130 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly May- 



saw it — on a rush marsh not far from the banks of Oulton 

 Broad — was a red-letter day of my botanical life. It bears 

 a superficial resemblance to an orchid, and at first glance 

 might be taken for one ; but it really belongs to the Gentian 

 family, and has a campanulate corolla, fringed inside with 

 delicate white filaments. In similar situations to those 

 favourable to the bogbean two ferns, the fragile marsh 

 fern (LastrcBa Thelypteris) and the curious adder's tongue 

 {Ophioglosstirn viilgatum), appear in spring, the dusky purple- 

 flowered marsh cinquefoil {Potentilla palusiris) and the marsh 

 stitchwort {Stellaria palustris) are not uncommon, and the 

 rarer marsh pea {Lathyrus palustris) may be found locally 

 south of York and Carnarvon. 



In the dykes, where after the end of March the newts 

 and amorous frogs are active, the water-violet {Hottonia 

 palustris), the water-plantain {Alisma plantago), the lesser 

 water-plantain {A. ranunculoides) , and two or three species 

 of water -crowfoot {Ranunculi) can be found in bloom in 

 May; while along the sedgy margins the forget-me-not 

 opens its sky-blue eyes amid the trailing stems of the 

 brooklime {Veronica Beccabunga), and the tiny white bog 

 starwort {Stellaria idiginosa), the chick weed of the water- 

 side, fills up the hoof-prints made by the cattle when they 

 come to the dykes to drink. Not until June, however, 

 does that other aquatic speedwell, Veronica Anagallis, 

 flower; and the leafy month is usually "well in," as they 

 say in Norfolk, before the three-petalled blossoms of the 

 frogbit {Hydrocharis moj'sus-rancB) deck the surface of the 

 weedy dykes. By that time the yellow and white water- 

 lilies — for white water-lilies there is no place in England 

 that I know of like a certain "grown-up" broad in East 

 Norfolk — have raised their heads above water. The 

 beautiful flowering -rush {Butomus umbellatus) is also now 

 in bloom, and that strange insectivorous plant the bladder- 

 wort {Utricularia) is sending up its spikes of yellow snap- 

 dragon-like flowers from the stagnant or slow-flowing 

 waters. 



The bladderworts are among the most interesting plants 

 to be found in our marsh dykes. They are rootless, and^ 

 like the water-soldiers of which I wrote in the first number 



