114 A STROLL THROITOH A BEECH WOOD. 



shaped. It belongs to the JRuhiaceoe family, in which so many useful plants are 

 found; for example, the Cinchona trees, which produce Peruvian or Jesuit's 

 bark, so much used as a tonic, and brought from different parts of Peru; 

 Cephaelis Ipecacuanha, growing in the woods of Brazil, and yielding the 

 medicine of that name; Coffee, the fruit of the Coffea Arahica, and the 

 Madder, [Bubia tinctoria,) so valuable for dying red, purple, and orange, are 

 all included in the same family. Mingled with the Asperula, we find the 

 Wood Sanicle, (Sanicula Europoea,) another pretty and interesting wood 

 plant. Look how ornamental the smooth, shining, and palmate leaves are, 

 and the heads of minute white flowers rise up from the ground as if to 

 attract attention. You find on examination that it is one of the UmhelUferce, 

 to which family belong so many useful, and also poisonous plants. I need 

 scarcely mention the Carrot, Parsley, Celery, Fennel, Parsnip, and Samphire, 

 all valuable as food; and also Carroway seeds, the fruit of the Cartitn carui. 

 Then amongst the poisonous genera are the Hemlock, {(hnium maculatum,) 

 Hemlock Water Drop, (CEnanthe crocata,) and Water Hemlock, (Cicuta virosa.) 



Now let us enter the wood, and no sooner do we begin to climb the hill 

 than among the dry leaves of last year, Ave meet with a curious plant, which 

 at first sight, has the appearance of a dead floAver-stalk ; but gather it, and 

 you will find that it is not only living, but highly curious and beautiful, 

 though the colour is that of a dead and faded plant. It is one of the 

 Orchidaceoe, the Common Bird's Nest, (Listera nidus avis.) Altogether it is 

 an extraordinary production; in the first place its roots are formed of short, 

 thick fibres, and if we pull one up carefully, we shall find they cross each 

 other so as to look somewhat like a bird's nest: the plant is supposed to be 

 parasitic. There are no leaves, a few scales clasping the stem supplying 

 their place, and above these rises the spike of flowers of a dingy brown, and 

 about a foot high. Near it is another species of a much more healthy 

 appearance, but not more curious, called Tway blade {Listem ovata,) from 

 the two large opposite leaves; the spike rises from between them about a 

 foot high, the flowers of which are small, rather distant on the stalk, and 

 of a yellowish green. The two broad leaves are so marked a feature as at 

 once to make this plant familiar, and in this wood you see it abounds, though 

 scarcely so fully in blossom as it will be next month. Now let us examine 

 another lovely specimen of the Orchidacece, the Butterfly Orchis, (Ilahenaria 

 hifolia.) You need not spare the flowers, for you see we have them in pro- 

 fusion, and in some seasons I have carried home baskets full of these lovely 

 plants, and have even sent them to friends in town, who preserved them in 

 water for some time, enjoying their fragrance and beauty. 



We have now come to a damper part of the wood, indeed we are not 

 far from the spring I mentioned, and you see in this marshy copse we may 

 gather as many as we can carry, without risking the extermination of our 

 favourite. Its large- yellowish white flowers render it very attractive, and 

 the long slender spur at the back of the blossom is a striking characteristic: 



