; Maple, buds as yet only 
 apparent; Pear, leaves only partially expanded ; Syca- 
 more, merely in young leaf ; Willow, 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 1 840, so hot and cloudless was the weather 
 in April, the thermometer rising in the shade at 3 p.m. 
 to 72'', that the leafage of the trees was nearly accom- 
 plished in a single week, from April 18th to April 
 25th, on which latter day I noticed even the oak ia 
 young foliage ; and the Ash, seldom in full leaf till 
 June, exhibited expanded foliage in many instances on 
 May 1st. Both it, and the pea-green Acacia, had
 
 96 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 copious leafage on May 5th. Thus in this 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. 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 even 
 ing air, and this frequently happens the last week in 
 May, but in 1 839 the flowers were not even expanded 
 till June 17th. 
 
 In this way the flowering of plants and trees may 
 be expected to vary each year in their precise times ; and 
 the noting of this, and its connection with the appear- 
 ance of the migatory birds, will always be a source of 
 amusement, instruction, and enjoyment, to the ob- 
 servant naturalist. 
 
 Foster, 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 portion, or connect one with another, yet on the 
 whole I think it advantageous to adopt Forster's no- 
 menculature, premising that in his view each period 
 has its culmination, on " maximum of flowering 
 beauty/' when of course its aspect will best appear in 
 contrast with the culmination of its neighbour. " As 
 individual plants may be noted as flowering, culmina- 
 ting, and deflowering, according as they first open,
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 97 
 
 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 re- 
 volving year."* The periods characterized by Forster, 
 are as follows, but to render the subject more in- 
 telligible, I have somewhat enlarged and further 
 illustrated his minor details. The various indications 
 of the approach of the seasons, constitute, as he ob- 
 serves, 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 pairing of 
 animals, the flowering of plants, and the ripening of 
 fruits. Let us now examine the divisions adverted to. 
 
 I. THE PRIMAVKRAL FLORA. 
 II. THE VERNAL. 
 
 III. THE SOLSTITIAL. 
 
 IV. THE ^ESTIVAL. 
 V. THE AUTUMNAL. 
 
 VI. THE HIBERNAL. 
 
 The Primaveral Flora may be said to commence 
 with the first breaking of the frost before February. 
 It comprehends the " first pale blossom of the year," 
 the Snowdrop, the Crocus, the argent though hum- 
 ble Draba verna, the Golden Saxifrages and some 
 
 * Forster's Perennial Calendar, 8vo. p. 141. 
 H
 
 98 WILD FLOWERS OF MAT. 
 
 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, Jonquils, 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 Flora may be considered as introduced 
 by the Lady-smock (Cardamine pratensis), which in 
 warm spots is in flower by Lady-day, March 21st., 
 though its culmination does not take place before a 
 month afterwards. Now " the lore-sick Cowslip 
 that the head inclines," appears beautifying the mea- 
 dows; moist pastures become resplendent with the 
 golden stars of of the Pilewort (Ficaria verna} ; in the 
 th'- marshes the Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) is seen 
 from afar; and Dandelions become very numerous, 
 marking the later period of this flora with their con- 
 spicuous white clocks. On the margin of woods the 
 early Purple Orchis (0. inascula), becomes a brilliant 
 object of attraction. Towards the close of April, or 
 about St. George's Day, April 23rd, the carpet of the 
 woodlands assumes a fresh aspect with the brilliant 
 blue of the wild Hyacinth or English Blue-bell; the 
 golden Broom beautifies the thickets, the Mountain- 
 Ash the woods; many Ranunculi spangle particular 
 meadows, and in others a profusion of the Meadow 
 Orchis (0. mono) 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 99 
 
 the favourite season with the poets, the flowering 
 thickets being now vocal with the songs of all the 
 migratory warblers. 
 
 " I hail the time of Flowers, 
 
 When Heaven is fill'd with music sweet 
 Of birds among the bowers."* 
 
 The Germander-Speedwell, rivalling with its azure 
 hue the brilliant Blue-bell, is another attendant upon 
 the Vernal Flora, as is the odorous Wall-Flower, the 
 Columbine, the Globe- Flower, the Peonies, and the 
 blue Garden Iris (I. Germanica.) The culmination of 
 the Vernal Flora is marked by the flowering of the 
 Hawthorn, whose stainless clusters 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 Flora is indicated by 
 the appearance of the great White Midsummer Daisy 
 (Chrysanthemum leucanthemumj ; and may be said to be 
 actually apparent when the common Yellow Flag 
 (Iris PseudacorusJ gilds the marshes, Poppies 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 
 
 * Logan. 
 H 2
 
 100 WILD FLOWKRS OF MAY. 
 
 frondage 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 (C. helianthemum) , accurately 
 mark the Solstitial time on exposed banks and woods 
 open to the sun. The Foxglove is now a noble orna- 
 ment to sandy lanes; rocks and roofs are overlaid 
 with the gold of the Stonecrops (Sedum), and the 
 Mallows, Chamomiles, and Bindweeds, follow with 
 their white or purple bells. Verbascums are also con- 
 spicuous. The Solstitial Flora lasts from the begin- 
 ning of June to July 15th.* 
 
 " Now comes July, and with his fervid noon 
 Unsinews labour." 
 
 Hence the JEst'wal or advanced Summer Flora pre- 
 sents itself, characterized by the Cockle (Agrostemma 
 Githago,}, and golden Chrysanthemum among the corn; 
 the Hawk- weeds and Bell-flowers on rocks and walls; 
 and the Meadow-sweet (Spirtea ulmaria), and Purple 
 Loosestrife (Lythra salicuria), beside rills and banks 
 of rivers. Wild heaths, wastes, and commons, so 
 black and horrific amidst the storms of winter, have 
 now assumed a purple robe of exquisite beauty with 
 the innumerable flowers of the Calluna vulgaris, and 
 
 * This period in the midland and southern counties of England, 
 includes the hay-harvest, which, says Stillingfleet, in his " Ca- 
 lendar of Flora," begins with the flowering of the Lime, clover 
 being out of blow, and yellow-rattle or coxcomb, shedding its 
 seeds.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAT. 101 
 
 the still more delicate and beautiful hues of the blos- 
 soms of the Erica (Heaths), and Andromeda polifolia. 
 In the garden the lofty Holyhocks (Althea), the Sun- 
 flowers, African Marygolds, China Asters, &c. &c., 
 present an aspect of regal magnificence. In rocky 
 spots, perhaps, the flowering of the Clematis or Vir- 
 gin's Bower (C. vitalba), is the most decisive indica- 
 tion that the /Estival Flora has attained its culmination, 
 while the universal substitution of the flowers of the 
 Bramble for those of the Rose proclaims the same 
 event. The berries of the Mountain Ash, Hawthorn, 
 and Guelder Rose, now become evidently coloured, 
 and add a pleasing tint to the foliage of the hedge and 
 shrubbery, though intimating that already summer 
 verges to decay. 
 
 The Autumnal Flora begins to present itself as soon 
 as the Meadow-Saffron (Colchicum autumnale), shows 
 its naked pale purple flowers conspicuously in the 
 meadows, which is generally the last week in August. 
 The autumnal Dandelion (Apargia autunmalis), now 
 also throws a faint tinge of gold along the pastures ; 
 and damp spots in woods are empurpled with the cul- 
 mination of the Devil's-bit Scabious (Scabiosa succisa). 
 On moist commons or the sandy sea-shore the scented 
 Triple Ladies' Traces (Neottia spiralis), now presents 
 itself sometimes in great abundance, and the 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
 
 102 WILD FLOWERS OF MA*. 
 
 numerous insects alight to derive the last sustenance 
 the dying year has in reserve for them. 
 
 Without the fields have been entirely burnt up by 
 the heats of summer, Mushrooms and numerous other 
 Fungi will be daily spangling the green fields often in 
 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- 
 streaked 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 singular 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 is now very evident, and thick 
 fogs prevailing in the morning, involve all things in 
 their reeking folds. 
 
 From the end of November to the beginning of 
 February, is the period of the Hibernal Flora, if, indeed, 
 it deserves the appellation of Flora at all. 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 Foster remarks in his " Indications of the Seasons," 
 " almost all nature seems at length to slumber, and 
 till the Holly and Ivyberries of Christmas enliven our 
 houses, every thing seems sombre and uninviting." 
 Yet, abroad, all is not barren, for many curious spe-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 103 
 
 cies of Pesizce, AuricularicE, TremellintK, &c,, luxuriate 
 in the damp atmosphere, and even scent it very 
 agreeably. Mosses and Lichens are attaining their ut- 
 most perfection and luxuriance with every brumal 
 storm, rocks, roofs, and precipices become green and 
 beautiful with them, and the mountain turf displays a 
 host of Jungermannits, whose black globular-headed 
 thecee glisten upon pellucid stalks, amidst their matted 
 bright green foliage. 
 
 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 fragrans'), 
 flowers, and the Christmas Rose (tfelleborus niger), 
 i\\ the woods, the Spurge Laurel {Daphne laureold) is 
 almost the only plant that gives any token of vege- 
 table life, by showing a disposition to flower, except 
 that here and there, a Gorse-Bush, 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 Candle- 
 mas, the Primaveral Flora, with which we commenced, 
 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 connection with the thoughts arid 
 inspirations awakened by the glories of nature through- 
 out the various seasons af the year, the Botanical 
 
 * Perennial Calendar, by T. Forster, F.L.S.
 
 104 WILD FLOWERS OP MAY. 
 
 Explorator will, in his solitary rambles, often recal the 
 glowing language of one of nature's inspired inter- 
 preters, 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." * 
 
 * Ode- Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC AND POETICAL FLORAL INFLUENCES 
 
 SCENES OF PAST WANDERINGS MAY FLOWERS ON 
 
 THE WELSH MOUNTAINS AND COTSWOLD HILLS 
 
 DANDE LION AND OTHER FIELD FLOWERS HAW- 
 THORN 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 scien- 
 tific or poetical eye he may either store his herbarium 
 with specimens classified according to the most ap- 
 proved nomenclature, and form his catalogue with a 
 view to claim the notice of the initiated only ; or
 
 106 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 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 
 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, 
 when 
 
 " Thoughts themselves were stars, and birds, and flowers." 
 
 The same recurrence of images to the eye, still calls up 
 the buoyant feelings of old 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 swell- 
 ing 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, be- 
 cause memory hurries us back to the first vernal 
 flowers that we ran tottering to pluck, or displays the 
 polythanthus we were wont to water in our little gar- 
 den, or the gaudy flower that beyond our reach, we 
 earnestly 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 Words- 
 worth's description of the " trembling, earnest com- 
 pany" 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 107 
 
 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 1 Thou whose happy hand 
 Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful tie : 
 Sweet flowers ! at whose inaudible command 
 Her countenance, phantom-like, doth re-appear : 
 () lost too early for the frequent tear, 
 And ill requited by this heart-felt sigh !" 
 
 This month, with its buds and its birds, and its fresh 
 green bowers, may well excuse this exhibition of 
 poetical feeling on our part, since in all probability, 
 as the summer comes on, we shall lose every trace of 
 it, and become as dry as parched peas (a legitimate 
 botanical simile this), long before the dog days ! But 
 unless the season be very ungenial, the extreme 
 beauty and freshness of vegetation at this time awakens 
 sensations of buoyant delight in every breast not 
 absolutely prostrate 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 op'ning 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 Worcester- 
 shire, and the apple trees of Herefordshire, in their
 
 108 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 rival blooms of stainless white and rose, present a 
 sight the world cannot equal ? there we have been. 
 Shall we trace them beside the gravelly torrent of the 
 romantic Usk, or on the huge " Black Mountains" 
 that flank its lovely valley with their awful barrier ? 
 there we have been. Shall we look down on the 
 bright plain of Salop, and from the black bladder- 
 stone of the craggy Wrekin trace them in the green 
 woods that fill the romantic hollow between that hill 
 and the long edge of Wenlock, the silvery horse- 
 shoes of the Severn gleaming lovely amidst the foliage ? 
 thete we have been. Shall we trace them by the 
 beauteous Medway, amidst its deep woods, between 
 Rochester and Maidstone ; or slumber as we once 
 slumbered in life's inexperienced morn among the 
 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 Plinlmimon ? winter has scarcely left those 
 bleak heights ; though high among the rocks, where 
 we have also been, the Rhodiola rosea, * at least, is 
 pushing 
 
 * This curious plant shows how Nature delights in anomalies, and 
 proves, perhaps, as much as any other, the difficulty of bending every 
 thing to the procrusteian system of man. The usual number of stamens 
 is eight, and as the barren and fertile plants are most commonly on dif- 
 ferent individuals, of course the Rhodiola, rosea is entitled to rank with 
 the Dieecia octandria. Here, accordingly, it is generally placed by 
 Linntean botanists, yet Linnaeus himself, from the circumstance of finding 
 hermaphrodite specimens in Lapland, originally placed the genus in Poly- 
 ganria. Sir W. J. Hooker justly remarks that it agrees with Sedum in 
 every thing but the number of parts, having the habit of Sedum tele, 
 phium, and flowers often preMuting themselves with five petals and ten 
 stamens. Schraeber, De Condblle, and Dr. Lindley, have accordingly 
 classed it as a Sedum, under the name of 5. rhodiola. No doubt some 
 of the flowers, (as in a fine living plant I gathered and brought home 
 from Cadair Idris,) have ten stamens, and as I likewise observed this to
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP MAY. 109 
 
 forth its succulent leaves, and just showing its pale 
 green petals amidst ferns and dripping mosses. There, 
 too, amidst fearful crags, like a roseate gleam before 
 sunrise, the purple and moss Saxifrages (S. oppositi- 
 folia and hypnoides}, spread their lowly but exqui- 
 sitely delicate gems. Shall the Isle of Wight, with 
 its steep chalky cliffs, fringed with Samphire ; or the 
 fair fields of Devon, where no Cowslips grow, again 
 claim our presence ? Shall we dash among the wild 
 cataracts of Glamorgan, beauteous with the crimson 
 drooping blossoms of the Water-avens (Geum rivale) ; 
 or climb, with daring step, the fearful crags of Craig 
 
 occur in the central flower of the cyme, perhaps we may consider the 
 other flowers as defective from abortion ; but this would only remove the 
 plant to Dicecia decandriu. And even on the much lauded " Natural 
 System," there would be much difficulty to a student in examining a plant 
 go irregular in the number of its parts as this, and assigning its correct 
 position. The " Crassulucete " are indeed succulent plants, but from 
 the detailed account of the order, a novice could hardly presume the 
 Rhodiola to rank here if he had a barren plant, and even with a fertile 
 one, he would find on investigating the genera of the Crassulucea;, that 
 none of their assigned characters, agreed with those of the plant he was 
 investigating. So that even with an anomalous plant like the present, a 
 clue would be far easier discovered by which the truth could be detected 
 by the Linnsean than the natural method. For the student finding eight 
 stamens almost always constant, if foiled in Octandria, would suspect at 
 once the plant might be diaecious, from its imperfect fructifying organs, and 
 thus be quickly conducted to the fact. It is remarkable that all botanical 
 authors, from Linnaeus to Withering and Hooker, affirm the colour of 
 the flowers to be yellow, and they are so coloured in Sowerby's English 
 Botany ; yet, strange as it may appear, all these great authorities are 
 certainly incorrect, for in my Welsh plant 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, when in an imma- 
 ture 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.
 
 110 WILD FLOWERS OP MAY. 
 
 Breidden, in Montgomeryshire, to gather once more 
 the white cinquefoil (Potentilla rupestris), on the only 
 hill in Britain where its stainless flowers charm the 
 gaze ? Shall we mount the fortress-like Steiper- 
 Stones, or the basaltic Clee hills, in proud Salopia, 
 for the yellow violet, pluck the flossy cotton grasses 
 upon the bogs of the lofty Brecon Fans, or rest in the 
 calm sunny noon amidst the dark ever-verdant thickets 
 that clothe the famed Box-hill ? The " Botanical 
 Explorator" must progress in turn to a hundred scenes 
 like these, or rest for a season near the vale of 
 Gloucester, the countless villas of fair Cheltenham 
 intermixed with the foliage of the vales, and the dark 
 belt of Cotswolds rising in theatrical pomp, as a fine 
 background that at present meets our view. For we are 
 now upon the long indented Cotswold ridge, bristling 
 with broken oolitic crags, and adorned with the spe- 
 cious though somewhat rough blue flowers of the 
 Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare), and the glistening 
 white ones of the Arabus 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 
 variegated 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), the little Snap-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. Ill 
 
 dragon (Linaria minor), and blue Gentiana amarella, 
 may be found ; while in the belt of wood between 
 this and a broken cromlech and barrow above Shur- 
 dington, 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 Romeo and Juliet and here 
 they are. Shall we look out upon the fields ? there 
 the starry brilliant Dandelions cover the meads with a 
 robe of gold, to be soon succeeded by an ermine mantle 
 of white docks. 
 
 " 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 I 
 
 II ow full of grace 1 that yluluus wiy 
 
 So nicely trimm'd." 
 
 Common as this object is, how beautiful its mechanism 
 when examined as it deserves to be. 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 recep- 
 tacle altering its form from concave to convex, the 
 calyx is more and more deflexed, till at length its
 
 112 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 segments are pushed parallel with the stalk, and the 
 globe of down is complete in its beauty, ready and 
 anxious for that mystic flight which spreads its pro- 
 geny abroad upon the earth. The Daisies now 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 Campion (L. diurna), begins to beautify the 
 sides of hedges, and the Cowslips gradually going out, 
 are relieved by an abundant crop of the meadow Orchis 
 (O. mono), 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 (Chcero- 
 phyllum sylvestre), covers some pastures, and the white 
 Stichwort (Stellaria holosteum) shines, while under the 
 banks of coppices the "blue-eyed Speedwell'' charms 
 the eye, the lesser Periwinckle spreads a tracery of 
 green leaves and blue cups, and the curious Weasel- 
 snout (Galeobdolon luteum), blooms around. Now, 
 too, the woods are at last green, oak and ash excepted ; 
 and the May or Whitethorn is 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,
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 113 
 
 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 suf- 
 fered to remain as relics of the past, they have attained 
 a considerable size. A very lofty branched tree stands 
 in a neglected spot at Forthampton Cottage, Glouces- 
 tershire, with a conjoined triple bole, all moss 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 Skirrid, near Aber- 
 gavenny, 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 tremen- 
 dously nigged 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 Wenlock. 
 Those were young days of toil, sorrow, but enthusiasm, 
 when poetry burnt me up, and the following inspired 
 lines were truly deeply felt, as by the Scotian bard 
 who indited them.
 
 114 WILD FLOWERS OP MAT. 
 
 " O happy love, where love like this is found, 
 O heartfelt raptures, bliss beyond compare ; 
 I've paced much this weary mortal round, 
 And sage experience bids me this declare : 
 If heav'n a draught of heavenly pleasure spare, 
 One cordial in this melancholy vale, 
 'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair 
 In other's arms breathe out the tender tale 
 Beneath the milk-white Thorn that scents the evening gale/' 
 
 The Horse-Chesnuts now put forth their splendid 
 spikes of flowers, magnificent in aspect, for they are 
 often in such profusion as at a little distance to give 
 each tree the resemblance of one gigantic bouquet. 
 
 " The thick Cheanut 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, Syca- 
 more, Maple, and many other forest trees are in bloom. 
 On various heathy hills, also, the common Juniper (Juni- 
 perus communis), is now in flower, with the last year's 
 berries on it still green ; for in this country they are 
 biennial. Several grasses now show their spikes, and 
 " Jack-by-the-hedge" (Erysimum Alliaria), sprinkles 
 hedge banks with a border of milky hue. The pretty 
 Geranium lucidum now spreads abundantly with its 
 
 * William and Mary Hewitt's Forest Minstrel.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 115 
 
 bright red stalks, the Bush- vetch (Vicia sepium), shows 
 itself, as well as the little Bird's-foot (Ornithopus per- 
 pusillus), and the purple flowers of the bitter heath 
 Vetch. 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. 
 
 i 2
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 CHAP. XL 
 
 THE BONNY 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 PA.RIS APPLE ORCHARDS 
 
 IN FLOWER TULIP BEDS AND VALUE OF THEIR BULBS 
 
 MOUNTAIN AND WOOD FLOWERS FLOAT ON THE 
 
 WATER. 
 
 " Awake ! the morning shines, and the fresh field 
 
 Calls us : mark how spring 
 
 Our tender plants." MILTON. 
 
 " Throw hither all yonr quaint enamelled 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 all hue," 
 attend upon us at every step. In the wild glen the 
 "bonny bonny Broom" (Cytisus 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."
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 117 
 
 In the upland wood a thousand Bilberries (Vacci- 
 nium myrtillus), droop their rosy bells, and a boom- 
 ing host of " red-hipt humble-bees " are attendant 
 upon them ; the Mountain Ash (Pyms auntparid), dis- 
 plays its white clusters on the hill ; the wayfaring 
 tree (Viburnum lantand), in the limestone copse, and 
 the guelder rose (V. opulus), fringes the borders of 
 brawling brooks. In the open field the elegant little 
 Ladies' Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) charms the eye ; 
 and the varied flowers of the white Saxifrage (Saxi- 
 fraga granulatd), and the meek blue ones of the Scor- 
 pion Grass (Myosotis sylvatica), 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 now to pass the noontide 
 hour. There the blue Columbine (Aquilegiavulgaris), 
 now adorns the scene ; the Woodroof (Asperula odo- 
 rata) t fills the air with fragrance; and the delicate 
 Lily of the Valley (ConvaUaria majalis), droops its stain- 
 less bells. The mountain Veronica (V. 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 
 ramsons or broad-leaved Garlick (Allium ursinurri), and 
 the tall Comfrey (Symphytum ojficinalis), 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 (C. riparid), 
 present themselves, forming thickets where the black-
 
 118 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 headed bunting loves to hide, and on whose tall stems 
 the quick-darting dragon-flies, or orange-tipt butter- 
 flies love to rest ; while the gravelly shallows glitter 
 with the silver flowers of the water Crowfoot (Ranun- 
 culus aquatilis), that spread their white stars in count- 
 less multitudes, By the sides of roads the red flowers 
 of the Hound's-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale), begin 
 to make a conspicuous appearance. 
 
 Now suppose we have wandered close to the crumb- 
 ling walls of some ivy-invested ruined abbey there 
 beauteous amidst desolation and decay the Wall-flower 
 (Cheiranthus cheiri), spreads odours on the balmy wing 
 of morning, the yellow flowered Barberry (Berberis 
 vulgaris), appears on the wall, and the ivy-leaved 
 Snapdragon (Antirrhinum cymbalaria), droops her pur- 
 ple blossoms in luxuriant profusion, while amidst the 
 rubbish of broken tombs and tracery, the great Celan- 
 dine (Chelidonium majus), shows her golden but fuga- 
 cious flowers. May " from her green lap throws '' 
 many other beautiful and characteristic flowers 
 among these we may mention, in boggy places, the 
 Red-rattle (Pedicularis sylvatica), conspicuous with its 
 bright pink flowers rising from amidst the green moss ; 
 broad-leaved Orchis (Orchis latifolia), the lovely 
 fringed water Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata), and 
 the Eriophori, 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. 
 
 Towards the close of the month the Burnet Rose 
 (Rosa spinosissma), presents her milk-white delicately 
 scented flower, a week or two before her sisters of the
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP MAY. 119 
 
 same family ; and now, at last, the Hawthorn (Mespilus 
 oxyacantha) puts on its snowy attire in full perfection, 
 and filling the country far and wide with fragrance, 
 " with his locks o' siller grey '* dots the landscape 
 with indescribable beauty. This is so favourite a 
 tree with me, that I cannot forbear to quote Howitt'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 ; 
 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 1 it flings far and free 
 Its grateful incense : whether you arise 
 To catch the first long sun-gleam in the skies, 
 And 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 Burns, 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 
 " lover's walk," of Yew, Hazel, or Honeysuckle, may be 
 found equally convenient for meditation. Here, look- 
 ing out from our pleasing position, what inspiring
 
 120 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 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 laburnum), "in streaming gold," breaks 
 upon the charmed eye, and hangs its golden chains 
 with profuse luxuriance. Now, indeed, is the time to 
 enjoy the garden, while its transitory beauties last. 
 Among these, the Snow-flake (Leucojum testivum) , and 
 the deep purple Iris (Iris germanicd), appear. Nar- 
 cissus poeticus is still in full beauty, and the following 
 flowers, among a host of others, may be noticed as of 
 frequent occurrence in gardens : Azalea pontica, 
 purple Rhododendron (R. ponticurri), Virginian spider- 
 wort (Tradescantia Virginica), sweet-scented Daphne 
 (D. cneorum), white Broom (Spartium multiflorum) , 
 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 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 ordained 
 that mortals should not be permitted to see the one 
 or feel the other with indifference ; for who can be- 
 hold the flexible and modest, yet dignified clusters of
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. ]21 
 
 this charming flower, whose colours vary at every 
 movement, and so sweetly descend from the finest 
 violet down to the silvery white, without regretting 
 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 1 
 
 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. 
 
 It now brings recollection's power, 
 
 And gleams of days of yore 
 All vanish'd ! and its purple flower 
 
 I ask to pluck no more.
 
