124 BOTANICAL RAMBLES. 



by the Shoreham station and enter Buckingham lane. The hedges are 

 becoming green with Nettles, Docks, and the Lords and Ladies, [Arum 

 macalatum;) — we used to call them cows and calves in the west — the common 

 name is Cuckoo Pint; the whole plant is full of the most acrid juice. If 

 you pull one and carefully unwind the numerous folds of leaves, you will 

 find in the middle a curiously rolled green spathe, within which is the 

 cluster of male and female flowers, merely stamens and pistils without corolla 

 or calyx, surmounted with a white spindle-shaped appendage — spadix, that 

 becomes of a beautiful crimson purple or buff when the flower arrives at 

 maturity. The juice of this plant taken into the mouth, causes a burning 

 sensation that remains for an hour or two; the consequences, if swallowed, 

 might be more serious, though I have known small pieces taken without 

 injury. Of other flowers there are but few at present, except the Dandelion, 

 (Leontodon taraxacum,) Ground Ivy, [l^epeta Glechoma,) and the little humble 

 Celandine, {Ranunculus Jicaria.) 



Turning to the left down the lane to the windmill, we shall find the 

 leaves of two Ferns, Aspidium angulare and Scolopendrium vulgare; further 

 on, crossing the old Shoreham road, scattered about on the sunny side of 

 the way, a few Scented Violets, ( Viola odorata,) hide their heads beneath 

 the green leaves, though scarcely in flower, but in the road leading to Little 

 Buckingham House, in that picturesque old pit, surrounded by umbrageous 

 elms and partially filled with water, where the road turns up over the Downs, 

 we shall find a few more in full blossom, giving notice of their presence by 

 a delicious fragrance even before we see their modest heads, surrounded by 

 a rampart of nettles and brambles. The ditches, hedges, and fields are 

 almost bare of flowers, though the bright green of the Wild Parsnip, 

 (^Pastinnca sativa,) enlivens the hedges with its freshness. Nothing is seen 

 in the water-courses beyond but the stumps of Tt/pha angustifolia, a plant 

 much used by the New Zsalanders in thatching their houses; it grows 

 plentifully in the ditches that flow into the Adur; under this little bridge 

 are a few tufts of Enteromorpha intestinal is, that have, not yet loosened 

 themselves from their hold in the mud; so we will follow the hedge-row on 

 the right as far as the top of the field near Old Erringham farm, where 

 we shall find plenty of Scented Violets of every hue, from white and purple 

 to the deepest blue, and then rest awhile on this lovely "bank, whereon the 

 Wild Thyme grows, the Cowslip and the nodding Violet too." Here, with 

 the box's fragrant blossoms in his lap, 



"Viridi membra sub arbuto stratus," 



the epicurean might enjoy his weed and his ''pocula veteris massici," singing 

 "lo Bacche," &c., contemplating the lovely scene before him — the vast and 

 sparkling ocean, the winding Adur with its bridges, the green fields it fertilizes, 

 and the "azure canopy of heaven." 



But we must on to Erringham wood, formerly a rabbit-warren, where more 



