338 WILD FLOWEES OF 



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 a calm 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 Sundew (Drosera longifolid) with 

 viscid drops upon each leaf of purple woof ; the Eose 

 Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella) displays extremely 

 elegant blossoms of white or pale red ; the marsh St. 

 John's Wort (Hypericum elodes) glistens in the mois- 

 ture as if frosted with silver, showing faintly its 

 curled corolla of gold ; and the fairy-like "Wild Eose- 

 mary (Andromeda polif olid), retiring as bashful beauty, 

 blushes and shrinks amidst the humid mosses. This 

 last, named by LiirarjEUS from the fair Andromeda of 

 antiquity, is a most beautiful and interesting plant, 

 whose bright red or deep green narrow-pointed revo- 

 lute leaves, glaucous beneath, and drooping roseate 

 campanulate flowers, fix the eye of the wandering 

 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 (SalixArgentea), 

 sparkling from afar, and bushes of the Dutch Myrtle 



* When the corolla of the Andromeda drops off the stamens accompany 

 it, and if opened, these appear like minute insects on its spotless surface, 

 their curious structure (the anther two-lobed, each lobe terminated by an 

 awn crossing each other,) giving them this singular aspect, combined 

 with their deep chocolate colour. Although set down in the Floras as 

 flowering in Jane, the Andromeda continues in bloom to September. 



