272 WILD FLOWERS OF 



pink flowers of the great Snap-dragon (Antirrhinum 

 majus), at a little distance gave to the towers a bright 

 ruby tinge, finely contrasting with the masses of 

 yellow Lichen that had spread widely over the grey 

 limestone rock, and time-stained its battered face. 

 This is the month for castles, ruins, and rocks- 

 dreary, desolate, and horrid as they often seem when 

 the wind and the tempest roar about them, or the 

 sheeted lightning blazes for a moment upon their 

 crumbling fabrics Nature, as if to solace their harsh 

 fate, this brilliant month, smiles upon them in her 

 most inviting manner, and lights up fcheir abandon- 

 ment with a floral illumination. 



Can aught be brighter than the golden flowers of 

 the various Stonecrops (Sedum acre, glaucurn, reflexum, 

 fyc.) that now glare upon every precipice like so many 

 mimic suns ? relieved where the pure white Sedum 

 album lifts up its argent corymbs on the stony glacis, 

 while on the sea shore whole rocks are beautifully 

 silvered with the brilliant stars of the English Stone- 

 crop (Sed/wn, anglicum). Now, on the limestone cliff, 

 whose massy bulk stretches far along like a line of 

 mighty fortresses, the beautiful Geranium sanguineum 

 presents its deep crimson flowers, the perfoliate 

 Yellow- wort (Clilora perfoliata) opens its bright 

 petals upon the mid-day sun, the Marjoram (Origa- 

 num vulgare) presents a waving line of dark or light 

 purple ; masses of still brighter hue mark the habitat 

 of the scented Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) ; and the 

 Ploughman's Spikenard (Conyza sqitarrosa), with a 

 multitude of tall yellow Hawkweeds, and the dense 

 golden tufts of the Golden-rod (Solidago virgaurea), 

 embellish the escarpments far and wide. How often 



