156 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



alarm amongst the uneducated by its habit of sudden 

 appearance in blood-like patches upon damp walls. 

 Drayton says that "in the plain near Hastings, 

 where the Norman William, after his victory, found 

 King Harold slain, he built Battle Abbey, which at 

 last, as divers other monasteries, grew to a town 

 enough populous. Thereabout is a place which, after 

 rain, always looks red, which some have attributed 

 to a very bloody sweat of the earth, as crying to 

 Heaven for vengeance of so great a slaughter." 

 This substance is nevertheless quite a natural pro- 

 duction, and is common enough on the lower part 

 of damp walls, in cellars, dairies and outhouses, on 

 the ground, gravel walks, and hard-trodden paths, 

 and is most conspicuous after rain. It forms broad 

 patches of a deep blood-red or purple colour, with 

 a shining surface, as if blood or red wine had been 

 poured upon the ground. Examined by the micro- 

 scope, it is found to consist of an agglomeration of 

 minute globose cells, filled with granular matter. We 

 have met with it, commonly, on the stone or tiled 

 floor of a conservatory, in large irregular port-wine 

 patches, which make their appearance sometimes 

 very suddenly, and are calculated to alarm super- 

 stitious and uneducated people. On one occasion 

 we remember that a damp corner in a country church 

 was pointed out to us, with some reserve, as some- 

 thing weird and mysterious, on account of patches 

 like dark blood-stains appearing on the stones at 

 certain periods of the year. Dark-olive patches, 

 having some resemblance, except in colour, are 

 found at the base of walls, but these are caused by 

 a common species of Oscillaria. 