 122 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 In May many meadows exhibit a peculiar feature in 
 the abundance of umbelliferous plants, whose rank 
 herbage covers them. The Chaerophyllum sylvestre, or 
 May Weed, is especially distinguished among these, 
 often completely covering and whitening over whole 
 fields, especially in the vicinity of coppices. In thick 
 woods, a singular dull-looking flower, rising from the 
 centre of four leaves, called Herb Paris (P. quadri- 
 folia), 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." Though 
 not uncommon 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 Grahame, 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."* 
 
 In rocky secluded woods half unbosomed by the 
 woodman, where the wood-ants were swarming on 
 their crumbly pile ; or on the stone-encrusted ledge 
 of some embowered brook, hoarsely lashing the dark 
 
 * Grahame's Birds of Scotland.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP MAY. 123 
 
 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 Cam- 
 pion (Lychnis dioica), glowing in the shade like a 
 standard. But the apple orchards are now the charm 
 of the landscape wherever they occur. Upon the 
 precipitous slopes of the beauteous valley of the Teme, 
 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 numerous gardened cots, all tell- 
 ing of cultivation and comfort, form a truly English 
 and inspiring picture in the noon of a bright and 
 glowing day towards the end of May. The summer 
 approaches its highest beauty when, as an acute natu- 
 ralist has observed, " Pomona, dressed as it were in 
 her snow-white garment, celebrates her nuptials ; 
 while the Tulip, Narcissus, and Peony adorn the gar- 
 den, the fresh shoots of the Fir illuminate the woods, 
 and the Juniper sheds its impregnating vapour." * 
 
 Gardens, enriched with Tulip-beds, are become one 
 dazzling blaze of splendour, almost tiring to the 
 startled gaze. The cultivators of Tulips, therefore, 
 look over their beds, and prepare for the horticultural 
 exhibitions, from whence their prize flowers, of 
 " Bizarres " and " Bybloemens," with a thousand 
 princely and imperial names, are to bear away the 
 palm from a host of streaked competitors. The 
 " Tulipomania" that once raged in Holland, when 
 
 * Stillingfleet's Calendar of Flora.
 
 124 WILD FLOWERS OF MAY. 
 
 Tulip-bulbs passed from hand to hand at great pre- 
 miums, 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 London 
 florist transmitted us a list of his roots for sale, with 
 their prices, which for curiosity we now extract from, 
 premising that the sums annexed are per root, and 
 may be obtained, most likely, from any florist " to 
 order," by any person anxious for initiation in 
 Tulipology. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Rose Brilliante 2 2 
 
 Ponceau Tres Blanc (Dutch) . . 210 
 
 Julianna 5 5 
 
 Grand Rose Imperial 10 10 
 
 PompeFunebre 1010 
 
 Lac (true) 1515 
 
 Pandora 21 
 
 Shakspeare 21 
 
 Parmegiano 50 
 
 Groom's King William IV 50 
 
 In this list 50 appears as the maximum price, but 
 still purer gems may be had higher ; for a tulipoma- 
 niacal friend once told us he was asked 70 for 
 " Fanny Kemble," and that there were a few Bulbs 
 that mounted up in the scale to 150, which 1 should 
 think, as old Diogenes once said, was paying rather 
 too dear for repentance! While hunting for the 
 Tulip list, which like every thing else, when wanted,
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF MAT. 125 
 
 had got mislaid, we stumbled upon the following pas- 
 sage in the " Toiler" taken from a paper descriptive 
 of a visit to the owner of a tulip-garden ; and it comes 
 in so appropriately, at this moment, that we make no 
 apology for winding up our present notice with it. 
 
 " 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 odd- 
 ness, 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 happi- 
 ness, that I have never fallen into any of these 
 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 miss- 
 ing it. I walked home in this temper of mind, 
 through several fields and meadows, with an unspeak-
 
 126 WILD FLOWERS OP MAY. 
 
 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, is the beau- 
 tiful Holly (Ilex aquifolia). Marshy spots, among the 
 mountains, produce the bright yellow Globe Flower 
 (Trollius Europeeus), and the beautiful Water Avens 
 (Geum rivale) droops her crimson petals within deep 
 shadowy recesses, often washed by the spray of glit- 
 tering waterfalls. On the margin of woods the Colum- 
 bine (Aquilegia vulgaris) shows its purple and white 
 varieties, and the Milkwort (Poly gala vulgaris), often 
 presents its deep purple flowers in the thickest woods, 
 where, though unseen, the turtle is traced by its low 
 coo, amidst the tangled foliage. On a brilliant sunny 
 afternoon, a float down the sleepy, glazy stream of 
 some river, such as " Sabrina fair," whose shallows 
 are glittering with the silvery flowers of the Water 
 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-ing resounds through 
 every field, On the tranquil bosom of the silent 
 stream, the young May Moon trembles in transcen- 
 dant lustre. 
 
 * Mr. W. A. Leighton, in his " Flora of Shropshire," very pleasingly 
 alludes to this floating plant as constituting the " tresses fair" of Sabrina, 
 as mentioned iu Milton's Coinug.
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR MAY. 
 
 In this month the phanerogamious, or flowering plants, 
 should almost exclusively be attended to, unless the Explo- 
 rator 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 ; 
 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 previously 
 recorded as occurring in that locality. 
 
 It is not possible to lay down a rule that shall be appli- 
 cable 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 pene- 
 trate the underlying papers, spoiling both them and the 
 plants below. The common botanical press does exceed- 
 ingly well for the smaller and finer specimens, as well as 
 for the Graminice, Filices, &c., but is not adapted for larger 
 or succulent-stemmed plants. I have found it best, when 
 time pressed, or I had not the means of proceeding exactly 
 secundem artem when travelling, to lay the specimens I 
 had collected, loosely between brown or thick cap-paper.
 
 128 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR MAY. 
 
 covered at each end with a piece of card-board, and just 
 sufficiently secured with cord. I have thus, without much 
 injury, carried specimens for hundreds of miles. Indeed, I 
 have often found old memorandum books that I had neg- 
 lected for years, to preserve some specimens almost as fresh 
 and good as if but recently gathered, but, in these instances, 
 no pressure had been applied to the papers. The colours 
 of flowers are difficult to be kept for any length of time, as 
 a very little damp abstracts them. The blues, especially, 
 are liable to fade. A very dry room should, if possible, 
 be always selected to hold the Herbarium. From long 
 experience I consider brown, or " bag- cap" paper, better 
 to preserve plants in than any other.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 EXCITEMENT TO BOTANICAL WANDERING HABITATS 
 
 OF PLANTS THOSE OF THE BOG, WOOD, MEADOW, 
 
 AND RIVER-SIDE ROMANTIC CLIFFS OF THE WTE 
 
 PLANTS OF THE SANDT BEACH AND MARITIME 
 
 ROCKS DESCRIPTION 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 require a little 
 more exertion than the range of the smooth gravel 
 beds of the garden. Woods, bogs, marshes, moun- 
 tains, 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
 
 130 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 
 burning rays of noon, he sits down beside a tuft of 
 fern, where a chrystal spring tinkles among the peb- 
 bles, his eye beams with pleasure to behold the fairy 
 vegetation that have found a dwelling within this cool 
 recess. The blue Pitiguicula, or Butterwort, with its 
 oily leaves covered with the spoils of minute flies, here 
 enjoys the moisture of the bog ; the Sundew (Drosera 
 rotundifolia), here spreads out its rosy hairs, each tip- 
 ped with a pellucid gummy drop ; and the Rose 
 Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella) , mingles its hosts of pale 
 pink blossoms with the grey bog-moss that spreads 
 far around ; while occasionally, the still more delicate 
 and beautiful ivy-leaved Bell-flower (Campanula hede- 
 racea), presents its exquisite azure petals. In still 
 wetter spots, rising from the water, appears the Water- 
 violet (Hottonia palustris) , and that universal favourite, 
 the Forget-me-not (Myosotis paluslris). As this last 
 plant is often mistaken by unbotanical observers, from 
 the resemblance its flowers bear to other allied species, 
 it may be well to remark that its leaves are smooth, 
 and that it always grows in wet places : this may in- 
 duce the poetical suggestion, that affectionate remem- 
 brance will always moisten the eye of sensibility, and 
 hence no dry habitat can be allowed to the " Forget- 
 me-not !" A nearly allied plant to this, which grows 
 only in swamps or quaking bogs, was once impressed 
 upon our recollection 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 reception from the coy beauty, though our 
 knees had bent before her dripping shrine, that we 
 retired with a very inadequate specimen of the favours
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 131 
 
 she had, at first, appeared so disposed to offer. This 
 proved, on inspection, to be the M. repens of Don. 
 
 The deep wood has now its 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 overhanging 
 foliage of the limestone steep, the beautiful Bee Orchis 
 (Ophrys apt/era) hangs its flowers like insects sup- 
 pended in air, exserting the wondrous tube that 
 imbibes the odoriferous nectar ; amidst the thicket 
 the Butterfly Orchis (0. bifolia) lifts its scented spike 
 of greenish-white flowers, with their long horn-like 
 lips ; and in the very depth of the green wood a brown 
 stem appears as if scorched and withered, which, on a 
 closer view, is seen to bear pale sulphur flowers, and 
 is the curious Listera nidus-avis, or Birds'-nest Orchis. 
 Here too, in the shade, numerous plants rise up of 
 the common green Tway-blade (Listera ovataj, while 
 the eye is relieved with the appearance of the bright 
 red clusters of the Wood Hounds-Tongue (Cynog- 
 lossum sylvaticum). The Wood Crane's-bill (Geranium 
 sylvaticum) now adorns some forest wastes with its 
 conspicuous flowers ; the elegant grass, Melica nutans, 
 occurs in similar spots ; and in Wyre Forest, Worces- 
 tershire, and other shady localities, whole glades are 
 white as ermine with the magnificent stainless flowers 
 of the narrow-leaved white Helleborine (Epipactis 
 ensifolia). Abundant also in most woods, the En- 
 chanter's Nightshade (Circcei Luteliand) scatters its 
 slender red spikes and pale flowers widely around. 
 Meadows, on the borders of woods, now exhibit the 
 beautiful pink blossoms of the St. Foin, and the clus- 
 K 2
 
 132 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 
 
 tered yellow ones of the Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vul- 
 neraria) ; the red heads of the Clover blend into rich 
 mingled tints with the golden yellows of the Buttercups 
 and Birds'-foot Trefoil, while a bronzed hue prevails 
 where the Sorrel studs the field. The scene is animated 
 by numbers of the Green Forester Moth (Ino Statices), 
 fluttering above the grass in great numbers, their 
 wings glittering in the sun. 
 
 Jf 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 
 Beccabunga, spreading in dense patches, while proudly 
 erect, the rosy heads of the great Bistort (Polygonum 
 Bistorta), are seen in lovely array; and the Meadow 
 Rue (Thalictrum flavurri) droops its clustered stamens 
 over the yellow Moneywort (Lysimachia 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 crystal, sleeps in the 
 bright glare of noon, there hurrying 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 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. Here, a host of Ferns and "Maiden-Hairs/' 
 show their beauteous fronds, and the climbing Fumi 
 tory (Fumaria claviculata) winds its tendrils around in
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNE. 133 
 
 all directions. Here, many minute plants present 
 themselves, more, indeed, than we shall now stop to 
 enumerate : but the white clusters of the Arabia 
 hirsuta are conspicuous, and the dizzy summit of the 
 rock is crowned with the garland-like white and dense 
 umbels of the Service-tree (Pyrus torminalisj. 
 
 Many such cliffs may be found, rugged and fortress- 
 like, on the banks of 
 
 " Sylvan Wye, that wanderer thro' the woods;" 
 
 and in my mind's eye, the broken masses of millstone 
 grit on the northern flank of Symond's Yat, forming 
 a magnificent debacle, yet rise before my view. Fright- 
 ful must the bare scene once have been ! but now, 
 romantic beauty has chased desolation away, and 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 Yews, are 
 invested 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 contrasting, yet, harmo- 
 nious. Oh for another exploration of the shattered 
 rocks of Symond's Yat ! 
 
 The scene is changed ! and, full in our view, the 
 eternal billows of the ever restless ocean lash the sandy
 
 134 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNK. 
 
 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, even here the Burnet Rose blooms 
 profusely; the Yellow Poppy (Glauciumluteum) shows 
 its curious glaucous leaves and opening corolla ; the 
 Sea Milk- wort (Glaux maritima), the Sea-side Sand- 
 wort (Arenaria peploides), the Sea Convolvulus (C. 
 soldanella), the Sea Spurge {Euphorbia esula), all 
 display their flowers ; and the Eryngo or Sea Holly, 
 forms a beautiful object with its prickly blue-veined 
 leaves, and heads of dense blue flowers. 
 
 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 Schcenus nigri- 
 cans, the silvery steins of the Rhynchospora alba, the 
 Sea Arrow-grass (Triglochin maritimum), and the 
 pretty white flowers of the Brook weed (Samolus 
 valerandt), 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. 
 
 But we are now at a rocky headland towering above 
 the ocean, whose breakers hollow its base into a hun- 
 dred 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 con- 
 fines. Here, the silvery flowers of the Sea Chamo-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNB. 135 
 
 mile (Anthemis maritima), decorate the rocks ; the 
 Ladies' Finger (Anthyllis vulneraria), as if wounded, 
 displays its yellow or faintly sanguine hues ; the 
 Squiuancy-wort (Asperula cynanchicd) strews its pale 
 lilac beauties ; and on a tottering crag, inaccessible 
 in its dominion, the Tree Mallow (Lavatera arbored) 
 lifts its dark villous broad-lobed leaves, and deep purple 
 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, precipitous rocks, a stormy 
 sea, and vast flocks of screaming birds, combine to 
 impress the mind with wonder and awe. 
 
 We have left the margin of stormy ocean, and are 
 again on 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 listen- 
 ing ear. All is hushed as by a spell ; the beetle sweeps 
 by without extracting a single modulation 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 Ferns. To a common 
 
 * Graharae.
 
 136 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 
 eye the frond of a Fern presents the appearance of a 
 leaf extremely cut and divided, or pinnated, as the 
 common male and female Ferns, and the Brake ; or 
 with a long entire scaly-stalked green leaf, such as the 
 Hart's-tongue, so frequently seen about the mouths of 
 wells and other damp spots. The fructification ap- 
 pears, for the most part, upon the back of the frond, 
 and, presenting itself all at once about Midsummer, 
 from the unfurling or circiuate 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. Shaks- 
 peare has alluded to this superstition in the often 
 quoted passage in his Henry the Fourth. Although 
 the reproduction of Ferns is still involved in much 
 obscurity, it is sufficient here to observe, that these 
 Cryptogamic vegetables spring from seeds or spores 
 contained in round capsules or thecee, which are col- 
 lected upon the frond in linear, oblong, or circular 
 clusters, called sort, 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 
 furnished with a jointed spring nearly surrounding it, 
 whose elasticity causes it to burst and disperse the 
 spores contained within. The Ferns have been sepa- 
 rated into three divisions, of which I shall here only 
 notice the first the true Filicales. These have their
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 137 
 
 fructification either dorsal, marginal, or in naked 
 clusters, terminating or attached to the frond. The 
 PolypodiacctE and Hymenophyllaceas have rings to their 
 thecse, but Osmundacece and Ophioglossacece have their 
 thecE without rings. 
 
 The Ferns 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, but nearly fifty are found in 
 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. * In an economical 
 point of view, they do not seem to be of much value ; 
 the " rheum-purging Polypody," Moon-wort, Os- 
 munda, and even Capillaire, are, in the present day, 
 almost discarded from practice, and, except for burn- 
 ing, or aa litter for cattle, Ferns excite no attention in 
 this country. Their bitter principle renders them so un- 
 palatable to both man and animals, that they are not at 
 all employed as food, and even insects almost univer- 
 sally neglect them. Let us regard them, then, in our 
 usual way, as elegant objects of natural beauty, and as 
 
 * It has been recently discovered that Ferns will flourish 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 accompaniments of the parlour window.
 
 138 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 
 
 incentives to botanical 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 (Ophioglossum vulgatum), 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 thecae, 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 
 examined for this plant, which, though not uncommon, 
 and sometimes very abundant in the habitats men- 
 tioned, is often overlooked, from its being concealed 
 among springing grass, and the heats of summer soon 
 cause it to wither away. The Moonwort (Botrychium 
 lunaria) is another curious Fern, 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. 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 large bipinnate fronds, 
 above which the deep brown sori rise clustered toge- 
 ther in a compound spike of much elegance. In the 
 bogs of Wales this Fern 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, and Cors Gochno, 
 north of Aberystwith, in both of which localities I 
 have gathered it. No doubt it was once a " plant of 
 power," for Burnet states that Osmunder was one of
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNE. 139 
 
 the titles of Thor, the Saxon God of Thunder, while 
 mund is well known to denote strength and power. 
 Even now " the flowering Fern" is said to possess 
 styptic and astringent qualities. 
 
 The -Hymenophyllacetf, 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 romantic Rhyddol, on the 
 opposite side of the appalling bridge of Pont Bren. 
 In this delicate and curious genus the fruit or cups of 
 the seed-vessels rise solitary from the axils of the 
 fronds, on short pedicels, and consist of two valves, 
 within which is a column covered with thecse. They 
 are not, however, readily observed, especially when 
 dry, without a lens. 
 
 The Polypodiacex 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. Every heath and damp alder copse 
 is then strewn with the crisp Pteris aquilina, the rigid 
 Hard Fern (Blechnum boreale), or waves with the deep 
 green fronds of the Great Shield Fern (Aspidium 
 dilatatum) . Even the driest walls offer a convenient 
 nidus to the Rue-leaved Spleenwort (Asplenium ruta 
 muraria), or the scaly Hart's-tougue (Grammitis
 
 140 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 
 ceterach). A few, as the Asplenium lanceolatum, the 
 singularly beautiful Adiantum Capillus-veneris, and the 
 Sea Spleenwort {Asplenium marinum), are partial to 
 maritime situations, where they decorate the caves of 
 ocean with a classical nereidic foliage. The Pem- 
 brokeshire coast is adorned with them in various spots. 
 Others are chained to the mountain rocks, to bear all 
 the vicissitudes of heat and cold, as the Parsley Fern 
 (Cryplogramma crispa), so indicative of an alpine sta- 
 tion, and spreading luxuriantly on the secondary 
 slopes of Cadair Idris, Snowdon, and the mountains 
 of Yorkshire and Cumberland. In similar habitats 
 the Hair-ferns (Woodsia), and the beautiful Bladder- 
 ferns (Cistopteris) are found ; one of the latter, C. 
 fragilis, often occurring upon the works of man in 
 wild districts, as on the Devil's Bridge, near the falls 
 of the Monach, Cardiganshire. The Beech-fern 
 (Polypodium phegopteris), the tender three-branched 
 Polypody (P, dryopteris), as well as P. calcareum, 
 also generally occur on stony mountains,* or by the 
 margins of alpine streams just plunged from a wooded 
 precipice 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 Wales, many scenes may be found 
 like the one here imaged, as at the Raven Fall in the Vale 
 of Festiniog, and deep within the bed of the river Cyn- 
 
 * P. calcareum grows abundantly on the stony declivity of Cleeve -cloud 
 Hill, one of the Cotswolds.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 141 
 
 fael, where a naked rock towers, called Pulpit Hugh 
 Llwyd, said to have been once the scene of magical 
 rites and incantations. The Ferns, last mentioned, 
 may be found at Cil Hepste Waterfall, and Pont 
 Henrhyd, in the Vale of Neath, as well as most of the 
 cataracts in North and South Wales. A scene some- 
 what similar to the one above depicted, is thus men- 
 tioned by Grahame, in his " Birds of Scotland." 
 
 " What dreadful cliffs o'erhang this little stream ! 
 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, stalked with green, as in 
 Asplenium viride, or with the deepest purple, as in A. 
 trichomanes. The Asplenium filix faemina, or Lady- 
 Fern, is the Queen of Ferns, exquisitely and super- 
 eminently delicate and beautiful. Though by no means 
 uncommon, yet it is only in wild rocky solitudes, 
 secluded from the glare of day, soothed by babbling 
 water, and nursed in delicious 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 Clydach, by the borders 
 of Monmouthshire and Breconshire, I gathered some 
 splendid specimens of this description, far superior to
 
 142 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNE. 
 
 the more common varieties, which, when too densely 
 covered with sori, have rather a coarse and inelegant 
 aspect. The Glyn is not always explorable, but at 
 this time the water was low, and by leaping and 
 climbing from rock to rock, over many a still pool and 
 up many a frothy water-break, we at last gained its 
 innermost recesses. It was a burning summer's day, 
 and looking up the mural precipices of limestone on 
 either side, with here and there a tuft of Yew or 
 daring Whitebeam on a jutting crag, up 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 Of the rocks, where many 
 a fantastically boled beech lifted its tortuous arms, and 
 wound its briarean roots among the rifted rocks. 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 
 aquaticus) had just emerged. Suddenly, a dark cloud 
 curtained the deep ravine, and a peal of thunder 
 solemnly echoed among the hills. Drops, streams, 
 torrents of rain poured upon our heads, and we sought 
 shelter 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 speci- 
 mens and all in the arms of the furious flood, and 
 hurled mercilessly down " the Black Cataract," which 
 we had left behind us. Fortunately the rain abated,
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 143 
 
 and saved us from this 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 Ferns, I shall 
 leave that family for the Botanical Explorator to 
 developefor himself, and merely now descant upon the 
 charms of my favourite Filixfcemina.* 
 
 THE LADY FERN. 
 
 When in splendour and beauty all nature is crown'd, 
 The Fern is 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 sort expos'd to the tempest's rough shock ; 
 On the wide chilly heath Aquilina stands stern, 
 Not once to be nam'd with the sweet 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 shadowy tufts though with pleasure I turn, 
 The palm must still rest with the fair Lady-Fern. 
 
 By the fountain I see her just sprung into sight, 
 Her texture as frail as though shivering with fright, 
 To the water she shrinks, I can scarcely discern 
 In the deep humid shadows the soft 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 stands the tall Lady-Fern. 
 
 * Those who may wish to pursue the subject in detail, should consult 
 Edward Newman's elegant " History of British Ferns."
 
 144 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNE. 
 
 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 pinnse 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. 
 
 Noon burns up the mountain but here by the fall 
 The Lady-Fern nourishes graceful and tall ; 
 Hours speed as thoughts rise without any concern, 
 And float like the spray gliding past the green Fern. 
 
 * Asplenium trichomanes. 
 t Flowering Fern (Osmunda regalis).
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 FLOWERY SIMILIES THE POPPY ANNODNCES THE 
 
 APPROACH OF THE SOLSTITIAL FLORA THE YELLOW 
 
 IRIS, AND OTHER ATTENDANT FLOWERS GRASSES 
 
 LEGENDARY AND BOTANICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ROSE ITS SPECIES AND VARIETIES SYMBOLS AND 
 
 SENTIMENTS CONNECTED WITH THB SUBJECT. 
 
 " 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 was a wild woodbine, 
 
 And I a zephyr light." ANON. 
 
 I have not the honour of knowing the poet or 
 poetess who seized upon these flowery similies ; but to 
 a Botanical " Explorator," like myself, who, of 
 course, ought to be awake to every thing that the use 
 of flowers, in season or out of season will, by possibi- 
 lity, command, at this dreamy time they come in not 
 inappropriately. This is, indeed, making the most of
 
 146 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 
 flowers to enjoy the felicity of having them the com- 
 panions of our dreams, and not only so, but to have 
 our loves transformed into them, so that while they 
 lose none of their delicacy or beauty, they are, at all 
 events, prevented from running away from us ; while, 
 as " amorous bees,'' we are allowed to fly about in 
 all directions over the gay parterre. Thanks, Mr. 
 " Anon," for this bright idea, which, no doubt, our 
 dear loves will at once sanction with their kind ap- 
 proval ! It would also be a great help, occasionally, 
 to a Botanist to become the " silvery mist," as emi- 
 nences might then be visited, where curious flowers 
 grow, without the toil of scaling them at risk of life 
 or limb, or some " dishonest wound " in coat or inex- 
 pressibles ! For strange to say, we have had friends 
 who shrank to gather the Samphire or Sea-Mallow 
 on their craggy lime- stone ledges ; and could scarcely 
 screw up their courage to seize the ancient British 
 Woad (Isatis tinctorid),* on its time-honoured red 
 marl cliff, with its golden crown, splendid as the torque 
 upon the chieftain of old ; or, if with daring step they 
 did ascend the precipitous tumulus, awed by the 
 genius of the place, they sought an easier though longer 
 downward road ! Even Botany is not without its 
 incidents. 
 
