143 



devil, envying the good which the herb might do to mankind, bit 

 away part of the root, by which means it came to have the name 

 of Devil's bit, but the fable is so ridiculous, that one which has but 

 a grain of sense or reason, can never believe such a fiction." 



In wandering along by the lanes and hedges, we meet with 

 many plants that are not of frequent occurrence, amongst which 

 are the Welsh Poppy and Hypericum calycinum, or large St. John's 

 wort. Both of these are evidently escapes from cultivation, or 

 garden plants, the St. John's wort being known as the Rose of 

 Sharon. The white Corydalis, the small annual known as 

 Teesdalia, the bird's foot, and the pretty eyebright, are all to be 

 found in more or less abundance. The plant known as bird's foot 

 has, when in seed, almost a perfect resemblance to the foot of a 

 small bird. The old botanists seemed to have the idea that a 

 plant indicated by its appearance or growth what its uses were, for 

 instance, the plant named eyebright, from its likeness to the eye of 

 an animal, was supposed to be good for removing films from the 

 eye : " it strengthens the eye and optic nerves, helps a weak brain, 

 and restores the sight being decayed." Culpepper says, "if it was 

 as much used as neglected, it would half spoil the spectacle 

 maker's trade." On the same grounds, the plantain with a leaf 

 toothed something like the teeth of a dog, was considered a remedy 

 for hydrophobia. 



Leaving for the present many species of plants which claim 

 our attention, let us return to the side of the lake again, and we 

 may make an easy experiment to prove the truth or fallacy of the 

 idea that most of our fresh-water fish change colour when they are 

 swimming in a stream, and assume that of the bottom of the river 

 in which they happen to be. Further, if they move from a light 

 pebbly part of the river to a part where the bottom is dark, they 

 will soon take a darker shade of colour, and become so nearly like 

 the ground underneath as to be almost invisible. 



At the entrance of one of the mountain becks flowing into the 

 lake, we shall find a number of small streams of water, some with a 

 clear pebbly bottom, others dark and mossy, and in all numbers of 

 minnows are sporting about. Those that are swimming in the 



