WILD FLOWERS OF OCTOBER. 441 



either a misty glare obscures the distant horizon in 

 some quarter or other, thunder clouds come whirling 

 about the mountain side, or worse than all, drizzling 

 and settled rain overwhelms the disappointed explorer 

 of Nature's beauties. But the calm and often cloud- 

 less days of autumn generally offer opportunities of 

 the most exciting kind, when no wind blows too rough 

 a cadence, and when the heat generated by exertion is 

 not of that debilitating kind before which, as is fre- 

 quently the case in the dog-days, the enervated frame 

 sinks in passive and overpowering fatigue. 



It may, however, be thought that at this late period 

 of the season but few plants can be met with to give 

 zest to botanical ardour, but this is by no means the 

 case, for in favoured sheltered nooks among the hol- 

 lows of the rocks, many alpine plants continue in 

 flower till over-powered by the frosts of November ; 

 while the cryptogamous vegetation of the mountains 

 now appears in fine perfection Ferns of the most 

 delicate structure glisten with a golden green lustre 

 within the dark cavities of the precipices the Lichens 

 stain the sullen rocks with yellow, brown, and purple, 

 or fringe their edges with a hoary beard and every 

 bubbling spring is surrounded with an emerald carpet, 

 where the Mosses lift up to the observant eye their 

 brown tkecce, or urns of fructification, either grace- 

 fully adorned with a light calyptra or veil, or covered 

 as in the Polytriclii with a shaggy hairy cap. But to 

 make these observations more obvious, I will detail 

 the proceedings of a botanical excursion I made a few 

 autumns ago, in Snowdonia, which will enable me to 

 allude to some plants that have not previously fallen 

 under our notice. 