 * This tall plant, which has a very splendid aspect wheu 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 British 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, 
 6 feet in height. Some had double stems and above twenty compound bran- 
 ches in each panicle of flowers. Most of these branches had more than 
 twelve brunchlets, each having about eighty blossoms, so that these mag- 
 nificent adornments of the native Flora of Britain, each bore nearly twenty- 
 four thuutund single flowers !
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNE. 147 
 
 But we must digress no further before us, in its 
 glory and beauty, lies the solstitial Flora, the indu- 
 bitable offspring of Summer, and we must " gather 
 the roses ere they be withered." Scarcely has the sun 
 of June arisen, in favourable years, than a very re- 
 markable change is perceptible in the flowers of the 
 woods, meadows, and gardens. The vernal Flora is 
 gone, or, at all events, a memento of it only remains 
 here and there. The flaming Poppy* is the first to 
 announce the approach of the Summer solstice, by the 
 display of his scarlet banner, and the Red Lychnis 
 (L. flos-cuculi) , in damp places, quickly follows, 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 a host of splendid blueish-green 
 Dragon-flies, with brown glazed wings (Agrion virgo), 
 are fluttering ; and conspicuous in the golden mea- 
 dows, towering above the masses of sweet Honey- 
 suckle Clover, appears the great Summer Daisy 
 (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum.) The purplish-blue 
 flowers of the Meadow Cranes-bill (Geranium pratense), 
 are now very obvious amidst woody or river-side pas- 
 tures, 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 the ornament of 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 
 
 * The light-red Papaoer argemone, distinguished by its long hairy 
 capsule, blows earliest; the specious Rhieas is rather later, as well as 
 P. ditbium. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 
 
 Pfc&w iit-e.Zf^ 
 
 sweet-scented Meadow Drop wort (Spiraea Ulmaria'), 
 whose cream-coloured panicles are now becoming 
 every where visible. The Great Valerian ( V. officinalis) 
 fringes woods in a similar manner. For those Bota- 
 nists who study Grasses, this is the opportunity to 
 inspect them in their full perfection, as their stamens 
 and coloured farina present themselves to view. At 
 least, thirty-five genera, and about one hundred and 
 twenty-five species, are natives of this country. Al- 
 though their want of 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 " staff" of 
 life." But even as far as beauty is concerned, the 
 Feather-grass (Stipa pennata), the Silver Hair- 
 Grass, and others of the genus Aira, the Agrosti and 
 common Reed, the Mountain Melic-Grass (Melica 
 nutans), the Hare's-tail Grass (Lagurus ovatus), and 
 the Wood- Reed (Calamagrotis Epigejos), are not to 
 be despised ; while the common Quaking-Grass 
 (Briza media) charms even the humblest rustics, who 
 gather it to adorn the mantels of their little thatched 
 cottages. 
 
 But now, at last, appears, in its multiform varieties 
 and exuberant fragrance, 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. 
 
 * * *
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 149 
 
 Oh ! there is nought in nature bright, 
 Where Roses do not shed their light !" 
 
 The very sight, or even the name of the Rose, is suffi- 
 cient to raise our temperament to the poetical point, 
 and recal a hundred legends and fables relative to this 
 universal favourite, from its colour being derived from 
 the blood of Adonis, down to the " Rosa-mundi,"* and 
 Wars of the Roses, of our own history* 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 interesting 
 to dilate upon it in some degree popularly histo- 
 rically, 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 Carnatic 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, poetically summed up the melan- 
 choly detail " The flowers of the Rose have fallen, 
 and the stalk, with all its thorns, alone remains in my 
 hand." In fact, we can scarcely image to ourselves a 
 Rose without thorns ; and Milton, to depict the supe- 
 rior ambrosial pleasures afforded by Eden, makes it 
 abound with 
 
 " Flowers of all hues, and without thorn the Rose." 
 
 Yet, it is curious that there is actually a thornless species 
 of alpine Rose, called, by Botanists, inermis or unarmed, 
 
 * Literally, flower of the world : hence the play of words on the inscrip- 
 tisn to fair Rosamond" Rosa mtintli, non Rosa-munda."
 
 150 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 
 from this remarkable circumstance. Another fact, 
 with regard to the Rose, is, that the five sepals of its 
 pitcher-shaped calyx are almost invariably thus ar- 
 ranged two are pinnate or bearded throughout, two 
 are simple or unbearded, and one is pinnate on one 
 side only. This gave rise to on old monkish enigma, 
 which we thus translate 
 
 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. 
 
 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 R. Ker Porter, every garden and court is crowded 
 with its plants ; every room is fragrant with ever- 
 replenished 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 re- 
 galed by the most beautiful and fragrant Roses, but 
 the ear is enchanted with the warblings of multitudes 
 of Nightingales, whose notes seem to increase in 
 melody and softness with the unfolding of their favourite 
 flowers. 
 
 Father Catron, in his " History of the Mogul Em- 
 pire,*' thus accounts for the origin of the celebrated 
 Otto of Roses, now so esteemed as an indispensable 
 appendage to a lady's boudoir. It appears that the
 
 WiLD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 151 
 
 Princess Nourmahal, in the true style of Eastern 
 voluptiousness, once filled an entire canal with Rose- 
 water, upon which she made frequent sailing excur- 
 sions, in company with the Great 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 discovery of the 
 essence (Otto) of Roses. Near Damascus is the famous 
 plain of Roses, solely dedicated tolthe making of the 
 Attar, which, for some miles, is thickly planted with 
 Rose-trees, of which great care is taken. This Attar, 
 or Otto of Roses, is the most remarkable of all the 
 preparations from the flower, and has the consistence 
 of butter, becoming liquid only in the very hottest 
 weather. 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 
 so tedious is the manufacture of any quantity, that 
 half a drachm of the Attar can scarcely be obtained 
 from lOOlbs of rose-petals. The scent of the minutest 
 grain of the genuine essence is, however, very 
 powerful. 
 
 In an odour-breathing little volume, entitled " Me- 
 moirs of the Rose," it is observed " The Rose, 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 Rose." * A belief that two young companions 
 
 * This is all right, and forms the undisputed privilege of a " Botanical 
 Explorator," who, with his red Rose at Midsummer, and Mistletoe at Christ- 
 mas, need never be without employment or rational amusement.
 
 152 WILD FLOWERS OF JtTNB. 
 
 have become lovers, is a suspicion whispered " under 
 the Rose." The certainty of arrangements for an in- 
 tended marriage often transpires " under the Rose ;" 
 and whenever I greet the full-blown impression of your 
 exquisitely engraven seal, with its appropriate motto 
 " Sub-Rosa," 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 the origin of this secresy, " under 
 the Rose," it is said that Cupid, on some occasion, 
 bribed Harpocrates to silence by the present of a Rose 
 (a golden effigy of one it is to be presumed) ; and 
 hence, at banquets it was formerly the custom to sus- 
 pend a Rose over the table, as a hint that things 
 might transpire over the convivial board not to be re- 
 peated elsewhere. The Rose was always considered a 
 mystical emblem of the Catholic Church, probably 
 from the mention of the " Rose of Sharon" in Scrip- 
 ture ; and even now the ceremonial of Blessing the 
 Rose is still performed at Rome. It was a very com- 
 mon ornament in Gothic architecture. Lands have 
 been frequently held from a feudal superior, by the 
 acknowledgment of a Rose at Christmas, which was 
 not in ancient times so easily procurable as it is at 
 present, nor, indeed, so valuele&s, for it appears by a 
 MS. in the Remembrance Office, signed by King 
 Henry the 7th, that in his reign a Red Rose actually 
 cost two shillings a considerable sum at that time. 
 
 Our space will only here allow a very brief bota- 
 nical reference to the numerous species and varieties 
 of Roses, more especially when the different supposed 
 species so approximate to each other, that it is often
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNK. 153 
 
 difficult to draw the line of distinction between them ; 
 and Linnaeus was of opinion that nature herself had, 
 in this genus, prescribed no certain limits. The lovers 
 of Roses may, however, consult Miss Lawrence's 
 work, where ninety kinds are figured ; Lindley's Mono- 
 graph ; the various Floras where they are enumerated ; 
 Loudon's Arboretum ; or the splendid French work of 
 M. Redoute, containing descriptions of eight hundred 
 various kinds. More than that number are now culti- 
 vated in England in the various nurseries ; and, 
 according to M. Desportes, the French can boast no 
 less than 2.533 named varieties. Loudon has, however, 
 only particularly described seventy-seven kinds in his 
 Hortus, but then many of these include multifarious 
 varieties. The Centifolia group, including the Damask, 
 Province, and French Roses, has always been most 
 esteemed : this comprises the favourite Moss Roses, 
 dark, white, striped, and crested. The yellow Eglan- 
 tine Rose (Rosa lutea), makes a conspicuous show in 
 gardens, as well as its fiery variety subrubra, while the 
 Sweet-Briar is familiar to every body from the grate- 
 ful scent of its leaves. The Chinese Roses (R. Indica 
 et semperflorens) , have been extensively cultivated in 
 the present day, from their hardiness and long conti- 
 nuance in flower ; and are now to be seen in almost 
 every garden. The Rosa Banksiae, or Lady Bauks's 
 Rose, smooth, and without prickles, is a beautiful 
 shrub, and is remarkable for its pale yellow flowers, 
 which are small, round, and very double, on long 
 peduncles, resembling in form those of the double 
 Cherry, or a small Ranunculus, more than those of the 
 generality of Roses. The Rose, in some form or
 
 154 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 
 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 produces only fourteen, Europe has twenty- 
 five. Temperate 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 
 individuals are more luxuriant ; for while in the north 
 wild Roses have always single, flowers, in Italy and 
 Greece it is not uncommon to find them with double 
 flowers growing spontaneously in the woods and mea- 
 dows. No Rose has been ever found in South America 
 or Australia. Sir J. W. Hooker describes nineteen 
 Roses as natives of Britain, of which, perhaps, the 
 most beautiful are R. spinosissima, R. villosa, R. c&sia, 
 R. Sabini, and R. Doniana. Some of the latter, in 
 their prime of perfection, streaked with white and red, 
 might well inspire a poetical mind to utter the follow- 
 lowing beautiful sentiment, which coincides with the 
 motto with which we commenced this chapter ; and 
 thus, insensibly, we shall glide back into the same train 
 of thought with which we commenced. 
 
 " O g^in my love were yon red Rose, 
 
 That grows upon the castle wa', 
 And I mysel a drop o' dew 
 
 Into her bonie breast to fa',! 
 Oh, there, beyond expression blest, 
 
 I'd feast ou 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 emblematic 
 of beauty and loveliness than the Myrtle itself, the
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 155 
 
 Rose 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 pre- 
 sented, 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. Evelyn mentions a churchyard, in Surrey, 
 filled with Rose-bushes.* The Rose only appears in 
 its perfection of beauty when Summer has called forth 
 all the glories of creation, and the leafy month of June 
 presents its umbrageous woods sleeping in the fervid 
 rays of noon. Hence the Rose is connected with our 
 most delightful feeling?, our earliest excursions, our 
 long-desired holidays, our tenderest recollections ; and 
 hence the " Coleur de Rose," with which I have 
 attempted slightly to tinge this chapter, has become pro- 
 verbial for that happy and exhilirating state of feeling 
 which can see no imperfections, and trace no dark sha- 
 dows 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 ! 
 
 * Clemence Isaure, a lady of Toulouse, who lived in the fifteenth Cen- 
 tury, and who had often presided at the celebrated Floral Games of that 
 ancient city, presented the citizens with magnificent 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 be strewed 
 upon her tomb. Her statue now adorns the hall of the Academy of Floral 
 Games in Toulouse, and is annually crowned with brilliant floweri.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 FLOWERING OF PLANTS COINCIDENT WITH FESTIVALS 
 ELDER AND SHEEP-SHEARING SEASONAL RETAR- 
 DATIONS THUS NOTED THE TEW, THE BIRCH, 
 
 AND THE HOLLY IN CHURCHES HABITATS OF 
 
 PLANTS INFLUENCE OF LIME-STONE PIMPERNEL 
 
 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-robed 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 Roses, to which I hope no objection can be 
 made ; but while we have been reposing upon it, I find
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNE. 157 
 
 so many flowers have sprung up around us, that un- 
 less numbers are altogether neglected, it is absolutely 
 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 referred 
 to, and conceived that the times of their observation 
 were not legitimately arrived, if the flowers were not 
 apparent in their beauty. Thus Dyer has made sheep- 
 shearing to correspond with the flowering of the 
 Elder (Sambucus nigra). 
 
 11 If verdant Elder spreads 
 Her silver flowers, if humble Daisies yield 
 To yellow Crowfoot and luxuriant grass, 
 Gay shearing-time approaches." 
 
 This, according to Forster, as marked in the epheraeris 
 uf 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 the last 
 year, 1839, although not quite so bad, no Elder was 
 in flower until June 14th. Poor Clare, in his " Shep- 
 herd's Calendar," mentions a curious custom, as still 
 existing at the termination of the sheep-shearing at 
 farm houses, and probably derived from long antiquity
 
 158 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 
 
 when a damsel presents every shepherd, who has 
 been employed in the work, with a boquet of flowers 
 commonly called " clipping posies." As Clare men- 
 tions several flowers that appear, in the selection, I 
 shall quote his homely strain. 
 
 " 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 monks-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 marjornm 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-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 159 
 
 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 1 
 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 I " 
 
 It was also an ancient practice to scatter flowers upon 
 the streams at shearing time, and this is still done in 
 some secluded spots at the present time. 
 
 Anciently, the flowers of the woods, fields, and gar- 
 dens, 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 Glastonbury, 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 Christmas Day was long 
 kept in defiance of the Act of Parliament, and even 
 now, in secluded parishes, is honoured as alone worthy 
 of hallowed respect. The old rhyming anthology says, 
 
 " 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 rag- 
 ged red petals in the grass. Another plant, still more 
 true to the first summer days of June than the Ragged
 
 160 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 
 
 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 
 Rattle (Rhinanthus Crista-galli), abounds in the grass 
 of meadows, and when its seeds rattle spontaneously 
 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, (Hypericum), bears its title 
 from flowering on or about June 24th, the day of the 
 celebration of the feast of John the Baptist.* 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. 
 
 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 
 
 * In some parts of Wales this solstitial flower is placed upon door-posts 
 as a defence against evil spirits a custom, perhaps, derived from Druidical 
 times.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 161 
 
 the Yellow Iris or Flag (Iris pseudacorus) almost always 
 unfolds its brilliant corolla OQ May 3 1st, or June 1st; the 
 latter date is given by Forster in his " Rustic Calen- 
 dar," aud 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. 
 The Rosa spinosissima usually commences flowering 
 from the 20th to 25th of April, but in the former of 
 the years mentioned, it did not expand, to my obser- 
 vation, till June llth, while Rosa canina almost always 
 showing some flowers by June 1st or 2d, presented 
 none before June 19th, and then very partially. In 
 1839 the wild Rose did not show its flowers until the 
 20th of June, while the 20th of May, in 1840, exhi- 
 bited a floral aspect at least a month in advance of the 
 former year. 
 
 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 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 finding the church 
 
 * About eight miles north-west of Worcester. 
 M
 
 162 WILD FLOWBRS OF JUNE. 
 
 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 custom, the origin 
 of which he did not know ; but the Yew at Easter, 
 the Birch at Whitsuntide, and the Holly at Christmas, 
 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 were each distin- 
 guished by their peculiar frondal ornaments. 
 
 VERSES FOR CANDLEMAS EVE. 
 Down with the Rosemary and Bayes ; 
 
 Down with the Mistleto ; 
 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. 
 
 When Yew is out then Birch comes in, 
 
 And many flowers beside ; 
 Both of a fresh and fragrant kinne, 
 
 To honour Whitsontide. 
 
 Green Rushes then, and sweetest Bents, 
 
 With cooler Oaken boughs, 
 Come in for comely ornaments, 
 
 To re-adorn the house.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 163 
 
 It ha? been supposed that the sombre funereal Yew 
 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 Yew was selected by the Christians as equally analo- 
 gous in this respect ; and typical, not only of the 
 immortality of the soul, but of the perpetual endu- 
 rance of that Church against which the gates of hell 
 were never to prevail. 
 
 By the middle of June, in dry stony localities, the 
 little Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vescaj 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. 
 
 lu a former chapter I alluded to the localities of 
 plants, and I may here add that the habitats some of 
 them 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 in precipices, and others in bogs but 
 where are these woods, precipices, and bogs ? they 
 must be sought and explored, for every one by no 
 means nourishes the same plant, and some are very 
 local, and only to be met with in peculiar spots. Not 
 H 2
 
 164 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 
 long since 1 pointed out to a friend the habitat of the 
 British Woad (Isatis Tinctoria), ou a red marl cliff not 
 very distant ; * but if my good 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 adventure in 
 
 " th' imminent deadly breach," 
 
 ere he effectually accomplished his purpose. Another 
 friend and myself were nearly a whole day hunting 
 among marshes and ditches a short time since 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 in- 
 teruiingled lilac, white and yellow, abound in one 
 watery ditch only in my neighbourhood, while a thou- 
 sand excursions 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 Titania's bower," in 
 some woods abounds most profusely, and, covering 
 the bushes and trees, makes a delightful show, while 
 in others it might be sought for in vain. Many of the 
 
 * On the precipitous face of the red marl cliff at the Mithe Tout, 
 close to the river .Severn, above Tewkesbury. The cliff terminates with a 
 tumulus dedicated of old to the worship of Teutates. 
 
 t Ophioglossum rulgatum. '
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 165 
 
 Orchidese are very local the beautiful Bee-Orchis 
 (0. apt/era), generally only occurs on or near lime- 
 stone ; the Frog Orchis (Platantheru viridis) in moist 
 pastures ; and the singular Lizard Orchis, has been 
 only met with 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 
 Military Orchis (0. militaris), Monkey Orchis (0. 
 tephrosanthos) , and the very singular Green Man 
 Orchis (Aceras anthropophora) , whose flowers, when 
 closely examined, have such a strange anthropomorphous 
 aspect, as to seem like little men or monkeys. In- 
 deed, scarcely a range of hills or mountains exists 
 which has not some plants either peculiar to it, 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 hypo- 
 glottis), which I well remember to have snatched with 
 joy from the rugged brow of Bredon-hill, Worcester- 
 shire, nearly ten years ago. 
 
 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
 
 166 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 
 
 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. Veronica spicata, liriza 
 minor, Salvia verbenaca, Scabiosa columbaria, Centun- 
 culus minimus, Gentiana amarella, Lychnis viscaria, 
 Origanum vulgare, Spiraea filipendula, Geranium sangui- 
 neum, Helianthemum canum, Anthyllis vulneraria, and 
 Solidago Cambrica. Taking in the whole promontory. 
 a great number of others might be enumerated.* The 
 chalky cliffs in the vicinity of Dover, and other parts 
 of our south-east coast, nourish a great number of 
 species. Craig Breidden, in Montgomeryshire, is 
 a very interesting locality, and in the vicinity of St. 
 David's, in South Wales, several plants grow rarely 
 met with elsewhere in Britain, as the 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 
 (Dianthus 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 pos- 
 
 * Cotoneaster vulgaris also grows on the cliff's of the Ormshead, its only 
 habitat in Britain.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 167 
 
 sible, and offering a lesson of economy. The beau- 
 tiful crimson Grass -Vetch (Lathyrus 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 adorn- 
 ments, 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 contin- 
 gencies are required for the flowering of a plant, which 
 may not again soon occur 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. 
 
 There are several plants that bear the name of 
 " meteoric," so denominated by Linnaeus, as being 
 more subjected than others to the influences of the 
 weather and atmosphere, or, at all events, more sen- 
 sitive to those influences. The pretty Arenaria rubra, 
 that opens its purple petals wide before the mid- day 
 s>un, 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 perfoliata), closes its flowers before five^.m., 
 and the yellow Goat's-beard (Trogopogon pratensis),
 
 168 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 
 
 so eommon now in upland meadows, even before noon 
 hence its colloquial name, " Go-to -bed-at-noon." 
 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 con- 
 quence on that day, and the umbrella and the macin- 
 tosh may be safely dispensed with. The following 
 lines were composed in illustration of this circumstance. 
 
 TO THE PINK-EYED PIMPERNEL. 
 
 " Clos'd is the pink-eyed Pimpernel." 
 
 Dr. JKVMER. 
 
 Come, tell me them coy little flower 
 
 Converging thy petals again, 
 Who gave thee the magical power 
 
 Of shutting thy cup on the rain ? 
 
 While many a heautiful 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 ?
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 169 
 
 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 as 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 ! 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Cranes Bill (Geranium pratense}, can- 
 not fail to be often noticed, as well as the tall rough 
 Cow-parsnep (Heracliwn sphondilium) , while here and 
 there the Birds'-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) , the 
 long-rooted Cat's-ear (Hypocherisradicata),and several 
 other composite flowers, form glowing patches of 
 gold, finely contrasting with the argent njasses of 
 Daisies and Anthemi,* or the bright pink clusters of 
 the Rest-harrow and Clover. 
 
 In some romantic hollow lane, overrun with Fox- 
 glove (Digitalis purpureaj, studded with many an old 
 
 * Anthemis inodorus, A. cotula, and other allied composite flowers.
 
 170 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNK. 
 
 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 
 brilliant 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.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JUNE. 171 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR JUNE. 
 
 As many of the beautiful tribe of Orchidite are to be 
 found in full perfection this month, it may he 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 growing in the open air. Some of them, 
 too, certainly the Bee Orchis (Ophrys apifera), ripen their 
 seeds even in this artificial state, the carpels elongate, dis- 
 tend, 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 luxuriant 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 botani- 
 cal 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 
 become 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 unex- 
 panded flowers. The plant is then to be 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
 
 172 WILD FLOWERS OP JUNE. 
 
 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 (Calluna et 
 Erica}, should be immersed in boiling water soon after 
 gathering, which will prevent their leaves dropping off. If 
 for curiosity, any species of Sedum be preserved or hung 
 up, it will continue to grow for years. A specimen of 
 Sednm 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 after- 
 wards.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 CHARMS OF ASSOCIATION CONSIDERED DRUIDICAL 
 
 OAK IN THE FOREST OF DEAN PLANTS IMMIGRA- 
 TING FROM ROCKS TO RUINS A SCENE ON THE 
 
 WYE STONECROP8 AND OTHER SPECIOUS PLANTS 
 
 OF THE jESTIVAL FLORA SOLITARY MUSINGS 
 
 THISTLES, DROPWORTS, &C. CERRIG CENNEN CAS- 
 TLE AND CHEDDER CLIFFS PLANTS GROWING ON 
 
 RUINS ADVENTURE 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 1" 
 
 " Of old ruinous castles ye tell, 
 Where I thought it delightful your beauties to find, 
 When the magic of Nature first breathed on my mind. 
 
 And your blotfomi were part of her spell.." Campbell. 
 
 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 174 
 
 think the real lover of plants merely wants to arrange 
 a flower in the " orders" of Linnaeus, or domesticate 
 it in the "families" of Jussieu or De Candolle. 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 Csessirs 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 be is leading his tittering party. Nor 
 is the botanist without feelings when he contemplates 
 
 "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. A few 
 weeks 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 
 nearly 60 feet ;* on our way to it we had passed on 
 the brow of the Cy Maen f 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 
 
 * This king of the woods stands in a field in the parish of Newland, 
 Gloucestershire, about five miles from Monmouth. 
 
 t The Kymin Hill, near Monmouth.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 175 
 
 concealed from a stranger, yet stands that tottering 
 stone of judgment (the Logan-stone), 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 
 hocf 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 
 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 in the declining ruby light of 
 evening we gathered a branch of the Pyrus aria from 
 the ruined arches of Tintern, and after feeling the bot- 
 tom of the stony Wye in its rapid wiers, where we 
 were caught by the ebbing tide, found ourselves within
 
 176 WILD FLOWERS OF JULV. 
 
 an hour of midnight engulfed as in a dark cavern, 
 within the abyss, where the woods and rocks of Perce- 
 field 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 fish- 
 ing avocations, regarded us, as in silence and gloom 
 we were vainly " looking out " at each turn for Chep- 
 stowe and gluttonous as we are in the rambling wav, 
 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 being saddled with double 
 tolls, from the impracticability of returning home 
 through the gates before midnight. Alas ! alas ! we 
 are getting at last almost as bad. 
 
 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 ( Valeriana rubra), and the 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
 
 WILD KLOWERS OF JULY. 177 
 
 month smiles upon them in her most inviting manner, 
 and lights up their abandonment with a floral illumi- 
 nation. 
 
 Can ought be brighter than the golden flowers of 
 the various Stonecrops (Sedum acre, glaucum, reflexum, 
 #c.), 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 (Sedum anglicum). Now, on the limestone cliff, 
 whose massy bulk stretches far along like a line of 
 mighty fortresses, the beautiful Geranium sanguineum 
 presents her deep purple flowers, the perfoliate Yellow- 
 wort (Chlora perfoliataj opens her bright petals upon 
 the mid-day sun, the Marjorum (Origanum vulgare) 
 presents a waving line of white or light purple ; masses 
 of still brighter hue mark the habitat of the scented 
 Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) ; and the Ploughman's 
 Spikenard (Conyza squarosa), with a multitude of tall 
 yellow Hawkweeds, and the dense golden tufts of the 
 Golden-rod (Solidago virgaurea), embellish the escarp- 
 ments far and wide. How often at this season, with 
 steaming brow and panting heart, have I stood mid- 
 way 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 years, as far from the 
 haunts of men I was resting in oblivious luxury with 
 the delicate Winter-green (Pyrold) 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
 
 178 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 
 
 wild-duck, gleamed mistily before my eyes, and the 
 rustle of the squirrel, high in overhanging forest trees, 
 alone met my ears. When the great Bell-flower or 
 Throatwort (Campanula latifolia}, first met my admi- 
 ring 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), whose enthusiasm would 
 scarcely allow any but themselves to gather it. But 
 these are dreams of botanical delight for ever past ! 
 
