AUGUST. 339 



(Myrica gale) scattered in profusion around, fill the 

 air with their cinnamon scent. In the wettest spots 

 rises the princely Flowering Pern (Osmunda regalis), 

 and on the surface of the water itself float the pale 

 yellow flowers of the "Water Milfoil (Vtricularia 

 minor), and the argent three-petalled blossoms of the 

 Floating "Water Plaintain {Alisma natans). 



In moody grandeur on the most westerly point of 

 the mainland of Pembrokeshire, rises the trappoid 

 crest of St. David's head. A curious outwork of 

 greenstone tumuli range in a line between it and the 

 more level country, like watch-towers in front of a 

 fortress. The base of the gloomy head itself is 

 covered with broken stones and ruined cromlechs ; a 

 stormy sea boils beneath, and amidst these deserted 

 ruins of the past no other voice is heard but the wail 

 of the blast and the harsh cries of flocks of choughs, 

 who build in the interstices of the rocks. On this 

 dreary crag I now stood alone, while the sun went 

 down on the misty ocean. But though man had 

 deserted it, and the Briton and the Roman, had alike 

 disappeared from old Menevia, it was not untenanted 

 by plants that had probably flourished here even 

 before the Druidical sway. The topmost crags were 

 yellow with the flowers of the Genista pilosa, in great 

 profusion ; several rare Carices were apparent among 

 the bushes, and on the edge of a rivulet weeping down 

 the declivity of the hill, I gathered Alisma rammcu- 

 loides, A. rejpens, A. natans, and the very curious 

 creeping Pepper-grass (Pilularia globullfera^ Here, 

 also, the rare and local Ch/perus longus has been found. 

 Lifting my eyes from the herbage fringing the rivulet, 

 and gazing from the protruding rock, the lone pool of 



z2 



