1902 Norman Architecture 301 



on the muddy edges, or actually in the water of the ditches, 

 and here, of course, it is at its best. It is a much-branched 

 perennial, growing to a height of from 8 to 12 inches ; the 

 stems are ascending, and rooting at the nodes ; succulent, 

 but not hollow, and bearing green leaves, which are fleshy, 

 glabrous, and amplexicaul — the upper ones lanceolate, strap- 

 shaped, the lower usually divided into narrow lobes, not un- 

 like the antlers of a stag, hence its name of " coronopifolia." 



The compact capitula are terminal, and have much the 

 appearance of daisies deprived of their ray florets. This 

 characteristic singles out the plant at once as peculiar. 

 The disk florets are bright yellow, very small, the narrow 

 corolla having four blunt lobes ; the ray florets are reduced 

 to minute greenish scales closely hidden by the bracts of 

 the involucre. 



Such is the appearance of the Cotula, which has become 

 naturalised on our bleak Wirral shores. Its flowering time 

 is from May to November, and it is an exceedingly pretty 

 sight to see its hundreds of yellow buttons ornamenting 

 the ditches, here and there associating with the water 

 crowfoot, but, like the daisy of the land, it has a tendency 

 to drive out other water plants once it establishes itself in 

 a congenial spot. 



Norman Architecture. — III. 



By Rev. P. J. Oliver Minos, Ph.D., M.R.A.S. (Lond.) 



I HAVE in a former article pointed out that in the early 

 Norman period there was a singular lack of ornament, and 

 much even of the middle Norman period was very plain. 

 To determine whether plain Norman work is of early date, 

 there is an almost universally acknowledged rule — viz., the 

 early Norman work is wide-jointed, i.e., there is considerable 

 thickness of mortar (often found to be half an inch or more 

 thick) between the joints of the masonry ; whereas the later 

 Norman work is fine-jointed, i.e., there is very little mortar 

 between the joints. An effective contrast between wide- 

 jointed and fine-jointed work may be studied in the walls of 