 Contemplate we now the ^Estival flora in its charac- 
 teristic splendour. It is not till midsummer has fairly 
 revealed itself, that the beautiful tribe of St. Johri's- 
 worts (Hypericum) present themselves with their 
 bright flowers and curiously perforated leaves ; the 
 Dogwood (Cornus sanguined), marks the same event, 
 and now the Mallow (Malva rotundifolia) offers its 
 inviting blue flowers by every road-side to unnum- 
 bered bees, while the yellow Vetchling (Lathyrus 
 pratensis), sparkles amidst the yet uncut grass, and 
 the tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca) lifts up its violet clus- 
 ters 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 acanthium), meriting 
 especial attention amidst the group the Meadow 
 Plume Thistle (Cnicus pratensis), in wet alpine pas- 
 tures, offers also a spectacle far from inelegant. In 
 marshy spots the various species of Ragworts (Senecio) 
 now begin to present a specious aspect with their
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 179 
 
 yellow disks and radiant florets, and the common and 
 greater Knapweeds (Centaurea) lift their purple " hard- 
 heads." The rosy-tinted Drop-wort (Spircea filipen- 
 dula), abundant on downs near the coast, and, like 
 the " temple-haunting Martlet," always scenting the 
 purest air, now delights the eye of the summer wan- 
 derer, and wherever a tiny rill or grass-grown spring 
 weeps among the meadows, the Queen of the Meads 
 (Spirted 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 
 forgotten. Tt places me at once before that old wal] 
 at Llanbedie,* where I gathered so many of the wild 
 Carnation (Dianthvs caryophyllius) for my own herba- 
 rium and those of others. I was then on my way to 
 Cerrig Cenneii Castle; burning was the day and op- 
 pressive in the extreme: I stopped to rest beneath 
 the refreshing shadow of a huge spreading oak; nor 
 shall I soon forget the refreshing 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 on that day 
 when I scaled the heights of Cerrig Ceunen 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 
 
 * In Caermarthenshire. 
 N 2
 
 180 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 
 
 vulneraria), and various beautiful Heaths (Erica), 
 wreath the interstices and brow of the precipice. 
 
 Once, and once only, have I scaled the cliffs of 
 Cheddar for the beautiful Pink (Dianthus ccesius) that 
 adorns the brows of its tremendous 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, tottering peaks, and im- 
 pregnable buttresses, rose in stern and frowning pomp 
 before me; nor could imagination tint a picture ex- 
 ceeded here by the reality. Not unaccompanied by 
 care and anxiety, mourning for the past and propheti- 
 cally looking to the future with tearful glimpse, I yet 
 here paused upon my career. I came only, indeed, 
 to gather a plant, and came 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 these lofty rocks. I 
 gazed with awe upon such sublime monuments of past 
 revolutions, and fancied the admonition of the Great 
 Supreme warned me to be stedfast and immoveable to 
 the assaults of vice, as these time-worn precipices that 
 rose land-marks of his power. 
 
 I have found the lesser Broom-Rape (Orobanche 
 minor} a curious parasitical plant, with purple 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 
 only on the roots of other plants, as the clover, &c.; 
 and as its seeds are not winged, it seems difficult to
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 181 
 
 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 sem- 
 blance of one of the rocks around peopled with most 
 of their plants but none different. So numerous do 
 these sometimes become, that Professor Sebastiani 
 has published a " Flora Colisea," containing a list of 
 more than two hundred plants growing on the Coli- 
 seum at Rome. If we may suppose 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 thus a distinguished feature 
 given to characterize the floras of particular parts of 
 the earth from the earliest times. On this point I 
 shall not, at present, dwell farther, but it is certainly 
 interesting to the practical botanist to mark some 
 plants that seem cosmopolites winging in every direc- 
 tion, while others, from some 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 
 
 * I gathered this plant on the top of Martin's Tower, Chepstowe 
 Castle, in 1839.
 
 182 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 
 
 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 
 corymbs of the fragrant Alyssum maritimum ; 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 Chamcedrys) ; and, odd enough, 
 the topmost pinnacles of the fine gothic tower of 
 Newland church, Gloucestershire, wave with a cluster 
 of Cherry-trees! this I can testify from a recent 
 botanical "look-out" there. The rare Arabia turrita 
 has never been found in England except on the old 
 walls of Trinity and St. John's colleges, Cambridge, 
 and Magdalen college, Oxford ; and the inelegant 
 Ragwort (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.* Smyrnium olusztrum, perhaps from hav- 
 
 * Although living for many years in the immediate vicinity of this 
 spot, the plant had escaped my notice till kindly pointed out to me by 
 the observant eye of the Kev. Andrew Bloxsome, a gentleman well known 
 for his acumen In the records of botanical exploration. I have since kept 
 my eye on the srjualidus, year after year, and it cautiously keeps so high 
 npon the wall, that 1 am in hopes that even the acquisitive efforts of the 
 Worcestershire Natural History Society will fail to eradicate it.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 183 
 
 ing 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 Shrewsbury and Caer- 
 marthen, where I have observed it, and the narrow- 
 1 leaved Mustard almost invariably shows itself on the 
 fortifications of other days, as if it poetically clung to 
 the recollections of the past. Those who have seen 
 the walls of Southampton, Tenby, or Chester, must 
 recollect its conspicuous aspect there. I was once 
 detained by continued rain sometime within the ruins 
 of Oystermouth Castle; but the time that might other- 
 wise have been tedious, was agreeably beguiled in ex- 
 amining the pretty Cochlearia danica, which, in the 
 most luxuriant manner, festooned the walls of the 
 almost sole remaining perfect apartment, that over 
 the-entrance gateway. 
 
 This incident recalls my recollection to " the Mer- 
 maid," at Oystermouth. Ah! twice has " the Mer- 
 maid," at Oystermouth, received me within her drip- 
 ping embraces. Once I was alone the second time 
 with two lady companions: both times, alas! over- 
 whelmed 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 cynanchica, Juniper a corn- 
 munis. Euphorbia portlandica, Scabiosa columbaria, 
 Rubia peregrina, the hairy-leaved variety of Cistus 
 Helianthemum, Briza minor, Carex pauciflora, and the 
 Scaly Hart's-tongue Fern (Grammitis Ceterach). We 
 had scarcely got among these plants, and were en- 
 gaged in gathering them, when a mist began to 
 spread along the surface of old ocean. It increased
 
 184 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 
 
 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 posi- 
 tive 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 contemplated 
 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 
 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 
 outpourings 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULT. 185 
 
 upon the walls, and some old books of long bye- 
 gone fashions forgotten except by antiquated " mer- 
 maids," 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 ad- 
 venture.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY 
 
 CONTINUED, 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 " FURROW-WEEDS" AND BRAMBLES HISTORY AND 
 ECONOMY OF THE LATTER POPPY, CAMPION, AND 
 
 OTHER CORN-FLOWERS INDICATIONS OF THE DE- 
 CLINE OF THE ^fiSTIVAL 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 are not going to 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 Shaks- 
 peare 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 poisonous Henbane springs up amidst sweet 
 flowers," as sorrow, anguish, and disappointment, 
 must of necessity furrow the fair field that youthful 
 anticipation sees expanding before its delighted view. 
 We have previously expatiated upon Roses but from 
 direful experience we know full well that the brambly 
 thicket is not to be escaped, nor as impartial observers
 
 WILD FLOWER'^ OF JULY. 1 87 
 
 could we with propriety omit to indicate its existence ; 
 for, as Peter Pindar has shrewdly remarked in one of 
 his serio-comico epistles 
 
 " In our journey through life, my dear Joan, I suppose 
 We shall off meet a BRAMBLE, and sometimes a Rose ! 
 
 And as to the truth of this supposition there can exist 
 very little douht. It must be admitted that there are 
 too many Brambles in society ; but all that concerns 
 us on the present occasion is to put the best face we 
 can botanically upon the rude thorns and weeds that 
 now in such profusion beset our path. Before we 
 assume a crown of " furrow-weeds," it becomes neces- 
 sary 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 rnbus asper amomum," 
 
 says Virgil 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 
 fruit of the creeping Bramble, Rubus ccesius), assigned 
 by the Queen of the Fairies to Master Puck, yet a leaf 
 of fine Raspberries, a raspberry and currant tart (not
 
 188 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 
 
 forgetting the cream), or even a dish of raspberry jam 
 is by no means unpalatable. In Sweden a rich wine is 
 prepared from the fruit of the Dwarf Crimson Bram- 
 ble (Rubus arcticus), which is preserved for the tables 
 of the nobility ; and in Britain the humble Blackberry 
 is by no means unsought or unvalued by the peasantry. 
 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 that 
 blush with all the beauty of fairy roses. The glandular 
 Brambles, especially, are far from inelegant, and plants 
 are sometimes found bearing double flowers. The 
 little Stone Bramble (Rubus saxatilis), which occurs in 
 the woods of the Cotswolds and in other stony places, 
 bears small scarlet berries which assume very irregular 
 forms, the fruit only appearing where the species 
 creeps upon the face of rocks exposed to the sun. 
 
 But it has been justly observed, that the Bramble-bush 
 is a vegetable 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 undisturbed 
 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. In 
 Mazunderan, a province of Persia, on the borders of 
 the Caspian Sea, a particular gigantic Bramble-bush
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 189 
 
 abounds, according to Mr. Frazer,* which is honoured 
 by the inhabitants from the perfectly impervious jun- 
 gles 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 Ma- 
 zunderanee," that is, the heroes or guardians of Ma- 
 zunderan ; 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" 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 various families of warblers 
 resort to this magazine of wool so providentially pro- 
 vided 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. Clare, 
 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 disappintment still ; 
 Just keeping up expiring life's last fire, 
 That pining, lingers, ready to expire, 
 
 * Frazer's Winter Journey in Persia, Vol. ii.
 
 190 WILD FLOWERS OF JULT. 
 
 X 
 
 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 be- 
 neath which he takes the long last sleep with his rude 
 forefathers. So turn we from it. 
 
 We are got into the middle of July the sun blazes 
 in the heavens with intolerable 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 streaming and aching foreheads, as 
 we pass amidst the stately glories of the cornfields, 
 now just faintly imbibing their primary tinge, that 
 will settle, in maturity, into that auburn hue so delight- 
 ful 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, and perhaps it was always 
 solely confined 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 companion- 
 ship 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. 
 The association of the Lethean Poppy with Corn seems 
 certainly remarkable, if not unaccountable on philoso-
 
 WILD FLOWKRS OP JULY. 191 
 
 phical principles, whatever may have been written by 
 the poet or moralist. It has been suggested, on the 
 one hand, as indicating that sound and refreshing 
 sleep which is the usual accompaniment of, and neces- 
 sary restorative to, tired nature, oppressed with the 
 toils of cultivation. On the other, it seems to exhibit 
 the contrast of great show with little results, and un- 
 ostentatious worth, ripening, almost unnoticed, into 
 universal utility. But, botanically 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 corolla?. It thus 
 providently follows cultivation 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 frequently noticed. 
 Homer alludes to it : 
 
 " As brilliant Poppies, overcharged 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 
 gives a most splendid effect to the furrowed fields 
 from the golden breadth of its rays ; nor is the azure 
 of the Blue-bottle (Centaurea cyanus}, another agra- 
 rian, to be exceeded in beauty by any flower of the 
 parterre. The bright pink of the St. Foin, the yellow 
 racemes of the Melilot Trefoil, the purple heads of the
 
 192 WILD FLOW3RS OP JULY. 
 
 Lucern, the roseate hues of various Clovers, the curious 
 tall purple flowers of the Corn Campion (Agrostemma 
 Githago), overtopped by the long segments of the hairy 
 calyx, and the innumerable red flowers of the decum- 
 bent Restharrow (Ononis), all now decorate the " sus- 
 taining 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 (Echium vulgare), the caerulean eyes of the 
 Alkanet (Anchusa sempervirens), the paler blue of the 
 star-like Succory (Clchorium Intybus), the argent 
 blossoms of the Corn Chamomile (Anthemis arvensis), 
 or the less specious but remarkable inflorescence of the 
 Hare's-Ear (Bupleurum rotundifolium). The Fumiter 
 or Fumitory mentioned by Shakspeare, as occurring 
 in Lear's coronal, is a plant common enough in gar- 
 dens* and cornfields, of humble growth, and purplish 
 ringent flowers. It has been called the smoke of the 
 earth, but for what reason is unknown. Another 
 common but more characteristic appellation for it is 
 " Bhody-man's Thumb." A terrible infester of the 
 borders of cornfields and roads, which now appears 
 lifting up its purple or white " touch-me-not " heads 
 in all directions, tempting, however, at the same time, 
 many brilliant butterflies and coleopterous insects to 
 alight upon it, is what Curtis has emphatically styled 
 the " cursed- thistle," and which with the rank veno- 
 mous Hemlock, now arrived at its utmost luxuriance, 
 might well have been added to Lear's bitter emble- 
 matical crown. 
 
 The Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria), now exhibits 
 its yellow spikes of flowers very conspicuously in pas-
 
 WILD FLOWBRS OF JULY. 193 
 
 tures that have been grazed, marking the commencing 
 decline of the JSstival Flora after the finishing of the 
 hay- harvest; while the Bindweeds (Convolvulus ar- 
 vensis et sepium), show their purple and white bells on 
 sunny banks and high up in the hedges in every 
 direction, continuing far into September. 
 
 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 (Urtica dioica). This is one 
 of those common and rough-looking plants generally 
 disregarded as unworthy of notice; so that even the 
 late Professor Martin 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 
 numerous 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 protec- 
 tion, and surrround 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 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 ? No ! she retires to the nettles, and 
 o
 
 194 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 
 
 there safely leaves the infant embryo of a future race 
 secure amidst the armature of the urtica. Thus a 
 host of insects are sustained by an apparently useless 
 weed, which is itself kept within due bounds by the 
 caterpillars 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 
 poison 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 
 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 diffi- 
 
 * Quoted from a Lecture on the Analogies and Harmonious Associations 
 of Plants and Animals, delivered by the Author before the Worcestershire 
 Natural History Society; and published when he was Honorary Curator 
 to that body in 1834.
 
 WILD FLOWBRS OF JULY. 195 
 
 culties," says Withering, " and thus overcome them," 
 as indicated in the following lines: 
 
 *' Tender-handed, stroke the nettle, 
 
 And it stings you for your pains ; 
 Grasp it like a man of mettle, 
 
 And it soft as silk remains I 
 So it is with human natures, 
 
 Use them kindly, they rebel ; 
 But be rough as nutmeg-graters, 
 
 And the rogues obeys you well !" 
 
 Probatum est. The popular idea, however, may he 
 thus philosophically explained. The poison is inef- 
 fective 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 is still done in 
 some parts of Scotland; for the poet Campbell has 
 stated that he has dined from a nettle tablecloth, and 
 slept on nettle sheets. Even in England it is com- 
 mon to make nettle broth in the spring and early 
 summer;* and the following anecdote in exemplifica- 
 
 * In Dovaston's account of Bewick, in Loudon's Magazine of Natural 
 History, he describes the naturalist and engraver as collecting Nettle-tops 
 in his handkerchief, " which, when boiled, lie ate in his soup, methought 
 with very keen relish." They are considered to purify the blood when 
 boiled in milk. 
 
 Even Beer may be made 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. 
 
 o 2
 
 196 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 
 
 tion of this, as well as the castigatory powers of the 
 Nettle, may interest those who may perhaps shrink 
 from examining too closely the plant itself. The cir- 
 cumstance occurred sometime in 1839, at Bolton, in 
 Lancashire. A mechanic of the town having been out 
 for a walk, seduced by the luxuriant aspect of some very 
 fine 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 progress 
 homewards, however, he encountered a policeman, 
 fresh, no doubt, from the green island, who, struck 
 with the bulk of the pockets, collared the poor 
 herbalist, 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 been there, and finding a warmer reception 
 than he expected, he felt the expedience of acting 
 upon the principle of " paws off;" he, therefore, 
 quickly withdrew his hands covered with blisters, 
 amidst the laughter of the bystanders, and feeling 
 rather nettled, hastily retired from his botanical ex- 
 ploration ! 
 
 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 
 
 * Ireland, by Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Vol. I. p. 25.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF JULY. 197 
 
 merry maidens, too, not unfrequently avail themselves 
 of this privilege to "sting" their lovers and the 
 laughter in the streets is re-echoed eren in the Draw- 
 ing-room ! 
 
 And now, after this weedy, not to say blistering dis- 
 cussion, in the burning sun too, we may surely be 
 allowed a 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 fluttering 
 swift has ceased its vesper scream, while the satin- 
 winged moths are careering about the Red Valerians 
 and Sweet Williams in ceaseless gyrations, and 
 the tall Evening Primrose, with its yellow wide- 
 expanded flowers, seems to offer a pale light to the 
 noiseless footsteps of meditation.
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR JULY. 
 
 IN this month many Botanical Explorators are located 
 upon the margin of stormy ocean, and many a fair foot 
 paces to and fro upon the sandy or pebbly beach, inspiring 
 with delight the invigorating breezes, or viewing the ex- 
 panse of ocean with a thoughtful and melancholy gaze. 
 To such, a slight notice of the Sea-Weed tribe, so easily 
 preserved, and so beautiful when expanded in full beauty, 
 may not be unacceptable. As this tribe requires separate 
 elucidation, I have scarcely adverted to it in the monthly 
 indications. The individuals composing it are all of a 
 cellular nature, belonging to the Cryptogamic division 
 Algae. The Alga or Flags include all those aqueous pro- 
 ductions, 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 of stag- 
 nant water, to the enormous sea-tangle or fucus, with its 
 woody stem, broad flapping frond, and roots whose curling 
 fibres often surrounding fragments of shell and pebble, 
 float majestically along upon the bosom of the flowing tide. 
 After a storm, numbers of sea-weeds of 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 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 and wearisome emotions. 
 Patience is, of course, abundantly necessary in the careful 
 laying out of the pectinated Fiorina 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 collec- 
 tion on the shore. After this process they, in general, 
 preserve exceedingly well in the herbarium.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 LOVE OP ADVENTURE INHERENT IN MAN HIS EQUAL 
 
 DEVOTION TO THE LOVE OP NATURE PLEASURES 
 
 OF BOTANICAL HUNTING, WITH AN EPISODICAL 
 
 STORM AT LAKE LYNSAVADDON CHARACTERISTIC 
 
 WATER-PLANTS WHITE WATER LILY, LOTOS, AND 
 
 VICTORIA REGINA CONTRASTED ASPECT OF THE 
 
 HYDROCHARIS. 
 
 " 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 water-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
 
 200 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 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 ; 
 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 every- 
 day 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 arti- 
 ficial flies, sallies out to wade amidst brooks and 
 babbling streams from morn to dewy eve rewarded, 
 perhaps, with a solitary bite 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 froward, wild, and turbulent, as if 
 the passions from Pandora's box were straggling in its 
 liquid folds with or without a rod and line ? Ah ! it 
 is the love of nature that burns within our bosoms ; 
 the instinctive admiration of those woods, dark in 
 
 * Goldsmith's Deserted Village.
 
 WILD FLOWKRS OF AUGUST. 201 
 
 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 landscapes 
 with all their waters and all their inhabitants, that 
 solemnly robed in the mists of morning, or splendidly 
 revealed before the setting sun of evening, with all 
 their associations, and all the thoughts and reflections 
 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. 
 
 Now I am a botanical hunter, and have had my
 
 202 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 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 takeihe enjoy- 
 ment 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 with roll- 
 ing vapour, and their declivities black as midnight, 
 they frown terrifically upon the misty and obscured 
 waters of the lake Llynsavaddon, now wrapt in slumber 
 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.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP AUGUST. 203 
 
 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 tran- 
 sient tempest ; the sun has burst from the obstructing 
 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 now 
 slowly and sulkily they retreat to head quarters about 
 the crest of the moody Van, who demurs to their fur- 
 ther retreat ; but the lake seems now poured out in 
 molten silver, lines of excessive brilliancy chase each 
 other over its waters beneath the old tower of Llan- 
 gorse, and pass gracefully as if in review order : the 
 brilliant radiance spreads scuds flies ; and now, 
 at last, the fair lake, 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 tongue-like 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 Rush (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
 
 204 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 plant ; beauteous though the margin of old father 
 Thames is in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, with the 
 floating yellow blossoms of the fringed Menyanthes 
 nymphcEoides . How finely do the brown shaggy heads 
 of the Bulrush, or Typha, marshalled in battalions, 
 like grenadiers with hairy caps of the olden day, con- 
 trast 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 launch- 
 ed 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 rose- 
 ate 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 hesitation, 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 Typha, or Reed-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 inspection. The singular con- 
 spicuous brown catkin is, in fact, a mass of fertile 
 flowers, which, in maturity, becomes a flossy mass of 
 down, occasionally used for stuffing cushions ; and 
 on closely examining this down, it will be perceived,
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 205 
 
 that amongst it is a countless number of seeds, each 
 with a distinct feathery appendage, to waft it safely 
 over those waters where it had its origin, and wing 
 it way, through fields of air, to settle, and in due time 
 adorn other waters in the same ornamental manner as 
 its parent. The barren florets are yellow, placed 
 above the fertile ones, and in the maturity of the plant 
 disappear. The manner in which Providence has ar- 
 ranged the dispersion of 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 observ- 
 able in plants growing in watery places. We hare 
 before noticed the " globose wig '' of the Dandelion, 
 and the Willow-herbs (Epilobium), present a varied 
 structure illustrative of the same mode of dispersion. 
 The seeds, however, are primarily concealed, and pro- 
 tected within long capsules, 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 moniliform 
 aspect of the antennae of a Capricorn beetle ! But no 
 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, 
 for a moment, lost sight of the beauteous lake of 
 Llynsavaddon. But I must again glance at it as its
 
 206 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 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 WATER-LILY, (Nympheea 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 follow- 
 ing stanzas came to my aid while gazing on its waters, 
 and their bright adornments. 
 
 TO LAKE LYNSAVADDON 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 thy 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 Lynsavaddon, on thy shores I gaz'd 
 In one bright interval from Llangorse tow'r ; 
 The landscape smil'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 exhilirating hour ; 
 Up rose the Lily on fhe lake : she seems 
 
 All lovely as she is, the fairy of the streams.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP AUGUST. 207 
 
 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 ; 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 and 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. 
 
 As the Rose is the queen of the bower, so un- 
 doubtedly is the Lily the empress of the lake, and I 
 have only done my duty in thus testifying my admi- 
 ration, as far as she is concerned ; but I have merely 
 sketched her figure as she reclines upon her liquid 
 throne, realizing her poetical Indian name " Cumada," 
 
 * The Yellow Water Lily (Nuphar lutea).
 
 208 WILD FLOWERS OP AUGUST. 
 
 or " Delight of the Waters ;" but there seems some- 
 thing so emblematical of purity about this lovely plant, 
 that the warning of Shakspeare not to paint it is 
 singularly appropriate, and I shall not soil the fair 
 petals of the flower by touching farther upon it. One 
 remarkable circumstance, however, respecting the 
 Water-lily demands attention, and that is, that its 
 flowers expand only in bright weather and under the 
 influence of the mid-day sun, closing towards even- 
 ing, when they either recline on the surface of the 
 water, o 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 live -long 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 !" 
 
 The white Water Lily is not of common occur- 
 rence, though often abounding in the bays and inlets 
 of pellucid Alpine lakes. I have never seen it in 
 greater perfection than here, and filling some of the 
 lone pools in Cromlyn Morass, near Swansea, where 
 in the morning, during the season of its flowering, 
 the air is loaded with its remarkable brandy-like 
 fragrance. 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 209 
 
 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 corymbs of the great Willow-herb 
 (Epilobium hirsutum), or the rich masses of purple 
 formed by the spikes of the purple Loose-strife (Ly- 
 thrum 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 styled " lord of the Lotos." The blue Lotos 
 (Nymph&a ccerulea), with " azure skirts and vest of 
 gold," a native of Cashmir 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 delight- 
 ful fragrance. In the present day, a new and inter- 
 esting member of the tribe of Water Lilies has been 
 discovered in the river Berbice, in a part of British 
 Guiana, South America, which the discoverer, Mr. R. 
 Schomburgk, has named Victoria Regina, after our 
 beloved Queen, and which the Botanical Society of 
 London have adopted as their emblem. Mr. Schom- 
 burgk describes this plant as " a vegetable wonder," 
 and says that when it first met his view, all his toils 
 and calamities were forgotten. The flower is fragrant, 
 consisting of many hundred petals, passing in alternate 
 tints from pure white to rose and pink, and some of 
 them were found to be fifteen inches across. The 
 leaves are still more gigantic, salver shaped, almost 
 p
 
 210 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 orbiculate, with a rim, from three to five inches high 
 on their margin, green within, crimson without, and 
 resting in their extension of six feet, on the surface of 
 the water. The smooth water of one of the expan- 
 sions of the Berbice river was covered with these 
 beautiful Lilies, and Mr. Schomburgk remarks that he 
 rowed from one to the other, and observed always 
 something new to admire. Exciting as this narrative 
 is, tempting one to throw down pen, ink, and paper, 
 and every thing else, dashing off on the instant for 
 Guiana, in accordance with the phrenological develop- 
 ment hinted at in the commencement of this chapter ; 
 1 would, nevertheless, recommend those who have not 
 yet seen our beautiful British Water Lily, bathing her 
 silver chalice in our alpine lakes and solitudes, to do so 
 first ; and then, if they please, ransack the waters of 
 Guiana for the imperial Victoria Regina. 
 
 With this imperial naiad may be contrasted the 
 humble Frog-bit Water-lily (Hydrocharis Morsus- 
 Rana:) of our own ditches and slow streams, whose 
 leaves are scarcely larger than those of a sloe, and 
 whose rumpled white flowers have only three petals. 
 Yet the economy of this almost unregarded tenant of 
 the waters is not unworthy notice, nor when closely 
 examined is it devoid of beauty. Its floating reni- 
 form leaves are purple beneath, and it increases 
 almost entirely by floating runners, so that 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-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 211 
 
 fore of floating on its surface, they are providently 
 provided with elevating stalks, around whose bases is a 
 pellucid protecting bractea. About wild commons 
 and shady untrodden lanes, little shield-like pools often 
 appear, whose waters are entirely hidden, roofed over 
 with a verdant covering of the Hydrocharis ; and 
 scattered about this emerald table appear the nu- 
 merous 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. 
 
 p 2
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST, 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 PILGRIMAGE TO TY DEWI AND RAMSAY ISLAND ON 
 
 THE COAST OP 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 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." 
 
