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no 



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ARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The following characters are most reliable : 

 No. 3. Known at k glance by its dark green leaf- 

 segments ; No. 4. leaf-segments light-green, filiform 

 and collapsing ; No/ 5. Leaf-segments very long, linear ; 

 No. 6. Segments bf leaves having a roundish outline, 

 and all in same plane j No. 7. Floating leaves almost 



Fig. 101. — Ranunculus Lenormandi. 



circular ; No. 8. Floating leaves flat, semicircular ; 

 No. 9. Floating leaves tripartite ; No. 10. Flowering 

 abundantly, and with delicate perfume; No. 11. 

 Flowers exceedingly small, submersed leaves very rare ; 

 No. 12. Differs from No. 5 chiefly, by having floating 

 leaves. 



MAY FLOWERS IN WALES AND 

 SHROPSHIRE. 



IN Hertfordshire the primroses were over, 

 hyacinths run to seed and later summer flowers 

 coming into blossom, when in the middle of May we 

 left that county for Shropshire, and stayed at Bucknell, 

 on the borders of Wales. Here j;he early spring and 

 the summer flowers were all in blossom together. 

 We climbed a high hill and passed through an oak 

 wood, where the ground was covered with primroses 

 and anemones, side by side with Geranium sylva- 

 ticum and Lychnis. Masses of beautiful broom grew 

 on these hills, Chelidonium in the hedgerows and 

 meadows full of Orchis morio. We walked one day 

 from the Craven Arms Junction, where the rail to 

 Ludlow branches off, to Norton Camp on the top of 

 the hill. Close to the camp is a wood, where we found 

 Saxifraga granulala growing as thickly as Stellaria 

 Holostea does in Hertfordshire. It looked very pretty 

 in the long grass on the ledges of the steep rocks 

 which overhang the valley where Stokesay Castle lies. 

 From Craven Arms Junction it is but a short distance 

 by train to Church Stretton, which looks so charming 

 lying close under the range of wild hills. 



The Longmynd is windy and treeless, but there is 



plenty of beauty and colour about it. Along the top 

 is a broad turf track, smooth as a racecourse, along 

 which we walked. We could see the Wrekin and 

 Malvern Hills as we climbed upwards from Church 

 Stretton, afterwards on the left the Ludlow Hills and 

 Clee Hills ; on the right we looked across those 

 strange Stiper stones, and out to the Welsh hills over 

 the fertile valley, where we could see Bishop's Castle. 



The colour of the foreground to these distant blues 

 and pale greens was very remarkable, owing to the 

 splendid tints of the whortleberry leaves. On the 

 Longmynd they grew in spreading tracts over the 

 turf, shading from a deep crimson to brilliant orange. 

 The plants were full of light pink blossoms, and our 

 feet were covered with honey as we passed through 

 them. When nearly at the end of the Longmynd 

 range, we descended to the left into the valley near 

 the branch line that runs to Bishop's Castle. This 

 railway is certainly very rural and unsophisticated ; it 

 is grown with grass and weeds, and as we came up a 

 flock of sheep which had just been washed in the 

 river close by, was driven slowly along the rails with 

 much baa-ing and barking of dogs. Children played 

 on the line and strolled hand in hand under the gay 

 broom bushes which hung in the cutting, oak boughs 

 and firs drooped over the fences on either side, and 

 almost hid the signal-post. We walked along the 

 line also ; the sheep turned off at the little shed which 

 served as a station. I sat down to sketch on a heap of 

 old sleepers until in course of time a short train came 

 slowly up ; the children disappeared, the shepherd 

 with his dog under his arm stood to watch us start, 

 the broom came in at the windows as we passed 

 along. 



On the rocks above the Teme, when on our way 

 along the hills to Ludlow, we found Lithosperinum 

 arvense. Wild garlic spread like a carpet over some 

 of the woods. 



The month of May was a very wet one, even for 

 Wales. We went to Rhayader by the Builth railway 

 in pouring rain, past dreary Llandrindod with its 

 miserable attempt at modern streets and smart hotels, 

 in the midst of what was once a pretty common enough 

 if uninteresting. At Builth Road we saw the name 

 of that station very neatly writtenln fine thrift, which 

 can be recommended to station-masters. The letters 

 are bright green all the winter and covered with pink 

 blossoms in the summer. We drove from Rhayader 

 up the Nantgwyth valley, beside the Elan, which 

 was like a winter torrent, and saw at the edge of the 

 oak woods the pale yellow flowers of the Globe 

 Flower (Trollius Europaus). Later on we walked 

 through meadows full of Trollius near Rhayader and 

 Builth. Close to Cwm-Elan is the "Lily Bank," 

 of rocks and oak-trees, with lilies-of-the-valley growing 

 thickly in beds along the ledges ; the blossoms were 

 just coming out. 



We found plenty of Pinguicula in blossom on the 

 hills, looking like large bright violets, also Gnapha- 



