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briglit golden yellow of its racemose flowers, with their deep 

 orange anthers, give it a most charming appearance when set off 

 by dark pools of peaty water. The perfume — which is not constant, 

 but given off occasionally — is exactly like the Stephonitas. 



What reminiscences have heen brought to my mind while writing 

 these notes on the wild flowers ! This last plant, the Bog Asphodel, 

 Narthecium ossifragum, calls up to me a bright May day spent on 

 a border moss. The keeper and I had been examining some 

 scores of nests of the Blackheaded and the Lesser Blackheaded 

 Gulls, and having got through from one end of the breeding-ground 

 to the other, we sat down to eat our lunch, with our feet in a ditch 

 and our backs against a pile of turf The incessant cries of the 

 gulls we had disturbed in their work of inculcation, was something 

 terrible. But after we had sat some time, and a pipe had followed 

 the lunch, while anecdote after anecdote anent the wild life on a 

 border moss, fell from the keeper's lips ; — the gulls which were 

 sitting began to settle on their nests, Blackheads in the near 

 distance and then from right to left over a wide expanse of ground 

 Blackbacks ; further away. Blackheads again. It was interesting 

 to see, as each female gull settled herself on to ',her nest ; some 

 dropping right on to it, others alighting at some distance and 

 walking quietly to it ; the male bird taking his position on some 

 hillock a short distance away, and standing bolt upright — a sentinel 

 on duty; sometimes two or three on the same hillock. These 

 hillocks were worn quite smooth and bare with the use made of 

 them. While this most interesting scene was going on, the keeper 

 asked it I could tell him the name of a flower which grew later on 

 by the sides of the ditch we were sitting in, and which had such a 

 sweet smell. This I at once made out to be the Bog Asphodel ; 

 the grass-like leaves were then showing about an inch high. So I 

 never see the Bog Asphodel without seeing the gulls as well. 



In conclusion, I wish to say that we have commenced a collection 

 of plants for the Museum, and should be very glad if any members 

 will help us in the matter. It is rather hard when it is left to 

 one or two to do it. Already between three and four humlred 