 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, un- 
 noticed gem leap amidst the intricacies of the quiver- 
 ing splashy bog or dare the solitary sandy wastes, 
 that in wearisome extent, spread along the verge of
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP AUGUST. 213 
 
 the ever boiling and pitvless ocean. The copying of 
 the above quotation from a neglected MS., reminds 
 me of the terrors of a companion, who once accom- 
 panied 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 de- 
 claration, that two journies to Ty Detoi, the hallowed 
 land of the Patron Saint of leek-crowned Welshmen;* 
 should stand good in the heavenly account as equiva- 
 lent to one to Rome; 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 men to convoy us, 
 not being then aware that one of them had never been 
 on the island, the other only once, and both very in- 
 experienced in nautical affairs. But all was bright, 
 the sea calm and flattering, the air still ; and the coast 
 of Ramsay 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, 
 
 * The old monkish rhyme ends thus 
 " Rnma semel quantum 
 Dat bis Menevla tantum." 
 
 Or to anglicize it in equally had verse- 
 Poor Menevia (St. David's) gives at twice 
 What at Rome you get in a trice !
 
 214 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 even in the ecstacy of the excitement, think of saying 
 for a moment " my native land good night !" I do 
 not dislike boating, either on sea or river, but, I 
 must confess, I rather prefer the contemplative part of 
 the business ; and on the present occasion, 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 exclamation 
 roused me, and I thought we were approaching land ; 
 but neither Ramsay, 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. For 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 rescue him
 
 WILD FLOWERS OK AUGUST. 215 
 
 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 should be 
 swept off too far. It seemed an awfdl moment, and 
 it really was so : for all was uncertainty. The con- 
 tinued 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 Virgil 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 seemed 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 forthwith, and when I once more 
 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 Fern Asplenium Lanceo- 
 latum, 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 ORGAN rent, as if
 
 216 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 by lightning, into clefts, peaks, and pinnacle? ; stained 
 by lichens of a thousand years' growth, in broad 
 patches of white and orange, aud bearded with dense 
 masses of green and grey Usnetc and Ramalirue. Fear- 
 fully low, the sea boils at the foot of the precipice ; 
 and 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 ORGAN, 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 to- 
 wards 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 suc- 
 cession 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 Fuel, oscillating with the bil- 
 lows, and flapping their long cold flabby fingers upon 
 the slaty rocks. This time we fortunately crested the 
 billows uualarmed and unscathed, and thus escaped 
 the unhappy fate of the late Mr. Adams, F.L.S., of 
 Pembroke, an unwearied botanist and conchologist : * 
 
 * This lamented gentleman supplied Sir James Edward Smith with 
 many rare plants, and his name is deservedly recorded in the classic pages
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 217 
 
 who, in an adventure along this same dangerous coast, 
 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 marinum), whose chesnut-coloured 
 sort nearly cover the alternate leaflets ; the Scaly 
 Harts-tongue (Grammitis Ceterach) 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 beau- 
 teously 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 
 
 of "English Botany." According to Donovan in his "Excursions 
 through South Wales," he had ventured too far from shore, dredging for 
 shells ; and Donovan himself relates that while out on thii same unfor- 
 tunate coast, a violent squall rent the cordage of their vessel, and ren- 
 dered it useless. " Thus," he says, " for nearly an hour, unable to make 
 any shore, we lay exposed to the rage of the contending elements in the 
 open sea, expecting at every breath our little boat would upset, and 
 plunge us into the merciless abyss of the deep."
 
 218 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 flowers of the Sea Campion (Silene maritima), nod ; 
 the crimson Geranium sanguineum here and there glad- 
 dens 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 (Sedum Anglicum). To the beetling rock suc- 
 ceeds (as is often the case on the Welsh coast) a waste 
 of yellow sand, stretching far across the borders of the 
 sea ; here lifted into hills and rampires, matted and 
 bound into consistence by the fibrous roots of the Sea 
 Lyme Grass (Elymus arenarius), and the Sea Reed 
 (Arundo arenaria), there depressed into huge hollows 
 and deep ravines smooth, soft, and delightful to the 
 tread, where no sound but the distant murmur of the 
 billows now 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 Tre- 
 foil (Lotus corniculatus), while masses of primrose tints 
 mark the social domicile of the Sea Chickweed (Are- 
 naria peploides). Within reach of the bitter spray of 
 the tide, wherever the rolling pebbles have been chafed 
 by the surges, the Yellow Horned Poppy (Glaudum 
 luteum) quivers her specious though fugacious petals, 
 that soon strew the shore, quickly succeeded by that
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 219 
 
 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 (Salsola 
 Kali} lifts its rigid foliage ; the Sea Beet (Beta mari- 
 tima) trails upon the ground ; the pretty pink flowers 
 of Sea Milkwort (Glaux maritima) rise half concealed ; 
 the Purple Sea Rocket (Kakile maritima) boldly lifts 
 up its bright lilac corymbose clusters ; and beauteous 
 above all, the Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum) exhi- 
 bits 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), and I once gathered the yellow-flowered St. 
 Barnaby's Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis, Linn), on the 
 sands at Barmouth, Merionethshire. 
 
 Farther on, the sandy ridges are darkened with 
 miniature thickets of the Burnet Rose (Rosa spinosis- 
 sima), whose bright red fruit, now abundantly con-
 
 220 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 spicuous, 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. 
 Portlandicd), appears with its crimson-dyed stalks; 
 these are relieved by the minute but dense masses of 
 yellow flowers of the Yellow Bedstraw (Galium verum); 
 while the pale clusters of Cynanchy-Wort (Asperula 
 Cynanchicd) ,* the beautiful pink Dwarf Centaury 
 (Erythr&a pulchella), the purple and white hemlock- 
 leaved Cranesbill, and the broad dingy purple bells of 
 the Sea Convolvulus (C. Soldanella), 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 un- 
 frequently happens that where the border 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 its 
 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 Sun- 
 dew (Drosera longifolia) ; the Rose Pempernel (Ana- 
 gallis tenella) displays her elegant bells of white or 
 pale red; the marsh St. John's Wort (Hypericum elodesj 
 glistens in the moisture as if frosted with silver, show- 
 
 * It is remarkable that both Sir J. E. Smith and Sir W. J. Hooker, in 
 their respective Floras, affirm that the Asperula Cynanchica It not found 
 in Wales, though I have myself met with it abundantly both in Pem- 
 brokeshire and Glamorganshire. It grows on the lime-stone cliffs oppo- 
 site the Mumbles Lighthouse.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 221 
 
 ig faintly her curled corolla of gold ; and the fairy- 
 like Wild Rosemary (Andromeda polif olid), retiring as 
 bashful beauty, blushes and shrinks amidst the humid 
 mosses. This last, named by Linnaeus from the fair 
 Andromeda of antiquity, is a most beautiful and inter- 
 esting plant, whose bright red or deep green narrow - 
 pointed revolute leaves, glaucous beneath, and drooping 
 roseate campanulate flowers, fix the eye of the wan- 
 dering 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 (Salix Argentea), 
 sparkling from afar, and bushes of the Dutch Myrtle 
 (Myrica gale) scattered in profusion around, fill the 
 air with their cinnamon scent. In the wettest spots 
 rises the princely Flowering Fern (Osmunda regalis), 
 and on the surface of the water itself float the pale 
 yellow flowers of the Water Milfoil (Utricularia minor), 
 and the argent three-petalled blossoms of the Floating 
 Water Plantain (Alisma natansj. 
 
 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
 
 222 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 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 decli- 
 vity of the hill, I gathered Alisma ranunculoides, A. 
 repens, A. natans, and the very curious creeping 
 Pepper -grass (Pilularia globulifera) . Here, also, the 
 very rare Cy perns longus has been found. Lifting 
 my eyes from the herbage fringing the rivulet, and 
 gazing from the protruding rock, the lone pool 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 its borders, all 
 was not barren, but many a curious and beautiful 
 flower rewarded my research. 
 
 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 sub-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP AUGUST. 223 
 
 ject 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 
 Lavenderloves 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 crumbling 
 rocks awful as those that shadow Llyn Cae, or seem 
 to tremble in air, all but inaccessible, about the chapel 
 of St. Gowan's on the coast of Pembroke.* There, as 
 we threaded a labyrinth of rocks over narrow ridges 
 and slippery paths still growing steeper and more 
 abrupt, where the lone Samphire hangs over frightful 
 abysses, the Sea Chamomile (Anthemis maritima) 
 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 Flea-bane 
 (Inula crithmoides) crests the crumbling rock with a 
 crown of gold I should still advance to some point 
 where an arch (such as the other day met my view on 
 the Worms- Head promontory), broken through the 
 rampart by some freak or convulsion of Nature, admit- 
 ted through 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, 
 
 * See the Frontispiece, 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.
 
 224 WILD FLOWHRS OP AUGUST. 
 
 with my disciple, I would take my seat without a word ! 
 But amidst our contemplations the hsavens 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 hurricane ; 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 give? a momentary but decep- 
 tive 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 secured 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 
 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 225 
 
 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 Useful 
 Knowledge had visited Aberystwith, though he 
 thought he had hit upon a somewhat novel mode of 
 billing 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 
 attempted 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 bills. 
 
 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 
 stretches far into the heavens, lightening off into the 
 pure deep azure. The sun enshrined within a crimson 
 Q
 
 226 WILD FLOWERS OP AUGUST. 
 
 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 gleain 
 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 garden the White Lily (Lilium candidum) 
 still appears the most conspicuous flower, and like a 
 queen of beauty reigns supreme over the parterre, 
 diffusing 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 far- 
 ther go," at least in this climate, and the magnifi- 
 cence of the flower border, with the exception of the 
 lengthened reign of the princely family of the Dahlias, 
 enters upon the wane at the close of the present mouth.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST, 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 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 HABI- 
 TATS VARIOUS BELL-FLOWERS RUSHES FLOWERS 
 
 OF DECLINING SUMMER SUNSET ON THE SKIRRID 
 
 VAWR. 
 
 " 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 compelled, experimentally, 
 to prove during my wanderings through these alpine provinces ; for my 
 limited acquaintance with Botany prevented me from examining and 
 enjoying the rare and beautiful specimens which every where abound." 
 
 In my cursory reading, while "water-logged" at 
 a " WATERiNG-^/ace," 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 have met with the above 
 quotation. It is from a clever sketch of " Germany 
 and the Germans," (1836,) by some anonymous 
 " Englishman," who, amidst his various acquirements, 
 unfortunately omitted to obtain an acquaintance with 
 Botany ; and thus frankly admits the loss of pleasure 
 he thereby sustained. Now this is substantially the 
 argument I have taken up to prove in these chapters 
 Q 2
 
 228 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 of botanical exploration, that the tourist or wanderer 
 who is, in some degree, acquainted with botany, greatly 
 enlarges the sources of his delight, and has an incen- 
 tive to action and movement, which the mere super- 
 ficial observer is entirely deprived of. Yet strange to 
 say very few 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 beautiful flowers delighted the 
 eye, or matchless odours from them filled the air ; 
 but, further more, their " limited acquaintance with 
 botany," entirely forbids them to say. Now this is 
 not only tantalizing but humiliating ; it depresses curi- 
 ossity, baffles exploration, 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 pre- 
 sent day, surely, to know nothing of botany, argues at 
 the very least, I should say, a defect in the organs of 
 taste and perception.* The fair portion of human 
 
 * Unfortunately, a school of Botanists ex'sts 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 botanical 
 science. So far is this absurd idea now carried, that I have met with gen 
 tlemen 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 sources of pleasure presented by Botany is to know not merely the 
 natural order, but the generic and specific name of every plant that meets
 
 WILD FLOWERS OK AUGUST. 229 
 
 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 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 
 new images created, and the knowledge and pleasure 
 attained, compensates abundantly for every asperity. 
 So on the sea shore, the indented shingles lift up 
 their serrated ridges with forbidding aspect, and the 
 contorted 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 transclucerit fairy pools have 
 been left, their bosoms glistening with the quivering 
 light that reveals the amber pebbles or pearly shells, 
 in their transparent depths. There the crimson Con- 
 
 the view of the roving eye; and as this necessary knowledge is obtained 
 with most facility by the Linnsean 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- 
 maud. 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 
 he saw, would act as wisely, as the Botanist, who only attending to NATU- 
 RAL ORDERS, finds himself incompetent to name, specibcauy, the first 
 native plant that meets his view when Summer has wooed him to give up a. 
 leisure hour to aii exploration of the hills and groves.
 
 230 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 ferva or green Ulva, placidly floats ; the singular 
 Asteria flaps upon the cold stone ; the Fucus, of various 
 species, hangs its pods ; and zoophytes, 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 with the succulent Samphire, 
 making verdant the arid ridge ; in others the golden 
 Inula scatters its showy star, or the vivid purple of 
 the scented Sea Lavender, surrounds lone hollows of 
 emerald-tinted water, with loveliness as unappreciable 
 as unexpected. And thu?, to the cleared vision, does 
 botany exhibit objects that before, perhaps, were un- 
 regarded : 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. Now it is that the different species of Heaths 
 (Erica) appear in their perfection of beauty, making 
 glad the wilderness wherever they present themselves. 
 
 * 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. 
 Winefrids's blood, till the prying botanist resolved them into an algoid 
 production, known as Palmella, 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. Chrun. Desrrypt. of Walyi.
 
 WILP FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 231 
 
 Sandstone cliffs are empurpled with the flowers of the 
 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 Erica tetralix droop in clusters to the 
 ground. Sir Walter Scott has finely depicted in Mar- 
 mion, a sun-rise in a mountainous country, when the 
 Heath was in flower, and the first golden rays fell upon 
 the mountains 
 
 " 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, 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 purple folds, while the 
 murmuring and angry buzzing of a thousand bees, I 
 had disturbed at their flowery banquet, filled the air 
 on all sides ; and I have lately returned from a 
 ramble on the bright and lofty empurpled buttresses, 
 that support the broken cyclopean summit of the 
 Monmouthshire " Sugar Loaf." But 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), 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. 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 fragrant couch, on which
 
 232 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 he may recline in luscious idleness, and obtain " divine 
 oblivion of low-thoughted care." Burns has pre- 
 sented, 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 Phoebus 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 McDonald and 
 McAlister 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." 
 
 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: 
 where all the hues of red, pink, purple, green, and the 
 purest pearly whites, tinge corollas swelled like a
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 233 
 
 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 culti- 
 vated, 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 
 greenhouse, 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
 
 234 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 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 
 "Heathbell of Cheviot," the " Harebell" of Scot- 
 land, the " Bell-flower" of England, and the Campa- 
 nula, of the botanist. This is a very beautiful and 
 favourite genus, now everywhere exhibiting its trem- 
 bling azure bells in exquisite perfection, but epecially 
 in hilly spots, on the sides of deep shady sandstone 
 lanes, and other similar localities. The Canterbury 
 Bells (Campanula trachelium), are rather plentiful on the 
 margins of woods, and the Giant Throat- wort (C. lati- 
 folia) 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 this 
 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 reclining 
 Harebell. The spreading Bell-flower (C. patulaj is 
 another beautiful kind, generally adorning woods, or 
 their borders, in sandstone districts ; while the clus- 
 tered Bell-flower (C. glomerata), affects calcareous 
 hills, such as the Cotswolds, where it occurs in extreme 
 profusion. But the Ivy-leaved Bell flower (C. Hede- 
 racea), is, undoubtedly, the most exquisitely delicate 
 of all. This fairy gem is mostly confined to mountain
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 235 
 
 bogs, whose surface it besprinkles with the most lovely 
 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 Plinlimmon, 
 by Llynn Teivy and its sister lakes that fill the craters 
 and hollows of the mountain above Strata Florida 
 Abbey, Cardiganshire ; on the fort-like hills that bar- 
 rier the course of the infant Severn about Llanidloes ; 
 and in the summer of 1839, most profusely, as I pil- 
 grimaged across a mountain between Pont-y-pridd 
 and Caerphilly Castle, Glamorganshire. 
 
 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- 
 pation now entirely abandoned to the solitary moun- 
 tain cotter, who, with his feeble rush-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 Rushes 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 Rush (Juncus) was highly honoured, 
 and the cutting and gathering of it, when it had attained 
 its highest growth, was celebrated with delight by
 
 236 WILD FLOWERS OK AUGUST. 
 
 young and old, and the last load of its green pointed 
 leaves adorned with showy decorations and preceded 
 in gay procession. " More Rushes more Rushes !" 
 Shakspeare makes a Groom exclaim at the coronation 
 of Henry V.; 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 
 Rushes were employed for this purpose. Hentzner, 
 in his Itinerary, mentioning Queen Elizabeth's Pre- 
 sence Chamber, at Greenwich, says, " the floor, after 
 the English fashion, was strewed with hay," meaning 
 Rushes. The churches were strewed in the same way 
 at particular festivals. In ancient times the parish- 
 ioners brought Rushes at the feast of the dedication, 
 and hence the festivity was called Rush-bearing. 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 trodden only by the 
 sportsman, the botanist, or the peasant. Yet to the 
 latter, still, perhaps, as Clare has intimated, they may 
 add an item to the scanty catalogue of his joys of 
 recollection, showing that the humblest minds picture 
 pleasing images to themselves, even from a tuft of 
 rushes. 
 
 " Ah 1 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." * 
 
 Summer ! ah, where has summer been this year ? 
 is often a common exclamation at its close, for in un- 
 
 * Before the introduction of earthenware into Britain, platters, made of 
 twisted rashes, served instead of plates and dishes in the rural districts; 
 and thin cakes, baked in the pan, were placed upon this simple equipage.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 237 
 
 genial years scarcely have we been able to obtain a 
 glimpse of it, before it is already perceived waning 
 away. Fine 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 vulgare) spreads its golden disc, 
 gilding the bank ; the Hawkweeds muster numerous 
 on the walls ; the bristly-leaved Pichris echioides, and 
 grove Hawkweed (Hieracium subaudum), in the woods ; 
 other species appear throwing a golden hue upon the 
 aftermath of meadows, or limestone banks ; and the 
 Fleabane (Inula dysentericd), opens its specious 
 disc upon the last days of August. Other signs are, 
 alas ! not wanting the berries of the Mountain Ash 
 are flushed ; those of the water Guelder Rose ( Vibur- 
 num, opulus), and the Rhamnus Jrangula 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. Now the great Mullein or 
 Hag Taper (Verbascum thapsus), shows its "flannel 
 leaves" and lofty spike of yellow flowers in 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 (Re- 
 seda luteola), is very conspicuous, and the starry Sca- 
 bious (Scabiosa arvensis), lifts its flowers of regal 
 purple high in air. The little Centaury (Chironia 
 centauria), 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 Ramping Fumi-
 
 238 WILD FLOWERS OF AUGUST. 
 
 tory, the brilliant violet clusters of the tufted Vetch 
 (Vicia cracca), the pink flowers of the Everlasting Pea 
 (Lalhyrus sylvestris), and the conspicuous white bells 
 of the great Convolvulus (C. sepium). For a transient 
 moment the declining sun spangles the glorious scene 
 woods, meadows, corn-fields stretching in far perspec- 
 tive, revel in his gorgeous radiance ; 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 de- 
 serted 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 en- 
 tangled brakes.
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR AUGCJST. 239 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR AUGUST. 
 
 THEY who study, in detail, the Sea Weeds, now so 
 profusely scattered upon the sea shore, must consult the 
 admirable " Alga Britannica" of Dr. Greville, and the 
 beautiful figures of the English Botany, so necessary in 
 examining this exceedingly intricate tribe. The Fucales, 
 or Sea Weeds, have been formed into three sections 
 Fucina, Fiorina, and Ulvina. Of the two former, Professor 
 Burnett has observed, that " the British seas afford exam- 
 ples of most of the types of these two very extensive sec- 
 tions, which, though intimately allied, have been, from the 
 colour of the fronds, distinguished into two groups, the 
 Fiorina and the true Fucina : the first of which are of a 
 membranaceous or cartilaginous structure, and seldom 
 change much in drying. The second, or true Fucinae are more 
 or less densely fibrous, and mostly become of a dingy black 
 when dried. In the fresh state, likewise, the Fiorina have 
 showy pink or purple fronds, the sporidia being also pur- 
 ple, while in the Fucina the fronds are of an olive green, 
 and the sporidia black." * 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 fuel are, by means, inutile. Dr. Johnstone has re- 
 marked of the edible kind (Laminaria esculenta), 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 
 
 * Burnett's Botany, p. 107.
 
 240 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR AUGUST. 
 
 their furrows ; and many elegant corallines spring tip 
 between them, to appearance trees in miniature, but, in 
 reality, cities full of living inhabitants. 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."* 
 
 The Hon. W. H. Harvey, has now made a new arrange- 
 ment of this curious tribe, characterized by the colours of 
 the seeds, in his recent " Manual of the British Alga," 
 which is a work that should be in the hands of every stu- 
 dent of marine botany. As a proof of what may be effected 
 by industry and observation, Mr. Harvey refers to the 
 "Algae Danmonienses, 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 forma- 
 tion of a volume of this description is a most elegant, andean- 
 not fail to prove a most interesting occupation. How delight- 
 ful 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. 
 
 * Flora upon Berwick-upon -Tweed.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 NEW IMAGES ARISING IN THK MIND FROM THE PUR- 
 SUIT OP BOTANY RARE PLANT AT PENNARD 
 
 CASTLE, ITS ASPECT, AND RESULTING REFLECTIONS 
 
 EXCURSION ON THE BLACK MOUNTAIN ABOVE 
 
 LLANTONY ABBEY AUTUMNAL LANDSCAPE CHA- 
 RACTERISTIC FLORA OF SEPTEMBER THE PARNAS- 
 
 SIA PALUSTRIS EVENING PROSPECT FROM THE 
 
 LITTLE SKIRKID. 
 
 " 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 HAVE 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. Arnott has remarked " keys which 
 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 
 R
 
 242 WILD VlAf\ V BR8 OP SEPTEMBER. 
 
 of which ignorance ne\ 'er dreams." I have constantly 
 found the truth of this in all my rambles, and hence I 
 feel great pleasure whe never I meet with any person 
 willing to receive on 1 'is mind the impress of new 
 images, before unthoug. ht of or unknown ; and this 
 happens not unfrequentlj " A short time since, I was 
 seeking for the remains of Pennard Castle, in the 
 peninsula of Gower, abou t eight miles west of Swan- 
 sea, where former botanist s have recorded the habitat of 
 a rare plant, the Draba 'izoides, which is met with 
 nowhere else in Britain. I had got into a mountain 
 track among scattered wh ite-washed cottages, over- 
 looked by a rough old vetei 'an of a church tower, that 
 seemed, with its overhangi cig battlements and narrow 
 loopholes, more like the reft Jge of beaten warriors than 
 the hallowed receptacle for harmless bells ; and hence 
 obtained a direction to a t ime-worn brother on the 
 steep hill beyond. In the little cemetery with its 
 humble mounds of rustic flm vers, the old parish clerk 
 was making hay alone, and p aused at his labour, as I 
 bent beneath the narrow ga.teway. "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 
 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 243 
 
 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 profusion 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 remarked 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 acquisi- 
 tion 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 favourite or remembered 
 plant, even in a cottage garden. " I know nothing of 
 the names of 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 !" 
 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 
 R 2
 
 244 WILD FLOWERS OP SEPTEMBER. 
 
 did not lead the mind from higher things ; as if any 
 objects placed before the contemplation of man by Infi- 
 nite Wisdom, could be either ignoble, debasing, or 
 unworthy, of the minutest attention.* 
 
 But away with all disparaging critics of our glo- 
 rious 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 t hat advantaged ? 
 purer air has displaced the city fog, a genial glow dif- 
 fuses 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 
 
 * It may not be amiss here to record the uniform piety of Linnaeus 
 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 Linnaeus visited England, and for the 
 first time of 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. 
 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 tin: 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 journies 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 for- 
 tune, 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." Arnten. Acad., vol. ii.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 245 
 
 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 progressed 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 Dipper flapped 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 
 beautiful Crowberry Bush (Empetrum. nigrum), laden 
 with its sable fruit, and many beautiful patches of 
 heath gleamed on the sides of the dingle. Far below, 
 distance lending enchantment to the view, 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 Wordsworth, as 
 we threw ourselves panting on the bright thick and 
 soft Heather to take a transient but delicious rest 
 14 Ah ! what a sweet recess, thought I, is here 1 
 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 ; 
 
 So lonesome, and so perfectly secure. 
 * * * *
 
 246 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 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." 
 
 Nearer the summit of the mountain we came upon 
 a mass 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-idaEO), whose 
 evergreen box-like leaves always present a refreshing 
 aspect. Having finished our ossianic reflections upon 
 the dark hill -top, mirth conducted us down: for 
 after starting a covey of red grous, 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 our- 
 selves 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 even- 
 ing shrouding the scene, urged our departure but ere 
 we quite reached home, the grey spirit of the moun- 
 tain 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 remembrance
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTE& f*E"R. 247 
 
 acts as stimuli to the graver duties an <3 researches of 
 the study so that the labours of the i >&e continually 
 prompts to the enjoyment of the othe r - A modern 
 poet has thus very pleasingly depicted \ ^e sensations 
 that the sight of a single flower may brin g to the mind 
 when contemplated beneath " the open h eaven," and 
 forgetful of the unquiet world 
 
 " 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. 
 
 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 strug- 
 
 * From an Ode by Douglas Allport.
 
