Proceedings, 33 



The acrid, milky juice of the Spurges is sometimes used to 

 cure warts, on which it acts as a caustic. All our British 

 Spurges are herbs, but large forest trees in some parts of the 

 world belong to this order of plants, to which we are also 

 indebted for castor oil. 



The "White Helleborine is an Orchid, with spikes of ivory- 

 coloured flowers, and broad, smooth leaves. The yet broader 

 leaves of another Helleborine may be seen here and there 

 amongst the bushes, but it does not blossom till August. A 

 few plants of the Fly Orchis were met with in grassy places, 

 and a little higher up, where the banks are barer, the 

 greenish-yellow spikes of the Man Orchis were seen. It 

 must be admitted that the resemblance of the flowers of the 

 Man Orchis to a man is rather remote. The legs are there, 

 and a cap or hood, but the body is almost wanting. 



In a low bramble-bush we found a Whitethroat's nest, con- 

 taioing five eggs of a yellow-ochre colour of two shades. 

 The nest of dry grass was deep in comparison with its 

 diameter. The male Whitethroat, from a hedge not far 

 distant, kept rising in the air with a jerky flight, warbling out 

 its weak though cheerful song, and dropping back again into 

 the bushes. 



Instead of going right up Wray Lane we preferred striking 

 down the bank, and then facing up the steep south slope of 

 the hill straight towards the Suspension Bridge. 



On this hillside, amongst the Juniper-bushes, the Sweet- 

 scented Orchis abounded, its lilac spikes forming heads three 

 to four inches in height. Here, too, was the tiny, white Eye- 

 bright, with its violet-and-yellow-streaked lip, the scentless 

 Mountain Woodruff, the Milkwort (purple, blue, and white), 

 the Yellow Eock-rose, and the Fairy Flax, not blue, like the 

 eyes of Longfellow's maiden, but white and fairy-like. We 

 noticed, too, a few bushes of Sweetbriar Rose, the unfolded 

 buds of which were tinged with deep pink, and the leaves 

 when bruised were very fragrant. 



A thickish tangle of bushes attracted us, and not in vain, 

 for near the middle of the clump, in a small Wayfaring bush 



