130 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
river. In the distance the sky-line is broken by a grey 
church spire, or, if we be in Norfolk, by a square-cut 
tower, the only landmark for any but the native of the 
county. Straight-drawn across our view runs an invading 
railway, disregarding all obstacles. In the slow drain, 
the waters of which creep along upon the outer side 
of the river-bank, we may see the pinkish bloom of the 
Flowering Rush, the delicate crimson-centred flower of 
the Arrow Head, and, above all, the flaming yellow of the 
Flag or Iris. There it stands in groups, its grey-green, 
sword-shaped leaves combining in beauty with the spread- 
ing golden crown of the flower and the dark-brown, peaty 
soil of the fields beyond. 
Another scene comes to mind of a wood in the fresh 
ereen of spring, carpeted with hyacinths, the flowers 
of which rise like a blue mist of colour above the 
herbage round the trees, while over and about them 
hover all the insects that have risen from their winter 
sleep. Before the hyacinths are gone we-may find, 
gracing a shady corner, the delicate bells of the Lily 
of the Valley, and perchance, before the Hyacinth came, 
the snowdrop might have been seen, throwing up a tender 
flower almost before the first hint of spring. 
The cliffs and headlands of the Cornish coast are 
brightened in spring and autumn by the bright blue 
stars of the Squill, which revels in the warmth and 
dampness of the western climate; but perhaps the flower 
which brings the most perfect pleasure of all is the pale, 
yellow, nodding Daffodil, with its still paler tubular 
corona, guarding the precious pollen. To see this flower 
in perfection one must go northward to the Lake district, 
and there, in the Duddon valley and elsewhere, one feels 
what inspiration Wordsworth had at Ullswater, and how 