 248 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 gles with mountain masses of enormous clouds, and 
 the green earth is fresh from frequent showers, dash- 
 ing across the landscape, while the glorious arch of 
 promise rests magnificent on wood or hill, the daintiest 
 foot need not fear the fatigue of a hilly ascent ; and who 
 that has once tripped upon the hoary reindeer 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 sticcisa), and the bright yellow 
 blossoms of the Cow- Wheat (Melampyrum), 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 
 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 en- 
 graved 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 
 parasitical Monotropa Hypopitys, whose brown withered
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 249 
 
 aspect, and brown flowers, renders it almost inconspi- 
 cuous in the twilight groves. The fleshy clustered 
 radicles are covered with hairy fibres, by which it ap- 
 pears connected with the rootlets of the beech, and 
 thus, probably, obtains nutriment from them.* It 
 exhales a strong characteristic primrose-like scent. 
 
 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, Redmint, &c., 
 now every where present their whorled or capitate 
 pale purple flowers on the sides of rivers, brooks, and 
 springs. In moist spots, too. the Soapwort (Sapon- 
 aria officinalis), 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 
 certain indication of the approach of Autumn is shown 
 by the pale purple petals and long white tubes of the 
 Autumnal Crocus or Meadow-saffron (Cokhicum autum- 
 nale), 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 
 
 * See Phytologist, Vol. 1. p. 98, for a paper by the Author on the 
 parasitic growth of this curious plant.
 
 250 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 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 
 tripartita et cernua), claim attention ; the purple 
 Marsh Wound- wort (Stachys Palustris), the white 
 flowered Gipsy-wort (Lycopus Europceus), and the 
 blue Skull-caps (Scutellaria), so called from the singu- 
 lar aspect of the calyx after the carolla 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
 
 WILD FLOWKKS OF SEPTEMBER. 251 
 
 flossy cotton-grass, it is seen with constant pleasure 
 by the wandering botanist. In the vicinity of build- 
 ings the once consecrated Vervain now rises in tall 
 tufts, and the rank Wormwood tells of abandonment 
 and desolation. A curious tribe of cottony herbs, 
 whose coloured permanent calyces of yellow, red, 
 white, brown, or black, are commonly known as 
 "everlasting flowers;" the "immortelles" of the 
 French,* are many of them now in full perfection. 
 The Pearly Everlasting (Gnaphalium margaritaceum), 
 spreads its silver flowers abundantly upon the banks 
 of the river Rhymny, in Glamorganshire, and is a 
 favourite adornment of the secluded cemeteries of 
 South Wales. Some of the African species are very 
 beautiful, especially one from the Cape, whose clus- 
 ters resemble ripe strawberries. A very common 
 British Gnaphalium, commonly called Cudweed, was 
 called by old herbalists, impious, from the younger 
 flowers rising up and overtopping the older. Another 
 kind (G. uliginosum) frequently extends its woolly en- 
 tangled masses in wet hilly spots, and the upright 
 Cudweed (G. rectum), scatters its flossy down in the 
 deep shades of woods. 
 
 One of the prettiest floral sights that this month 
 can offer to the eye of the botanical wanderer in wilds 
 
 * A recent author, remarking upon the "tubs of immortelles" 
 offered for sale in the market of Marseilles, observes, that " For this en- 
 during flower there It 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 suspended 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 perma- 
 nent but the least permanent of nature's gifts a flower!" SKETCHES 
 
 IV THB PvitUVKK-i.
 
 252 WILD FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 unknown to public view, especially where the drip- 
 ping 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 SPRINGS" that 
 pour their overflowing urns into the chrystal Wind- 
 rush, near Bourton-on-the-water, Gloucestershire, 
 last autumn. They inspired the following lines 
 
 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.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP SEPTEMBER. 253 
 
 As a beautiful vision, I think 
 
 Of thy blossoms on Windrush's brink ; 
 
 In that wildly lone dell 
 
 As if bouud by a spell, 
 
 I shall oft seem to dwell, 
 Giving Memory a fair silver link. 
 
 But eveniug 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, 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. Ye woods, 
 wilds, and solitudes, ere again the tempest raves in 
 terror through your leafy glades, driving the phren- 
 zied streams from their murmuring pebbly beds, and 
 tracing desolation on the flowery meads ere again 
 the muddy torrent breaks its bounds from the inces- 
 sant rain, and the blood-red ravine lifts its angry
 
 254 WILD PLOWBRS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 ensign as a trophy in mid- air, let us retreat from your 
 storm-robed fastnesses in safety.* Now, then, 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 de- 
 scended roaring in the shades of night to the Usk below, violently tear- 
 ing up the earth, overthrowing 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.
 
 FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER, 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. XXL 
 
 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 ASSOCIA- 
 TIONS HYDRANGIA, CHINESE ASTER, &C. ADONIS 
 
 AUTUMNALIS SMELLING A GERANIUM POETICAL 
 
 IDEAS EMANATING FROM FLOWERS. 
 
 " Kata ten Melittan apanthisamenos." Lucian. 
 Sipping the Flowers like a Bee. 
 
 Having given the misty mountains the slip, and 
 left the gleus and ravines to their clouds and waters, 
 I now look out upon the softer features of the Flower 
 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 fastnesses, that 
 the passing pilgrim as he hastily views the scene, 
 while the whirling thunder-cloud awes his presump- 
 tion, may long, with cherished feelings, renew the
 
 256 FLOWERS OF SKPTKMBKR. 
 
 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 re- 
 flecting 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 sand- 
 wort all raise a paradise of rapt emotions in the 
 heart, transcendant beyond language. Earth and its 
 inhabitant man, then seem 
 
 41 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, but must return to the tamer scenes below. 
 Perhaps, therefore, a glance at domesticated flowers, 
 may as a contrast to the wilder tracts of Flora's do- 
 minion not have an unpleasing effect, and like a rest 
 at an inn, refresh the mind, tired with the long con- 
 templation of heaths and hills, and restore its healthful 
 longings for renewed searches amidst the fascinations 
 of mountain scenery. But we are now " at home," 
 so as the sunbeams flame above the morning mist 
 with tempting brightness, throw we up the drawing- 
 room windows, and " look out " upon the terrace 
 through the wide parterre. 
 
 Chief among the flowers yet conspicuous in the 
 garden, is the regal Dahlia, with its drooping globes 
 of crimson, scarlet, marone, yellow, and white, whose 
 innumerable varieties are the glory of floriculture, 
 
 * Milton.
 
 FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 257 
 
 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 Cavanilles 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. variabilis.* 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 flowets, having little pre- 
 tensions to beauty. It has now been cultivated in 
 Europe for about forty 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 structure, 
 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 deepest 
 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 in 
 dwarfishness. The yellow inconspicuous florets of the 
 disk have been expelled to make room for the showy 
 deep-coloured florets of the ray : what is more re- 
 
 * Among the native Mexicans the Dahlia was considered as the flower 
 of the dead thut " ghosts come to snuff at."
 
 268 FLOWBRS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 markable still, the same yellow inconspicuous florets 
 of the disk have been enlarged, and stained with rich 
 marone, so as to rival the colours of the ray, without 
 losing their own peculiarity of form ; arid, finally, the 
 whole foliage and bearing of the plant has been altered 
 by the substitution of simple leaves for compound ones. 
 Several hundred varieties of Dahlias are now offered 
 for sale by nurserymen ; and the prizes offered at Hor- 
 ticultural Exhibitions, arid the stimulus of emulation 
 among gardeners and amateurs, has increased 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 per- 
 nicious as the Tulipomania that affected the florists of 
 the seventeenth century. Phillips, in his Flora His- 
 torica, says, the Dahlia, in floral language, is to be 
 regarded as the emblem of instability ; as it was intro- 
 duced into this country by Lady Bute in 1 789, 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 supply of roots 
 and seed from France, which has resulted in the cul- 
 tivation 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 be 
 forgotten. The Dahlia is for the future, and will pro- 
 bably be copiously praised by the lyrists of the rising
 
 F LOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 259 
 
 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 pic- 
 turesque farm houses, thatched cottages with their 
 humble adornments, and old massive time-worn man- 
 sions 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, 
 orange, chesnut, or blackish purple, are well associated 
 with the houeysuckled porch, the trim strait boxen 
 walk, the terrace bounded^by its privet or trim holly 
 hedge, the beehive stand, and the formal peacocks 
 clipped in yew, pecking at each other. The Holly- 
 hock 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 atteu- 
 tion in large gardens and pleasure grounds. 
 
 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 Sun-flower (Helian* 
 thus), celebrated of old as 
 
 " The lofty follower of the sun 
 
 Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves 
 Drooping all night, and, when he warin returns, 
 Points her enamour'd bosom to his ray." 
 
 Various poets have dwelt upon this as a favourite idea, 
 
 and even philosophers have confirmed their reports of 
 
 i 2
 
 260 FLOWKRS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 the Sunflower's turning itself round with the course of 
 the sun.* Ovid says 
 
 " 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 ; 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." 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 sett, 
 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 
 
 * Dr. Darwin in his " Loves of the Plants," could not of course afford 
 to dispense with so poetical a simile, but quotes Hales' Vegetable 
 Staticks 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."
 
 FLOWERS OP SEPTEMBER. 261 
 
 Tournesol ; though, no doubt, as old Gerard 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 suune, 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." The 
 Sunflower was brought by the Spaniards from Peru, 
 where it appears it was consecrated by the Peruvians 
 to the worship of the bright luminary of day ; and 
 the Virgins of the Sun, when officiating in their tem- 
 ples, were crowned with golden helianthi, 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 gaudi- 
 ness, 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 Linnaeus 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 cannot produce seeds, 
 and. by a poetical image, are therefore inferred to be 
 made in vain, or for show only. The florets of the 
 disk are, however, tubular, each having five anthers, 
 with a single pistil crowned by a bipartite stigma, and
 
 262 FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 each of the florets produces a seed. The fertile florets 
 are in general so numerous, 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 syugenesious 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 incon- 
 spicuous 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 handsome 
 appearance. The flowers, from over-developement, 
 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. 
 
 At this period of the year, the trailing Nasturtium 
 (Tropeeolum 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 Nas- 
 turtia, or land and water cresses, a very curious circumstance in plants 
 belonging to different natural families. The capsules, in particular, make 
 a very wholesome pickle.
 
 FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 263 
 
 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 Nas- 
 turtium may be said to form a living vegetable Mackin- 
 tosh, 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. 
 
 One of the principal embellishments of the autumnal 
 parterre is the Chinese Aster or StarWort (Aster 
 Chinensis), now a common denizen of European 
 gardens, though introduced from China only about a 
 century ago. The French name of Queen Daisie 
 (Reine 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 bril- 
 liancy 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. China has contributed another
 
 264 FLOWERS OF SKPTBMBKR. 
 
 specious gift to the florist in the late flowering Chry- 
 santhemum, the name of which, golden flower, is, how- 
 ever inapplicable, as a great number of them bear silver, 
 pink, lilac, or purple, 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 qui lung kokfa, and Pak tseen 
 yong 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 Man- 
 darins 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 man- 
 sions, at Christmas, in places where tender plants 
 could not endure to stand. But our limits forbid fur- 
 ther particularization in detail, and we can only glance 
 at the crimson Rudbeckia, the African and French 
 Marygolds (Tageles), which often appear very splendid 
 and beautiful in contrast with the deep purple Asters, 
 and the tall glittering Golden- Rods (Solidago viminea), 
 as contributing to that peculiar glow, which, under 
 the influence of a bright sun, has at this season so 
 exciting an effect. 
 
 In closing this floral sketch, one little character- 
 istic 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 the beautiful hunter. Unfortunately, how- 
 ever, botany like law has its " glorious uncertainties,"
 
 FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 265 
 
 and this is one of them ; for it has been gravely re- 
 marked, that " whether the goddess of beauty changed 
 her lover into this plant or the Anemone, would be 
 difficult to decide, since the Linnean system of dividing 
 plants into families did not exist when the gods and 
 goddesses made love upon 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 employ- 
 ment, 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 sub- 
 ject 
 
 " 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 1 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 
 glories of creation, or even to nourish a meditative or
 
 266 FLOWERS OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 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 instruction 
 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 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 imparting to the 
 green leaf of one plant the fragrance of another, such 
 as the balm, musk, pennyroyal, &c. How condescend- 
 ing 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 sensitive 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 ; 
 
 Grant Thorburn's Forty Years in America.
 
 7LOWKR8 OP SEPTEMBER. 267 
 
 Autumn revives them not : in languid groups 
 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 culti- 
 vated gems our last days with the waning year must 
 be devoted entirely to the woods and hills, and the 
 productions of Nature in her wildest haunts.
 
 268 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR SEPTEMBER. 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR 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 cxhilirating as are its mornings, 
 and its evenings often glorious with the harvest moon, or 
 lighted up with the grey, green, or ruby-coloured columns 
 of the mystical Aurora Borealis. The fructification of the 
 Roses, 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 pre- 
 sented at this time, of gathering ripe fruits and berries. la- 
 deed, several shrubs, as the Euonymus Europaeus, and the 
 Rhamnus 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 (Cornus sanguined), 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 crowns the lofty 
 hedges, offers by no means an uninteresting or uninstruc- 
 tive spectacle. Besides which, 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
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR SEPTEMBER. 269 
 
 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 dissonant 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. 
 
 One of the most singular parasitical plants that Britain 
 produces, the greater Dodder (Cuscuta europaaj, should 
 be diligently sought by the enquiring botanist, just before 
 harvest-time, among peas, beans, or vetches. It is gener- 
 ally 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, 1 could never 
 detect it till the last year (1840), when, in passing through 
 a field of vetches at the Berrow, Worcestershire, near the 
 southern termination 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 poi- 
 sonous 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, a farmer pointed it out to 
 me in a bean-field, not far from my residence, at Forthamp- 
 ton, clasped about some bean-stalks most luxuriantly, but 
 said that it had not occurred there for some years pre- 
 viously. This strikingly illustrates a remark made by 
 Kirby and Spence, 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 neg-
 
 270 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR SEPTEMBER. 
 
 lected." * I have often had occasion to see the force of 
 this admonition, for so many plants might, like Erica vayans, 
 be justly termed wanderers, that a curious plant undeniably 
 observed in a particular locality -one year, may be sought 
 there, afterwards, without any success. It is remarkable 
 that precisely at the time when the Beans are harvested, 
 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 carried to the bean-stack, 
 and may thus rest in the rick for years, till again called 
 forth, by circumstances, to renew their parasitical depre- 
 dations. 
 
 Kirby and Spence, Vol. iv. p. 607.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 AUTUMNAL WEATHER FAVOURABLE FOR EXPLORATION 
 
 ADVENTURE AT MAENTWROG, MERIONETHSHIRE 
 
 FALLS OF FESTINIOG A BREAKDOWN ASCENT OF 
 
 SNOWDON PLANTS GATHERED ON ITS LOPTY 
 
 ROCKS A TRUCK TO WANDERING. 
 
 "Upon the mountains, gemmed with morning dew, 
 In the prime hour of sweetest scents and airs." 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 October 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 
 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
 
 272 WILD FLOWERS Of OCTOBER. 
 
 settled rain overwhelms the disappointed explorer of 
 Nature's beauties. But the calm and often cloudless 
 days of autumn generally offer opportunities of the 
 most exciting 1 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 hollows of the 
 rocks, many alpine plants continue in flower till over- 
 powered by the frosts of November ; while the cryp- 
 togamous 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 theca, 
 or urns of fructification, either gracefully adorned 
 with a light calyptra or veil, or covered as in the 
 Polytrichi with a shaggy hairy cap. But to make 
 these observations more obvious, 1 will detail the 
 proceedings of a botanical excursion I made in the 
 autumn of 1838, in Snowdonia, which will enable me 
 to allude to some plants that have not previously 
 fallen under our notice. 
 
 I had got, it matters not how, to Maentwrog, 
 Merionethshire, within the confines of that lovely vale
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 273 
 
 adorned by the graceful windings of the Dwyryd, of 
 which Lord Lyttleton 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 beauties around, 
 I first started for the two waterfalls formed by the 
 little river Velenryd, one of which is called the Black 
 Cataract. Scrambling down with some difficulty 
 amidst entangling underwood, 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, 
 and gazed on the flowers around with a feeling of 
 delighted ecstacy. The tranquil repose of such mo- 
 ments 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 advan- 
 tages the votary of nature derives from his pure and 
 vivifying contemplations. 
 
 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, 1 came into 
 rough collision with a luckless sketcher, who was 
 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 soLE/m companion, for as
 
 274 WILD FLOWERS OP OCTOBER. 
 
 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 
 Gnaphalium sylvalicum, as well as of a rare Rubus 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 
 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 
 
 * Wordsworth.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 275 
 
 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 treach- 
 erous 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 Yew and Wytch Elm, 
 that day-light struggles almost in vain to penetrate 
 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 Enchanter's 
 chair/' by its intermitting roar. In the grounds of Tan 
 y Bwlch, I observed Parmelia herbacea and Sticta 
 pulmonaria, in great abundance and luxuriance, and 
 bearing the finest fructification- 
 
 But to return to my uncalceated friend. An un- 
 expected 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 compa- 
 nion's spectacles fell, and were placed hors de combat, 
 or fit only for hospital service. He had scarcely reco- 
 vered from this disaster, which I remarked was a bad 
 omen, when his snuff-box fell, and was with difficulty 
 recovered. His packet of vesture next ventured on a 
 forward movement 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 Aber- 
 T 2
 
 276 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 glasslyn ; 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 inconso- 
 lable for his broken spectacles, which he said ruined 
 all his prospects, he would go no farther than the turn 
 to Capel Cerig ; and, as Bunyan 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 
 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 Cloywyn du yr Arddu and Clogwyn y garnedd, and 
 search about for plants, he begged leave to decline 
 
 * 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 natara, Subularia 
 aquatica, and Jsoetes lacustris grow ; in and about the Lower Lake, 
 Nymphaea alba, Alisma natans, Epilobium angustifolium, and Trolliiis 
 europoeus. 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 iu 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."
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 277 
 
 the hoiiour of attending me, as he said the whole day 
 would be occupied while if it proved fine (as rare a 
 circumstance at Snowdon as red letters in the calen- 
 dar), he could take three journies 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, aud 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, howeyer, prove rather 
 serious, as has several times been experienced by in- 
 cautious 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 
 Llanberis. 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- 
 dou, about four o'clock, to see the sun rise, when
 
 278 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 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 fortnight. 
 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 
 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 Gwinedd were beauty spots 
 of no mean interest, as well as the little pools called 
 Llyn Llwydaw and Llyn y Cwm Glds, beneath the 
 horrid pointed crags of Clogwyn y Garnedd ; but to- 
 wards Capel Curig a dense mist brooded pver the low
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 279 
 
 country, from whose head quarters, advanced squa- 
 drons occasionally pushed on, and dark amidst the 
 fleecy masses that mantled their shoulders, rose the 
 gigantic heads of Carnedd Llewellyn, Moel Siabod, 
 arid 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 
 indentations of almost every letter of the alphabet, 
 repeated 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, 
 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 tee- 
 totaller venture to mount Snowdon with presump- 
 tuous foot, as he values the well-being of his outer
 
 280 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 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 considered 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 
 
 "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 bra- 
 cing 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 pulsa- 
 tion that throbs to nobler views than those of earth. 
 But " to our mountain sport." Around the summit 
 of Snowdon grows the humble Salix herbacea, 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 perpen- 
 dicular height. Here, amidst the clouds that perpe- 
 tually 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OK OCTOBER. 281 
 
 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 
 Serratula alpina, or alpine Saw-wort. My own re- 
 searches produced me the Oxyria reniformis, or Moun- 
 tain Sorrel, Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia officinalisj, 
 Mountain Fescue Grass (Festuca Vivipara), the silky 
 leaved Cerastium alpinum, Mountain Rue (Thalictrum 
 alpinum), the beautiful Ferns Allosorus Crispus, Cis- 
 topteris fragilis et dentata, and Asplenium viride, as well 
 as Alpine Clubmoss (Lycopodium alpinum), 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. 
 
 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 Polytrichum urnigerum et 
 alpinum, Strait-leaved Apple- Moss (Bartramia ithy- 
 phylld), so confervoid in its aspect, and the delicate 
 curious Filmy Fern Hymenophyllum Wllsoni. 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
 
 282 WILD FLOWERS OP OCTOBER. 
 
 notice. Here Arabis hispida, a plant noticed long ago 
 by Ray, was still very abundant. 
 
 Crossing the stream that supplies the waterfall of 
 Caunant Mawr, the head of Cwm Brwynog pre- 
 sented 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 fragments piled upon each other, as if Pan- 
 demonium had been upturned from its foundations, 
 and riven by the thunderbolts of vengeance and de- 
 struction. 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 singular ap- 
 pearance of broken fluted Cyclopean columns, more 
 the work of art than the accident of slow brumal and 
 imbral action. Amidst the examination of this laby- 
 rinth 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." 
 
 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 ;
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 283 
 
 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 ; 
 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 1 
 And purified in heart the while, 
 See bliss in every dark defile.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER, 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 EXCURSION TO THE BOTANIC GARDEN OF SNOWDONIA 
 
 PLANTS OF THK RAVINES AND ROCKS FEARFUL 
 
 LKDGE ABOVE LLYN IDWAL A CONTEMPLATIVE 
 
 DAT ON THE SEA SHORE 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." 
 
 Ossian'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 marvelling, 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 expedi- 
 tion. We proceeded to the base of the Glyder Vawr, 
 bearing up along the bed of a torrent that had made 
 sad havoc with the entrails of the mountain. This
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 285 
 
 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 bois- 
 terous laugh. By the side of this torrent various 
 highly beautiful and delicate flowers were located, 
 particularly the Yellow Welch Poppy (Meconopsis Cam- 
 bricd), 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 
 face of a steep rock down which the torrent fell 
 
 * I am not quite certain if identical with Rivularia calcarea or granu- 
 lifera of Hooker's British Flora. The spongy crust of my specimens was 
 very stiff, though not absolutely stony ; when dry of a greyish green, 
 and not reviving again if immersed.
 
 286 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 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 hemisphcerica, as well as the 
 green Socket-Lichen (Solorina saccata), Collema spon- 
 giosum and Peltidea venosa, all in fine fruit. Approach- 
 ing 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 
 heterophyllus} , 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 de- 
 scended to a little lake called Llyn y Cwn, into which 
 my botanical guide waded to obtain Lobelia dortmanna, 
 and the curious alpine water plants Subularia 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 
 murmured, curdled, 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 Twll Du, literally the black hole, 
 or vulgarly called " the Devil's Kitchen." Hitherto it 
 had been a glorious autumnal day, but we were now
 
 WILD FLOWRS OF OCTOBER. 287 
 
 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/' Lyn Cwn, and everything else in its reek- 
 ing folds. This, for a season, obliged us to call a 
 halt, and bivouac in the Satanic territory. Accord- 
 ingly 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 dis- 
 persion of the clouds about us, with appetites whetted 
 by the mountain air, gladly called in requisition the 
 not forgotten sandwiches and brandy-bottle, to reani- 
 mate our half exhausted limbs stiff with climbing. 
 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 (Anthericum 
 serotinum), while I myself had plucked the Statice 
 armeria, and soft-flowered Cat's-foot (Gnaphalium 
 dioicum). 
 
 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-
 
 288 WILD FLOWERS OP OCTOBKR. 
 
 sion the silver flowers of the Saxifrages (S. hypnoides, 
 stellaris, et coespitosa), 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 (Rhodiola 
 rosea) 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, some of the rarest Ferns 
 reward the enterprise of the " Botanical Explorator." 
 To find one, the Aspidium Lonchitis, as well as the 
 almost eradicated Woodsia, 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 block- 
 aded 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 we 
 stood. At this point my nerves actually quailed at 
 the prospect, and I felt I could move no farther. But 
 my little guide soon gave me a recipe for my ner- 
 vousness, occasioned by my looking down into the 
 cloudy gulph beneath. " Look up," 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 289 
 
 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 Glyder 
 by Llyn Cwn, 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 Saltertou, 
 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 
 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 elm 
 fell eddying through the air. With renovated spirits 
 
 * 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. 
 
 U
 
 290 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 I advanced on the road to Salterton, and beautiful 
 were the prospects that occasionally presented them- 
 selves Exmotith 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 (Coleridge'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." * 
 
 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 
 
 * Dryden's Virgil.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 291 
 
 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 peb- 
 bly 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 
 constituents 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 
 desolation. 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 HmO' 
 niuni) on the ledges of the rock. Here, too, were 
 some most luxuriant plants of the Iris fatidissima 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. 
 rait of the cliffs, and sitting down at ray ease, while 
 v
 
 292 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 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 ; be- 
 yond 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, in- 
 deed, 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 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP OCTOBER. 293 
 
 (Hirundo riparia) sprung from a cavity in the rock, 
 and fluttered 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, he moved querulously about, as if astonished 
 and confounded at the unwonted state of destitution in 
 which he was thus left. In wandering on to a suc- 
 ceeding range of cliff, and looking down suddenly 
 through a break upon the shore below, I perceived a 
 large flock of Sea-Gulls 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 sin- 
 gular bark or melancholy low, long resounded, at in- 
 tervals, from the wide ocean, alone disturbing the 
 awful, soothing, reriovating silence of the scene. 
 
