SEPTEMBEE. 



385 



The elegant Parnassia is much more plentiful in 

 the north than in the midland or southern counties. 

 The yellow balls of its nectaries seen with the pure 

 white petals have a very peculiar aspect. This is one 

 of those plants where the " natural system" only 

 serves to perplex the student, systematic botanists 

 referring the " Grass of Parnassus" to different orders, 

 as its affinities correspond in some degree with 

 Sundews, as well as Saxifrages and St John's- Worts. 



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HOOKER and ARISTOTT remark that " its place is not 

 settled. It resembles some violets in its leaves, and 

 the Saxifraga parnassicefolia in aspect, but it departs 

 from the Saxifrayacece by the position of its stig- 

 mas." Nature, in fact, will have her own way, and 

 the systematists are obliged to make use of artificial 

 expedients after all. Mount Parnassus gave its name 

 to this plant, where it was noticed and described by 

 DIOSCOEIDES. 



Thought again carries us on swift wing far away 

 into a district in Monmouthshire, tempting alike to 

 the botanist and the lover of picturesque scenery. 

 The sparkling Usk rolls beneath the double bridge of 

 Abergavenny, glances on its cumbrous ruined castle 

 seated on a green elevated mound, and ploughing into 

 the gravel on its pebbly shores, hastens along its 

 beauteous vale to the ocean. Bounding the valley on 

 the west rises the stupendous Blorenge Mountain, to 

 the height of 1720 feet, the termination in this direc- 



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tion of that band of mountain limestone encompassing 

 the South Wales Coal field ; clouds ever and anon, 

 wreath its summit, while the morning sun lights up 

 the woods at its base, its green sides, and its protrud- 

 ing rocks, leaving the vast punch-bowl hollows of the 



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