386 WILD FLOWEBS OF 



mountain shadowed in gloomy obscurity. Northward 

 the pyramidal height of the Sugar-Loaf and its mas- 

 sive subject buttresses of old red sandstone block up 

 the vale, leaving but a scanty space for the passage 

 of the Usk on the one hand, and shelving off on the 

 other towards the isolated fortress of the Skirrid 

 Vawr, whose terraced ridges and detached promonto- 

 ries form a commanding object eastward ; while from 

 thence to the south an undulating woody ridge, 

 capped by the feathery little Skirrid, extends almost 

 to the banks of 



" The lucid Usk, the undulating line 

 That nature loves." 



To increase the charm of the scene, the foaming 

 little river G-avenny hurries from the eminences east- 

 ward, through richly verdant meadows, to increase 

 the liquid resources of the rushing Usk ; while the 

 beauties of the country around Crickhowel, only six 

 miles northward, Ragland's noted towers, eight miles 

 to the south, with the matchless arches of Tintern 

 within the range of a more distant excursion, conspire 

 to tempt the wandering lover of nature to pause at 

 Abergavenny. In this vicinity various interesting 

 plants came under my notice, especially on the road 

 to Skenfreth, where by a little stream in a deep hol- 

 low of a by-way beyond Lanvetherine, I saw the tall 

 Elecampane (Inula Selenium) conspicuous with its 

 sunlike flower, one of the finest and rarest of its tribe 

 in Britain, and truly wild perhaps only in secluded 

 moist places. The Dwarf Elder (Sambitcus ebulusj) or 

 Danewort, supposed to indicate spots where blood 

 has been spilt, appeared also in considerable plenty 

 not far from the foot of the Derry. On the sides of 