 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. As I shall 
 speedily have to take leave of phanerogamous vegeta- 
 tion, I shall here record a visit I paid to the habitat 
 of the rare Helianthemum polifolium, or white Mountain 
 Rock-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
 
 294 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 thought it possible that I should be able to find my 
 way to Brean Down, and allured by the prospect, 
 bent my way 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 promontory of Brean Down 
 and the islands of the steep and flat 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 boat- 
 man 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 strait a line with the 
 Steep Holmes, that I should judge they were formerly 
 connected, and, perhaps, disjoiued 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 sum- 
 mit of the promontory, which is covered with a fine
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP OCTOBER. 295 
 
 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 per- 
 pendicular 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 arri- 
 ving at the end of the first division of the down did I 
 find a single plant, though quantities of the Iris fasti- 
 dissima, with open capsules appeared, displaying a 
 rich array of orange-coloured seeds. 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 en- 
 tered upon the second portion of the promontory, 
 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 unexpanded white 
 petals, tipped with rose. Jt 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 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 bota- 
 nists, 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. 
 
 * Cistus of Linnseus, Helianthemum of De Caudolle.
 
 296 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 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 
 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 
 the dashing of waves, and the beating of rain, I 
 at last arrived, wet and weary, in view of the glim- 
 mering lights of the town, just as the moon, dim and 
 hazy, as seen through the watery vapours, faintly 
 appeared in the brightening east.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER, 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 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 LAST GLANCE 
 
 AT FLORAL BEAUTY IVY, ARBUTUS, &C. FARE- 
 WELL TO SUMMER. 
 
 11 Now shift the scene to moonlight glade, 
 Where dapper 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 hy 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 un- 
 wonted yet melancholy splendour. The mind con- 
 templates this brilliant " pomp of woods" with feelings
 
 298 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 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 the only 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 
 coming events whose precursing shadow he espies, 
 there is no necessity for 'a "Botanical Explorator," 
 to be in advance of the season, and thus be over- 
 whelmed 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 tran- 
 sient 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 or- 
 chards 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. 
 
 Rain ! 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 by
 
 WILD FLOWKRS OF OCTOBER. 299 
 
 the touch of an enchanter's wand ; the scowling tem- 
 pest 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 reeking 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 strugglings. 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 
 Edgeworth 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 depth 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 atten- 
 tion thereto, especially as at this period the Flora con- 
 spicua pauses in its career the garden has scarcely 
 any new glories to produce, and although a few impa- 
 tient plants hastily and foolishly make an effort to
 
 300 WILD FLOWKRS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 antedate the spring like some young misses " coming 
 out" too soon it is but a few that make an 
 effort to effect this onward movement.* Our contem- 
 plations then, are now directed to the wild interior of 
 the forest glade, seated on some rustic seat, as the sun 
 pours ,his 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 sur- 
 face not a circlet stirs. Now mark we the varied hues 
 that glow around us. In the following list I have 
 
 * Scarcely an autumn passes, however, without an attentive observer 
 perceiving some tree or shrub, which has put forth a second crop of 
 flowers, from which of course fruit would arise, if " a killing frost " did 
 not arrest their progress. Even wild flowers are often proliferous in this 
 way, as if capriciously throwing their beauties into " old Hiem's lap ;" 
 but these anomalies may be oftener noticed in cultivated plants. From 
 such sportive freaks 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 famous prodromic 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 .'" 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 fruit 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.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 301 
 
 enumerated the characteristic tints that usually mark 
 the leaves of the trees named, before they drop off. 
 
 LIME Pale orange. 
 
 MAPLB Light yellow. 
 
 WILD CHERRY . . Bright red. 
 
 POPLAR Yellow, or Citron. 
 
 BIRCH Straw colour. 
 
 ELM Yellow and brown. 
 
 PEAR Frequently vivid crimson. 
 
 HORSE-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 iu 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 Cowper as
 
 302 WILD FLOWERS OK OCTOBER. 
 
 ' Capricious in attire ; 
 
 Now green, now tawny, and, ere autumn yet 
 
 Has chang'd the woods, in scarlet honours bright." 
 
 The Lime is almost always denuded the first, and the 
 Ash follows the first 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 autumnal 
 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 de- 
 scription. 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 
 attempting to account for the colours produced in 
 autumnal foliage, but no precise result of importance 
 seems to have been arrived at. Berzelius having 
 found a peculiar colouring matter in red fruits, sug- 
 gests that this must be common to the fruit and
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 303 
 
 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 
 readily observable in the horsechesnut 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. Macaire Prinsep, 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. No 
 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 vivyfying 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 vita- 
 lity 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
 
 3U4 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 settled into a lethargic torpor, and the lightest thistle- 
 down pants for flight in vain as the first burst of 
 sunlight streams through the reeking mist, scattering 
 jewelled colours upon a myriad host of dewdrops and 
 concentric studded webs, leaf after leaf drops eddying 
 to the ground, this intermitting pit-pat alone omi- 
 nously interrupting the profound silence that invests 
 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." 
 
 * Thomson.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 305 
 
 " 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 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 un- 
 der 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 Gaul and Britain the mystic rites of Druidism 
 were celebrated ; among the polished Greeks and 
 Romans every temple had its consecrated wood ; and 
 "holy trees" have been venerated in every age, and 
 esteemed as oracular.f Indeed, a huge old tree, or a 
 
 * Beattie. 
 
 t 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 Dodonjean 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-adoration continued to a very late period even in Europe, for in 
 Dalyell'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 Chesnut 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. 
 X
 
 306 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 grove of trees anterior to all our recollections, seems 
 in itself to inspire respect and reverence, while the 
 adjuncts that encompass it shade, gloom, solitude, 
 and silence, all conspire to convert this incipient reve- 
 rence into devotional awe. As Waller has pleas- 
 ingly 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." 
 
 So Pliny 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." Faunus, 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 pity! " 
 The Arcadians went so far in their devotion to trees, 
 that they professed to be actually descended from the
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 307 
 
 venerable oaks whose extent of boughs shadowed o'er 
 their hills ; so thut 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 tor- 
 tuous mossy boughs from a distance with the chilly 
 trembling of superstition. Besides the oracular 
 powers ascribed to consecrated trees around the fanes 
 of gods and goddesses, and the mystic responses of 
 the Dryades, the foliage itself, epecially 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 
 superstition have kept their holds, age after age, in 
 the deep fastnesses of the woods, till the ignorance 
 . x 2
 
 308 WILD FLOWERS OP OCTOBER. 
 
 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. 
 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 com- 
 munis) forms itself a picture ; then, in contrast, Black- 
 berries trail their sable clusters, tempting with their 
 empurpling 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. Last in the train of our native 
 wild shrubs, the Ivy (Hedera helix) now exhibits on 
 many a garden wall or neglected ruin, its sad incon- 
 spicuous 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 ; 
 while it is providently ordered that the black berries 
 that follow shall ripen in mid-winter and early spring, a 
 supply for many birds, when hardly any other berries 
 remain for them. 
 
 A final adieu to the garden ! few and far between 
 are its beauties now, and even these tremble on the 
 verge of destruction hold off, frosts ! still, however,
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 309 
 
 one or two hardy plants presents themselves, in par- 
 ticular the Michaelmas Daisy (Aster Tradescanti), 
 whose tall purple flowers give some relief to the eye 
 as it ranges round the vacant borders. This is a 
 favourite rustic plant, introduced from North America, 
 and though rather savouring of recollections of stub- 
 ble geese in its rustic English name, commemorates, 
 by its Latin John Tradescant, jun., a famous collec- 
 tor in the reign of Charles the 1st. Another glory of 
 the garden and shrubbery, at this season, is the Arbutus 
 or Strawberry-tree, celebrated for its connection with 
 the lakes of Killarney and the monks of Mucruss, 
 and deserving high admiration for the lovely spectacle 
 it presents with its pale waxen bells, glowing crimson 
 globose berries, and elegant evergreen foliage. Lyell 
 mentions it as finely adorning the slumbering volcanic 
 hill of Monte Nuovo, near Naples, which, like Vesu- 
 vius of old may one day again awake, and scatter the 
 magnificent woody vest that now envelops it, in burn- 
 ing splinters through the air. 
 
 I must terminate the season of flowers with a 
 votive wreath, that may, perhaps, not inappropriately 
 chime over the obsequies of Summer, and if it tend to 
 relieve the gloomy reflections I have felt compelled, 
 by the dreary aspect of things, unwontedly to inflict 
 upon the reader, I shall not in vain have penned this 
 
 FAREWELL TO SUMMER. 
 
 Farewell to the pleasures that Summer bestows, 
 Farewell to the Lily, the Pink, and the Rose ; 
 Farewell for the forest has shook to the blast, 
 And the yellow leaves rustling, on all sides are cast.
 
 310 WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 Farewell to the summer's long walk in the grove, 
 To the nightingale's song, and the whisper of love ; 
 For November advances with desolate scowl, 
 And the forest resounds with the hoot of the owl. 
 
 Farewell ! but October's last evening invites, 
 Ere we yield to the dreary, cold, desolate nights, 
 One walk in the moonbeams, one trip o'er the dell, 
 Ere we bid the last relics of Summer farewell ! 
 
 One trip, while the moonlight beams mild on our head, 
 And the leaves a crisp carpet beneath us are spread ; 
 While the glow-worm still glistens, and naming on high 
 The red star of Taurus illumines the sky. 
 
 Then adieu to the ramble along the wide plain, 
 To the evening's rich glow on the abbey's old fane, 
 To the overarch'd walks where we lengthen'd our stay 
 Till the last tinge of light died reluctant away. 
 
 Farewell to the groves and the gardens' delights 
 Draw the curtains, and welcome the long winter nights ; 
 And if one friend remains to enliven our cell, 
 We can still with delight bid gay Summer farewell.
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR OCTOBER. 311 
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR OCTOBER. 
 
 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. 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 fre- 
 quently 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 beauties. No walk, then, need be made in 
 vain, for late in this very month I have gathered Chlora 
 perfoliata, Gentiuna amarella, Acinos vulgaris, Cnicus acaulis, 
 and Campanula glomerata, all in full flower, not to mention 
 several species of Mentha, Tkymus, and Apargia, that yet 
 remain studding the meadows and copses in various spots. 
 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 fino 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, individuals of the 
 genera Potamogeton and Ceratophyllum can be easily ga- 
 thered and examined. But, in fact, new objects of atten- 
 tion occur on the very leaves themselves, withered as they 
 are, and about to sink into total and irremediable decay.
 
 312 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR OCTOBER. 
 
 idii, ReticularioR, and other minute Fungi fix upon them 
 just before they fall, and stain them in a remarkable man- 
 ner, 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 sphorules, 
 invisible but to the microscope, which are the reproductive 
 particles from which future acotyledonice are to spring. Such 
 are the minim wonders of Divine skill. 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 sur- 
 prised 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 ap- 
 peared beneath the western sky, where only a long line of 
 deep rubj 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.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 CRYPTOOAMIC VEGETATION, AND THE TRIBES COM- 
 POSING IT ASPECT OF THE FUNGI FAIRY RINGS 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE AGARIC AND OTHER TRIBES OF- 
 FICE OF THE FUNGI NOTICE OF THE SMALLER 
 
 FAMILIES NOMADIC AND METEORIC PHENOMENA 
 
 RAPID GROWTH OF THE MUSHROOM, AND DERIVABLE 
 SIMILES. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 WHERE 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 " Bo- 
 tanical Explorator;" and leaving the poets to harp 
 the dirge of fading flowers at their leisure, we shall
 
 314 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 proceed to describe the particular vegetation we have 
 in view 
 
 " Beneath a spreading Mushroom's fretted roof."* 
 
 When Linnaeus formed his celebrated Sexual Sys- 
 tem, he was compelled to include under the term 
 CRYPTOGAMIA, a vast number of plants having no 
 visible flowers, but which were assumed to have 
 analagous organs to those of the PHANEROGAMIA, 
 though altogether concealed from view. Modern 
 botanists are not in general disposed to acquiesce in 
 the idea of Linnaeus, but regard the flowerless plants 
 as altogether destitute of sexual organs, their repro- 
 duction taking place by means of sporules, which are 
 enclosed in cases called thecee, 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, consequently their growth is not a develop- 
 ment of parts already existing; but a vegetation ap- 
 pears 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 con- 
 ditions 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 Lycopodiacea or Club-mosses; the Musci 
 
 * Dr. Darwin. t See Liiidley's Botany, in toe.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 315 
 
 or Mosses; the Hepatic& or Liverworts; the Fungi or 
 Mushrooms; the Lichenes or Lichens; and the Algae 
 or Seaweeds. The Equisetacecs or Horsetails, formerly 
 considered as cryptogamous, are now, according to 
 Brogniart's observations, to be considered as allied in 
 their fructification to the fir tribe; and Dr. Lindley, 
 in locating them in juxta-position with the latter in 
 his " Natural System," remarks, that " we must ad- 
 mit that Equisetacese are more like flowering plants 
 than flowerless plants; and it seems to be most ad- 
 visable to consider them a degeneration of Coniferse, 
 to which they have so much resemblance, rather than 
 a race in affinity with Ferns, with which they have 
 really no resemblance." 
 
 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 " 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. Titaniaalso 
 observes to Oberon in the same play 
 
 "Dance in our round, 
 
 And see our moonlight, revels."
 
 316 WILD FLOWBKS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 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 pas- 
 ture. To the observant eye of the Botanist, however, 
 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 spot- 
 less 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 com- 
 mon, 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. infundibuliformis, 
 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. glaucopus), oc- 
 casionally forms so closely shielded a satiny buff circle 
 of pilei, that a snail might circumslide the ring without 
 any interruption to his course. Continued rain, un- 
 fortunately, soon destroys the elegance of these evan- 
 escent fungoid orbs for they are not the cause of the 
 permanent circles remaining in the pastures, as these 
 merely offer favourable nidi for the growth of the 
 Agarics. 
 
 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 Agaricus integer spot the 
 coppice with lake or crimson; or in the A. violaceus 
 and callochrous, display the most beautiful hues of
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 317 
 
 purple and violet. Hilly pastures are very favourable 
 to the growth of fungi, and I have often been delighted 
 with the brilliant 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. 
 psittacinus, intermixed with others of the most delicate 
 ivorv white, or dark and shaggy with brown hairs. A 
 descent now 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 penetrable with diffi- 
 culty. 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 Auriculariee* in banden 
 masses of dark plush or velvet, circle every old stump 
 and the ground is strewed with coralloid masses of 
 Clavarice, white, purple, or yellow. In short, every 
 heap of decaying wood, leaves, or other organized 
 matter, will be found teeming with these vegetable 
 vultures, whose office it seems to take possession of, if 
 not to resuscitate the molecules of dead or dying sub- 
 stances ; and thus by a continuance of the vital func- 
 tions 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 grate- 
 ful description, at least before in their turn they decay; 
 
 * Or Thelophora, of recent cryptogamic writers.
 
 318 WILD FLOWERS OV NOVEMBER. 
 
 and in effecting this compensating 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. 
 
 Various arrangements of the fungoid tribes have 
 been proposed 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 indi- 
 gestible as the substances treated of, and would prob- 
 ably only annoy the observer who had not a life to 
 devote to the subject, or ample time for minute atten- 
 tion 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 sub- 
 stance 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, ac- 
 cording 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, Polypori, or 
 
 * Professor Burnett observes, that though " Mycologists greatly differ 
 In their arrangements, they all, more or less, agree with the popular dis- 
 tribution into Slights, Puff-Balls, and Mushrooms." Burnett's Botany, 
 p. 177.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 319 
 
 DeedalecE, as large flabelliform tiled masses, increasing 
 in bulk year after year. 
 
 The smaller annual fungi, especially the jEcidii, 
 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 Trichia contains several 
 curious species, all found growing upon rotten wood. 
 The yellow-seeded Trichia (T. chrysosperma, 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 
 sporidise. 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 Sphcerice, 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 Sphaeria 
 are enumerated in Hooker's British Flora; one of the 
 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 epiphillous fungus, such as the
 
 320 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 Puccinnia or Uredo, 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 appearance 
 can only be accounted for by the supposition that they 
 are " anamorphoses " of the cellular tissue of plants.* 
 Undoubtedly the minute sporidiae must be carried up 
 into the system by the circulation of the sap, and im- 
 bibed 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 Tremellinee, 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 
 ketchup becomes dear. On this account Linnaeus 
 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 al- 
 together 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 Bertero in the distant island of Juan 
 
 * See Hooker's Brit. Flor., Vol. II., Part 2., by Berkeley, p. 326.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 321 
 
 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 
 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 (Morchella semilibera), in several spots near 
 Tewkesbury, and actually in the orchard close to my 
 own entrance- gate, although I had never previously 
 met with it in my life another year it may not 
 be found. In this tribe, then, in particular, the collect- 
 ing 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 steins, 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; and I lately had in my garden 
 a gregarious species on a piece 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 globular and wax- 
 like. The " Jew's-ear" (Exidia Auricula- Judce) , is a 
 
 Y
 
 322 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 singular brown flabby species, occurring on old elder- 
 trees, and so called from its plaited surface frequently 
 exhibiting the form and depressions incident to the 
 human ear. Paste and froth are similated by some 
 fungi ; and mildews, moulds, &c., are only other 
 forms of this singular omnipresent and versatile para- 
 sitical 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 von 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 dis- 
 perse organic matter into the smallest possible particles, 
 and with the view to their dissemination, several 
 tribes have mechanical contrivances not unworthy of 
 attention. Every body is familiar with the puff-ball, 
 or " devils' 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 and lost in air.* 
 
 * 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 repro- 
 duction in perfect plants and Fungi is so different: it having been ascer- 
 tained 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, except at uncertain intervals ; otherwise they would become
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 323 
 
 Many of the Trichias put forth a glossy coloured wool, 
 which is in like manner acted upon by the wind; and 
 the congregated Spherobolus 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 Bulliard mentions Puff-balls of the enormous size 
 of nine feet in circumference, and some of the tropical 
 fungi it is said have been mistaken for sleeping lions;* 
 they seem to furnish 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; 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. 
 Schwscgrichen, indeed, a German botanist, is reported 
 
 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 individual of the species forming the smut in corn, (which is only 
 noticeable in legions,) Professor Fries calculated there was ten millions 
 
 of sporules. 
 
 * See Professor Burnett's Outlines of Fungologia, in his Botany. 
 
 y 2
 
 324 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER, 
 
 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 Toad- 
 stool. On the whole this beauteous tribe are but the 
 attendants of damp and corruption, and as direful dis- 
 eases have arisen from the use of food infected by 
 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 pro- 
 duction 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 ten- 
 der construction. A good-sized Mushroom, if acci- 
 dentally 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 Burnet re- 
 cords 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 325 
 
 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 those 
 who may have sprung up suddenly into notice from 
 obscurity, or who from some hiatus in their genealogi- 
 cal 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 
 flower, the real stem being subterraneous, and this 
 pileus, if not accidentally crushed, often endures much 
 longer than the flowers of the garden, whose fuga- 
 ceous 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 
 consider the agaric as symbolizing the fate of modest 
 merit, having every energy rife for action, yet op- 
 pressed and obscured by unfavourable circumstances ; 
 
 * Burnett's Botany, p. 23!.
 
 326 WI1D FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 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.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER, 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 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 Gerard'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
 
 328 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 observer may confound the moss and the lichen, the 
 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 scarcely 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 
 leiken, 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 apothecia, while the plants that bear them are 
 eaid to have either a thallus, 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 structures of 
 every description, by the aid of these humid, pulveru- 
 lent, 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 are 
 copiously blotched with large patches of white or bril- 
 liant yellow, from their constantly extending 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
 
 WILD FLOWKR8 OF NOVEMBER. 329 
 
 of the damp fingers of time ; and they are enumerated 
 by Bernard Barton, 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." 
 
 Crabbe, 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 ;
 
 330 WILD FJLOWKRS OK NOVEMBER. 
 
 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 nanre retains, 
 And these are Nature's ever-during stains." 
 
 While great part of the fungi 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 perennially 
 fixed to the rocks on which they grow, and hence called 
 by Linnaeus 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 flourish 
 and extend themselves. Hence misty mountain 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 them- 
 selves in wet weather, How often with mournful eye 
 do we look up to the sombre skies which at this sea- 
 son of the year pour their dripping treasures with me- 
 lancholy pattering upon the fallen leaves and denuded 
 trees ; how often is the misty vapour that wreathes 
 the mountain's brow, and involves 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,"
 
 WILD KLOWKRS OK NOVKMBKR. 331 
 
 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, 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 thalli, 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 scutetta; 
 but in a few days after the rain had ceased, not a ves- 
 tige could be discovered of it, even on the closest in- 
 spection. 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
 
 33*2 WILD FLOWERS OP NOVEMBER. 
 
 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 scattered 
 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. 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 analogous 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 prolifer- 
 ous system seems to be carried out to its utmost ex- 
 tent, 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, struggling to extend and mul- 
 tiply their species. It is instructive to mark any stony 
 memorial, cross, pillar, or tower, and behold these 
 apparently weak instruments 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 loug 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 re-
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP NOVEMBER. 333 
 
 productive 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-fur- 
 row, 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 
 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 ap- 
 pear, with a load of ivy and berry-bearing trees ; and 
 then, 
 
 " Drops the tower sublime 
 
 Of yesterday, which royally did wear 
 Its crown of weeds, but could not even sustain 
 Some casual shout that broke the silent air, 
 Or the unimaginable touch of time."t 
 
 It is remarkable that, although lichens are so sensible 
 to a moist atmosphere or shower of rain, none grow 
 submersed in water, and none produce apothecia in 
 places deprived of light, though so attached to the 
 mazy crevices of the rocks. 
 
 " Braving the inclemencies of every climate and 
 season," says Professor Sprengel, " Lichens are the 
 never-failing companions of the travelling botanist ;" 
 and so I have found 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- 
 
 t Wordsworth.
 
 334 WILD FLOWERS OP NOVEMBER. 
 
 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 graphideoK, so called from the resemblance of 
 their apothecia to writing. Opegrapha scripta and 
 0. varia are particularly remarkable in this respect, 
 and 0. elegans, which is rarer, displays its large grooved 
 black characters upon the oaks of the forest, as if pre- 
 senting some dark enigma for a lover of the Dryades 
 to decypher. The young branches in plantations of 
 oaks are often so covered with the Opegrapha macu- 
 laris, as to seem as if purposely blackened with gun- 
 powder, or stained from an explosion of the same " vil- 
 lainous" material. 
 
 Another family forming the genus Calicium, 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 
 Leprarix 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 335 
 
 (17. scruposaj, 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 U. calcarea, Verrucaria 
 rupestris, Lecanora atra, and other saxicolose lichens m 
 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." 
 
 Perhaps the most curious of these armadilloed lichens 
 is the Beomyces rvfus, whose granulated crust is at a 
 little distance undistinguishable ftom 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. Hooker enumerates 
 68 species in his British Flora, and we may refer to 
 two in exemplification of it. The L. parnsema, or 
 common black-shielded Lecidea, abundant on the bark 
 of trees, and the pretty L. ulmicola, whose crowded 
 orange-coloured shields have a most elegant aspect 
 wherever they present themselves. The Map Lecidea 
 (L. geographica), also merits notice as a very remark-
 
 336 WILD FLOWERS OP NOVEMBER. 
 
 able 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 represent the courses of 
 rivers, and their hundred tributaries, 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 ge- 
 neral it is not easy to unchain this vegetable Prome- 
 theus, unless, indeed, the explorator feels inclined to 
 carry away rock and all from its high position ! The 
 summits of the Malvern hills, in Worcestershire, pleas- 
 ingly display the Map Lecidea in many places, and in 
 the autumnal season, while exploring those romantic 
 heights, the snow wreath or the fog has frequently 
 surrounded me; or while the storm in its utmost artil- 
 liried fury has been sweeping over the plain below, 
 gome of those islet-like hills that dot the level country 
 of this beauteous part of England, 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 
 Lecanora (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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 337 
 
 in church yards ; while the Crab's-eye Lecanora (,. 
 parella), 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 flourish 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 Conway, listening to the surge below ; 
 Retiring Lichen climbs the topmost stone, 
 And drinks the aerial solitude alone." 
 
 In the genus Squamaria, 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 
 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. omphalodes 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 rivu- 
 lets steal to the roaring monarch's embrace, nourish 
 the species that in more inland situations would vainly 
 struggle for extension amidst the continued burning
 
 338 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 heats of summer. Thus it has occurred to me to 
 find more luxuriant specimens of Lichens on the 
 rocks about Barmouth, North Wales, than I any where 
 else remember to have seen. Here the beautiful 
 Parmelia laevigata covers the massy stones on the 
 margin of the beach, profusely covered with large 
 bright chesnut fructifications ; 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. 
 (iquila.) In the groves about Tan-y-bwlch, I also noticed 
 that the trees were profusely adorned with the very 
 beautiful orbicular Green Parmelia (P. herbacea), in 
 exuberant fructification. Limestone rocks often dis- 
 play species almost peculiar to that kind of stone as 
 the tiled Squamaria crassa, and the leathery Endocarpon 
 miniatum, so abundant on the rugged carboniferous 
 limestone of the romantic cliffs of Cheddar. 
 
 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 gloves, and when, as is 
 frequently the case, a little bright pink tremelloid sub- 
 stance bestuds the bright orange of the Parmelia, the 
 effect produced is very beautiful. The inflated Par- 
 melia (P. physodes), 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 
 Lungwort (S. pulmonaria), is very remarkable, in- 
 vesting trees in sub-alpine countries with its large 
 green fronds, curiously pitted and reticulated. The
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 339 
 
 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. niyrescens), not uncommon on the 
 damp trunks of trees, may be adduced as a specimen. 
 These dark foliaceous and plaited subtances 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. P. venosa, and 
 P. aphthosa 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 
 Cetrarife 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 -rumped Wheatear is sure to be seen 
 flitting about. Roccella is a maritime Lichen, which 
 yields a most valuable dye.* Borrera ciliaris et tenella, 
 
 * 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 j6'290 per ton, and at particular times it hat 
 risen to nearly j^lOOO ! 
 
 z 2
 
 340 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 Evernia prunastri, Ramalina farinacea, and Usnea pli- 
 cata et florida, 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; 
 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- 
 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 Ramalina scopulorum often appears very 
 copiously upon maritime rocks, to which its stiff 
 glazed pendant thalli give a most remarkably grizzled 
 aspect, visible from afar. The Ash Ramalina (R. 
 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 Ramalina (R. pollinarid), when occur- 
 ring 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 341 
 
 mountains, which in the absence of other vegetation 
 they 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 Reindeer 
 that constitute the sole wealth of the Laplanders. No 
 vegetable, Linnaeus states, grows throughout Lapland 
 in such abundance as this, especially in woods of 
 scattered pines, where for very many miles together the 
 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 flavicans, 
 with which it grows intermixed ; while the forked 
 Cladonia and the corul-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 glo- 
 rious imaginings many never-to-be-forgotten excur- 
 sions 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 enrap- 
 tured, winding my course among maritime rocks all 
 day till I was as brown as the sun-burnt Parmelia that 
 
 * Crabbe.
 
 342 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 I scraped from the granite ridge ; how oft have they 
 lured me to gather the blistered Umbilicaria, the wiry 
 "Rock Hair," or the pointed sad-coloured Cornicu- 
 laria, on the syenite of Malvern, the sooty Sticta and 
 fringed Gyrophora upon Snowdon, 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 growth 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 Nephroma, still ever 
 as I gaze recalling the sensations with which I ga- 
 thered them. Up that frightful cliff, remarked a man, 
 as I turned to take my farewell of its awful form, two 
 youths were climbing, as you may have been, but 
 they were seeking bird's eggs. They were half way 
 up its scarcely practicable ascent, when a thunder 
 storm suddenly swept on, and shrouded them from 
 view. Awed by the elemental conflict, they were 
 unable to advance or retreat. Long they clung one 
 above another to the 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 
 the mountains.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 343 
 
 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 their 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 ; 
 And cups, the darlings of the eye, 
 So deep in their vermillion dye." * 
 
 The objects thus pleasingly alluded to are the Cup- 
 lichens, or Scyphophori, whose multifarious varieties, 
 whether seen upon the sandy heath, the silent moun- 
 tain waste, or upon the humble cottage pales, 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 pas- 
 sions that desecrate the moral world, and soothe 
 those pangs that still ever accompany the struggles of 
 man in the physical one. 
 
 The apostrophe of Linnaeus, prefixed to the 
 seventh plate of his celebrated " Flora Lapponica," 
 on a retrospect of the fatigues he had gone through 
 among the wildernesses of Lapland, in collecting 
 
 * Wordsworth.
 
 344 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 plants, is so appropriate an accompaniment to the 
 scenes especially presented to the wandering Liche- 
 nist, that a paraphrase of it may not not be unac- 
 ceptable and it is at any rate in accordance with my 
 own feelings and experience. 
 
 LINNAEUS' RETROSPECT OF HIS LAPLAND 
 JOURNEY. 
 
 How often to gather this wreath, 
 
 Have I thrill'd at the prospect beneath! 
 
 How often where dark rocks were scowling, 
 
 How often when thunder was growling, 
 Alone on the hills have I stood, 
 Amidst tempests that veil'd the dark wood ; 
 
 Driving hail by the rolling clouds brought, 
 
 Has burst on my head while I fought ! 
 
 How often to gather this wreath, 
 Have I thrill'd at the prospect beneath ! 
 What rocks have I clamber'd upon, 
 Sliding cliffs where the footing was none ; 
 
 Good God ! * I still shudder to think 
 
 When I slipt on the precipice brink, 
 How thy goodness preserv'd as of yore, 
 How thy staff stood my footsteps before ; 
 Just stay'd on the slippery ground, 
 Where the gulf hid in gloom, yawn'd deep, dark, and 
 profound. 
 
 How oft in the ruinous waste 
 
 Has the cold fog my temples embrac'd, 
 
 While still persevering, 
 
 Collecting and steering, 
 
 Tempest-beaten and burnt, 
 
 Nature's stores have I learnt, 
 When the wind mow'd the hills as it past, 
 And fainting and thirsting, I sunk 'neath the blast. 
 
 * " Quas angustias adii, bone Deus !" 
 
 Linn, in loc.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 345 
 
 Yet I brav'd all these ills, 
 And observ'd the huge hills, 
 All ragged and gray 
 As they rose in my way ; 
 Vast stones bearded o'er 
 With the Lichens of yore ; 
 Wall'd-in glens in whose niches 
 The Fern its frond pitches, 
 Far up like the Eagle its nest, 
 And woods of deep horror sound breaks not of rest I
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR NOVEMBER. 
 
 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 exhilirating to climb the heathy 
 hills, where the green Cup-mosses and silvery Rein 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. From 
 the Holly-trees, now showing their ruddy berries, and as- 
 suming an importance in the sylvan scene they did not 
 before possess, hosts of Fieldfares 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, impenetrable 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 orbrown Ferns, 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. 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, dis- 
 closes beauties to the eye, unobserved 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
 
 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR NOVEMBER. 347 
 
 accompanied by its sober, unvarying companion, the old 
 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. 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 approach- 
 ing season in the Mistletoe, with its white berries now 
 prominently nestled in many of them, and the trees on 
 which this curious parasite occurs, may now be more ad- 
 vantageously 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 
 accumulated leaves, while the tall trunks of the forest trees 
 wave with a thick crop of Evernia prunastri and the rama- 
 line, and other frondose and filamentous lichens, like the 
 deserted columns of a ruined temple ragged with weeds. 
 Yet here, occasionally, the eye of research is rewarded by 
 observing some rare and curious fungus, as the Ayaricus 
 odorus, scenting the shade, the huge Polyporus squamosus, 
 piled high upon each other, or the singular varnished 
 grotesque P. lucidus, besides numerous more minute ones. 
 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 Cle- 
 matis, he is forced to seek a temporary shelter as the howl- 
 ing 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 iiradiant at the foot of the 
 pleased shelterer.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 GLANCE AT THE BRUMAL ASPECT OF NATURE THE 
 
 MOSSES IN THEIR NUPTIAL HABILIMENTS SIMILE 
 
 IN RELATION TO THEM THEIR BOTANICAL CHA- 
 RACTERS BEAUTIFUL ASPECT IN THE WANK OF 
 
 THE YEAR POLTTRICHUM, AND OTHER FAMILIES 
 
 THE SPHAGNA OR BOG-MOSSES THEIR ECONOMICAL 
 
 BISTORT AND DISTRIBUTION. 
 
 " 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 349 
 
 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 Muscifrondosi. 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 escalading 
 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 tranquillity 
 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 Shenstone 
 
 " 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 Spenser, indeed, has not al- 
 together forgotten the picturesque aspect they put on 
 
 * Spenser.
 
 350 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 at this season, when he thus apostrophizes in his 
 characteristic " Shepherd's Calendar:" 
 
 " You naked trees, whose shady leaves are lost, 
 Wherein the birds were wont to build their bowre, 
 And now are cloth 1 d icith 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." 
 
 Linnseus'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 thecce are buried amidst the leaves 
 that rise up, each furnished with a long white pellucid 
 hair. In hot weather the Mosses become crisped, 
 curled up, discoloured, and apparently lifeless; but 
 they imbibe moisture with such rapidity, that the
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 351 
 
 slightest shower restores their pristine freshness 
 thus emblematical of the power the slightest change 
 of circumstances has upon the condition of man him- 
 self. See the son of genius toiling on his up-hill 
 course, and vainly craving that single drop of patron- 
 age that would invigorate 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, ex- 
 pands 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 arid 
 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 theca 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 opercula or lid, and 
 as the whole becomes mature the lid drops off, dis- 
 closing 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
 
 352 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 upon the wind to rise up as young plants wherever 
 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, transpa- 
 rent 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 thecae 
 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 gemmee, 
 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. Lindley considers 
 that the calyptra, operculum, and teeth of \\iQperistome 
 of mosses are all modified leaves, and that therefore 
 the urn is more analogous to a 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. 
 Drummond, who succeeded in raising more than thirty 
 different kinds of mosses from seed. Mosses have 
 been arranged in genera, according to the presence or 
 absence of a fringe at the mouth of the urn, the num- 
 ber 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 "Musco- 
 logia Britannica," where all the mosses of Britain are de- 
 scribed, and many of them figured. According to Lind- 
 ley, about eight hundred species are now known, but 
 probably a considerable number remain to be described.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 353 
 
 Whoever enters upon the study of these minute 
 yet beautiful structures, must not imagine that his 
 researches are to be confined wholly to the days of 
 summer ; even now, when the sun, blazing for a mo- 
 ment 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 so 
 cold as 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 as 
 now, in these decembral hours of gloom, the muscolo- 
 gist must be abroad to behold the objects of his de- 
 light 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, 
 now in their brightest luxuriance, must be sought for 
 on the spungy sward of the bleak extensive moor, or 
 the " moss-clad stones " swept by the bitter mountain 
 blast, or in the wildest depth of humid woods, midst 
 
 "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." * 
 * Wordsworth. 
 2 A
 
 354 WILD FLOWERS OP DECEMBER. 
 
 For had their oozy foliage and plumose stems, voices 
 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 are, 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, Parnell, or any other poet, 
 in strict keeping with the occupation allotted by Cole- 
 ridge 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 355 
 
 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 " a lovely 
 little flower '* in a cave, by which I presume he in- 
 tended a beauteous moss, and, thus circumstanced, 
 defies the " raging winter." Tempted alike by the 
 literal and the 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 Polytrichum, 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 the 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, beesoms, 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 Phascum, whose capsules 
 scarcely equal the size of a pin's-head, and without lid 
 
 * Burns. 
 
 2 A 2
 
 356 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 or fringe, fade almost from unassisted vision ; or the 
 curiously- minute and elegant Gymnostomi, without 
 peristomes, one species of which Hasselquist found 
 so abundantly on the walls of Jerusalem, that he con- 
 sidered it the "hyssop springing out of the wall" 
 that Solomon was acquainted with. The Tortulee, seen 
 very frequently on walls, are 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. 
 The Encalypta has its calyptra exactly fashioned like 
 an extinguisher ; that of Orthotrichum like a fool's-cap 
 studded with hairs : while the round fruit of Bar- 
 tramia pomiformis deeply furrowed, is peculiarly ele- 
 gant 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 fruit bundled together, 
 with scarcely any foliage, luxuriating on the round 
 bare plots, thus left by the woodmen. This is the 
 Funaria hygrometica, 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 Bryce are a 
 very numerous tribe of the mosses, amongst which 
 B. ligulatum, with its long tongue-shaped leaves and 
 brown scales at the base of its stalks, presents the ap- 
 pearance of a miniature Palm ; while the reticulated 
 leaves of B. punctatum, an inhabitant of marshy spots 
 or mountainous rivulets, have a very beautiful appear- 
 ance. The little Bryum argenteum, often seen on rocks 
 or old roofs, is very palpable from its peculiar silvery
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 357 
 
 aspect. Every where on banks, old trunks of trees, 
 walls, and in the deep recesses of shadowy woods, 
 appear the wide-spreading, soft and flossy mosses be- 
 longing to the Hypnum tribe, distinguished by their 
 double Peristome, each consisting of sixteen teeth, 
 filiform processes being frequently placed between the 
 segments of the inner fringe. There are sixty-seven 
 British species of Hypnum. 
 
 The genus Splachnum presents some of the rarest 
 and most beautiful species known in the world. <S. 
 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. 
 But by far the most important in the economy of 
 Nature are the Sphagna, or bog- mosses, whose hoary 
 tresses clothe the misty mountains to such a vast ex- 
 tent, forming those turbaries within which the migh- 
 tiest 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 recol- 
 lection of those bogs upon whose margin or within 
 whose plashy verge 
 
 "Where fairy water -breaks do murmur on 
 For ever," 
 
 he has gathered some of his brightest and most che- 
 rished varieties ! There, whiter than snow, floats the 
 silken Cotton-grass ; the red-leaved Sundew shines
 
 358 WILD FLOWERS OK DECEMBER. 
 
 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 altoge- 
 ther 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 Cran- 
 berry on the borders of Bomere's fair watery expanse 
 with the fairy ivy-leaved Bell-flower on the margin 
 of Llyn Teivy and its sister lakes where Gowrog'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 
 Wild 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- 
 liminon, hid in perpetual clouds, and blown by never- 
 ceasing blasts.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 359 
 
 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 is formed, from 
 whence the black half- decayed mosses are dug out, 
 dried, and used for fuel. Thus the bog- moss becomes 
 the instrument of its own destruction, it forms a pa- 
 bulum 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 
 struggling for existence. Trifling and insignificant 
 as they seem, they have many uses in Nature's
 
 360 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 economy ;* the birds construct their nests of them, they 
 protect the roots of larger plants from cold, and pre- 
 serve, amidst their dense tufts, myriads of minute in- 
 sects, 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 consti- 
 tute 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 favou- 
 rite 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 amusement and 
 instruction, though the inexperienced eye could dis- 
 cover nothing more than seemingly barren wastes. 
 Nor is the pursuit of these vegetables confined to the 
 
 * " God and nature," says Linnaeus, in his Acad. Arnan., " 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 assist- 
 ants of nature in the creation of soil, the constituents of which they im- 
 bibe 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, 1842, I took from the tiled roof of an out-building at Malvem 
 Wells, a tuft of the Bryiim capillare, a moss very common on walls and 
 rocks. This tuft, with the black soil collected at its base, weighed sir 
 ounces, and on carefully extracting the mould by repeated washings, 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 live times its own weight.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 361 
 
 summer season alone, as is the case with most other 
 departments of botany. The Muscologist needs not 
 to wait for the heralds of Spring to announce to him 
 the time when he may set out, with a prospect of suc- 
 cess, upon his excursions. With the Moss it is a con- 
 tinual spring ; a very great number 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 examination 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 ap- 
 plication of water. Thus they appear to the eye as 
 beautiful images of the past, yet like an unappro- 
 priated 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 impe- 
 rishable !
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER, 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 LAST LOOK-OUT UPON THE ASPECT OF VEGETATION 
 
 APPEARANCE AND ECONOMY OF THE JUNGERMANNL* 
 
 A DECEMBER MORNING SIMILIES APPERTAINING 
 
 TO LINGERING FLOWKR8 EVERGREENS OF THE SEA- 
 SON CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS " GIVE ME THOSE 
 
 FLOWERS." 
 
 " 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 
 walls, windows, or trellis -work, even amidst falling 
 snow ; but there will scarcely be one left by the last
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 363 
 
 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. The garden and shrubbery now pre- 
 sents its most desolate aspect, for rampant weeds 
 struggle with the stalks of dead annuals ; all are dying, 
 or so intermingled 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." 
 
 And yet, as the 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 them- 
 selves of continuous vegetation, though in a dimi- 
 nished form ; and if the eye strictly scrutinizes these 
 verdant tufts and mosaic markings on the various barks, 
 a host of what at first sight appear to be minute
 
 364 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 flowers, are seen rearing their tender forms from pur- 
 plish brown imbricated fronds, or bidentated leaves of 
 the tenderest green. These are the urns or capsules 
 of the Jungermanniae, a distinct race from the mosses, 
 though closely allied to them in habit, which part into 
 four divisions, scattering around their brown sporules 
 of dust, intermixed with minute chain-like bodies, 
 whose precise use has not hitherto been certainly 
 defined.* The urns of the Jungermanniae mature ra- 
 pidly in damp weather, and some of them are elevated 
 upon such transparent stalks, that they appear to simu- 
 late the Gordian 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- 
 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, 
 
 * In the Exploratory Notices for January I have mentioned what 
 appears to me the purpose they are designed for.
 
 * 
 
 WILD FtOWKRS OF DECEMBER. 365 
 
 these curious plants spreading their labyrinthal mazes 
 profuse with auburn fairy urns about the dark boles of 
 the patriarchal trees of the wood, unquestionably in- 
 spires 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 asto- 
 nishment and praise from the thoughtless and unen- 
 quiring. 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 undulate with simmering bubbling. Of the 
 lowly JungermannioE, 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 of other richer, and 
 more directly rewarding tribes." At all events, if 
 there be any thing worthy or exciting in the perusal 
 of any production of human genius, it must be self- 
 evident, that there is something still more worthy, 
 more exciting, and of a purer nature too, in the inves- 
 tigation of even the minutest emanation from the
 
 366 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 wisdom and energy of the Divine mind. With this 
 sentiment, then, the botanist can satisfactorily answer 
 any contemner, if such there be, of his exploring, 
 innocent, and unambitious pursuit. 
 
 But, now for a final glance at the out-of-door as- 
 pect of the features of the waning year. For one 
 brief day December glooms subside lines of white 
 stratified clouds are pillowed upon the horizon, and 
 the sun spreads forth his beams from a ccerulean 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 dun- 
 geon of the rifted clouds. Some tracts, too, of veget- 
 able 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." 
 
 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. Here and there the orange- 
 coloured clustered berries of the bryony 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OP DECEMBER. 367 
 
 damsel. " 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 bud- 
 ding branches ; and in spots like this, the wild 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 offer it at the shrine of 
 beauty, might once have thrilled the soul to extacy ; 
 but, from the shrivelled and benumbed hand of age, 
 
 * The Long-tailed Tit. (Parus caudatus.)
 
 368 WILD FLOWKRS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 who cares to pluck a flower, or who exists to deem it 
 worth while to present one take them away ! Yet 
 stop ; affection, duty, claims one sad wreath for the 
 pallid corpse, ere buried with all its " dreams of great- 
 ness " in the cold earth ; and even the lapse of time 
 demands the the tribute of a sigh. So will we again 
 chime in with the motto we have selected from a for- 
 gotten brochure of our own, as a chorus to this re- 
 quiem : 
 
 " 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." 
 
 Notwithstanding all the desolation that may be pic- 
 tured 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
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 369 
 
 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 re- 
 mains only in the middle, or, indeed, more exclu- 
 sively, in the lower classes of society. Perhaps the 
 " Botanic Garden," or the " Botanical Register," with 
 their coloured plates, may adorn the drawing-rooms 
 of the wealthy cultivators of science, the green-house 
 bouquet 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- 
 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 whiqh, 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 in 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. 
 
 2 B
 
 370 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 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." Clare. 
 
 After all our looking-ow/, theu, 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 struggle 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 
 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 sufficiently 
 investigated at one transient view. In this respect 
 the wonder-working hand of Divine Providence is 
 strikingly manifested to the botanist. Long as he 
 may reside at any particular spot, he will always find 
 some fresh 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 be- 
 fore and yet, strange to say, years may again elapse
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 371 
 
 before they present themselves, and, perhaps, in the 
 same locality, never. Hence, as Kirby and Spence 
 have well observed in remarking upon the local distri- 
 bution of insects and their relation to plants, " some- 
 times 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." * The 
 Botanical Explorator will assent to the truth of this 
 observation, which while it will stimulate him to study 
 the laws relating to the dissemination of plants, will 
 act as a hint never to neglect gathering an unknown 
 plant the first time it is noticed, under the deceptive 
 hope that a more favourable opportunity may occur. 
 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 or- 
 ganization laid down with dogmatical precision, or the 
 enforcement of any peculiar system loaded with harsh 
 verbiage, painful and annoying to 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 importance in any study 
 easily to ascertain the names of the objects that come 
 under examination, let the student by all means take 
 
 * Kirby and Spence. Introduct. to Entomology, Vol. iv. p. 507.
 
 372 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 the Linnaean classification for his 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- 
 slip, the primrose, or some other simple object that 
 has received a supernatural value from the muse," t 
 must be contented with the simpler references arid 
 more practically useful appliances of the Linnsean. 
 
 Through the varied scenes of twelve months' storm 
 and sunshine, we have ministered as a collector of 
 floral bouquets of every iridean hue say not, reader, 
 with Horace, J that such wreaths displease you. Like 
 Ganymede, we have presented a cup teeming with 
 nature's ambrosial and nectariferous sweets and 
 with the speed of Puck, we've winged the mazes of 
 of the wood to seek the tiniest flowers for your service. 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t Sketch Book. 
 t " Displicent nexa- philyra coronas." Horace, Carm. i. 38.
 
 WILD FLOWERS OF DECEMBER. 373 
 
 We have proffered our guidance by mountain, haunted 
 stream, and sacred grove, wherever the adventurous 
 foot might penetrate ; and, bear us witness, neither 
 sun, nor cloud, nor storm, nor flood, have stopped our 
 course, or turned us from our purpose. We have 
 plucked the roses together in the sunny bower, we 
 have " babbled o' green fields," by the river's flowery 
 brink, we have whispered instruction on the lonely 
 shore, and (start not fair ones) we have murmured 
 of love in the moon- lit hazel walk. We ought, then, 
 to be familiar ; but just as we are so, the iron-tongue 
 of time calls for our separation the year is closing, 
 and we are doomed to part ! Yet, remember, the 
 wreath we have gathered is a perennial one, that will 
 revive month after month, in after years, like the un- 
 dying moss at the touch of moisture, whenever it is 
 applied to at the proper season. Thus, then, we may 
 revive, in any future spring, fresh as the little Aconite 
 in February, rising from the ground all green and 
 gold. And even now, with all our leaves and all 
 our flowers thus strung together in one wild scented 
 coronal, may we in conclusion say FoRGET-us-NoT 
 and our little wreath shall be like the pearly immor- 
 telles that adorn the vases of your marble mantels 
 it shall leave no stain behind it, whether it rest iu 
 your boudoirs or your libraries. 
 
 The subject may be appositely closed by depicting 
 the feelings called forth in the mind of a floral enthu- 
 siast, by the sight of vernal flowers, when incapaci- 
 tated from leaving the tainted atmosphere of a sick 
 chamber at such a time what emotions may not be 
 created by the sight of fresh Wild Flowers !
 
 374 ON THE SIGHT OF FRESH WILD FLOWKR8. 
 
 "GIVE ME THOSE FLOWERS."* 
 
 Hi VK me those Flowers 1 I want to look 
 
 Again at the face of creation ; 
 They'll tell me at least of the last walk I took 
 
 To their favourite habitation ; 
 The scent of the air and the sound of the brook 
 Comes with them to form an oblation. 
 
 Bring me those Flowers ! I wish'd to have gone 
 Myself to the place of their flowering ; 
 
 Where oft I have notic'd the Blackcap upon 
 The gold sallows in April's showering, 
 
 While the voice of the Thrush was still echoed on 
 
 From the hazle copse dripping and pouring. 
 
 Give me those Flowers ! I want to cheer 
 My eyes with the look of their springing ; 
 
 Bring them I got them myself last year, 
 
 By the brook while the wood-wren was singing, 
 
 And the sound of the current came deep on my ear, 
 
 As o'er the dark rocks it plung'd swinging. 
 
 Bring me those Flowers ! bring root and all, 
 
 To give me their full perfection, 
 That their opening petals may now recall 
 
 The spring's joyous resurrection ; 
 Give me those Flowers alas it is all 
 The enjoyment of recollection. 
 
 For now though I see the uncheck'd clouds 
 O'er the brilliant green meadows chacing, 
 
 And the opening verdure tip all the woods, 
 Old winter's dark horrors effacing, 
 
 Disease has enthrall'd me with mantles and hoods, 
 
 While I by the brook would be pacing. 
 
 * Shakspeare In "Romeo and Juliet," and again in the 
 "Winter's Tale."
 
 ON THK SIGHT OP FRESH WILD FLOWERS. 375 
 
 Give me those Flowers ! oh bring at least 
 
 A Primrose, a Violet, a Daisy, 
 A Cowslip would be in itself a feast, 
 
 Or the Blue-bell or burnish'd Crazy 
 Oh with life alone will their charms have ceas'd, 
 When the eye-ball sits fix'd and glazy. 
 
 Give me those Flowers 1 that earthy smell 
 
 Seems pregnant with renovation ; 
 Methinks I am roaming again in the dell 
 
 Where the fiery broom gilds the station ; 
 And though brief the continuance of that fairy spell, 
 It affects the imagination. 
 
 Bring me those Flowers ! but with them bring 
 
 Not merely fair pictures fleeting, 
 But strength once more for the buoyant spring 
 
 To give the clouds of heav'n a greeting ! 
 How sad to sit silent while all the woods ring, 
 With their concert the spirits cheating. 
 
 Those Flowers, those Flowers 1 life ebbs apace, 
 
 How few there are now remaining 
 That with me commenc'd life's joyous race, 
 
 With bright hopes our steps sustaining ; 
 The rose-buds are wittered, yet thought displays 
 The old vase its old flowers containing. 
 
 Give me those Flowers ! my hand shall hold 
 
 The last sad token devoutly ; 
 And when I am laid in my parent mould 
 
 With my father's dust about me, 
 I pray that above me some tree fresh and bold, 
 May rise to the world without me. 
 
 In holy shade, o'er my resting place, 
 
 In coolness and beauty extending ; 
 No Yew, but a Lime in summer grace 
 
 Its sweets to the zephyr lending : 
 Give me those flowers o'er my narrow space, 
 Birds, insects and streams their sounds blending.
 
 376 ON THE SIGHT OF FRESH WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 Flowers ! living Flowers ! all fresh and fair, 
 Far brighter than childhood glowing ; 
 
 Though quicker they fade yet lay them there, 
 The last sad remembrance bestowing; 
 
 As visions of life they charm every where 
 
 The flowret alone is left growing. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 H. DAVIES, MONTPELLIER LIBRARY, CHELTENHAM.
 
 86, FLEET STREET, LONDON. 
 
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