THE EFFECT OF DRY WEATHER UPON WATER PLANTS. 147 
the tops of the Sphagnum, the Water-moss that so treacherously 
hides the deep and dangerous holes from which turf has been cut, 
and which are filled with water. 
Not far from Oakmere we crossed a bog where there were 
many of these small square turf holes, and therein we found one 
of our greatest botanical treasures, Utricularia minor in profuse 
bloom, and we also observed the very remarkable way in which 
the dry weather had affected this plant. Utricularia minor is often 
found floating in bog water; but, so far as I have seen it, if is a 
tender, very straggling plant, never growing in great dense masses 
as Utricularia vulgaris does, and very seldom flowering,—so seldom 
that although I have seen it, perhaps hundreds of times,—I had 
never before seen it in flower. But here, when the water was 
nearly dried up it was spreading over the mud and creeping 
about the Sphagnum almost like Dodder in a clover field, 
and throwing up hundreds of spikes of its very pretty pale yellow 
flowers. I was quite content to sit down and look at it; but my 
companions, who were collecting for exchanges, fell to work con 
amore, only too glad of a rare opportunity to fill their boxes with 
so great a treasure. 
But a still greater pleasure, if it were possible, awaited us. 
Wandering on, we came to & second small sheet of water, sur- 
rounded by a marsh of a very different character, and yielding a 
totally different class: of plants. We picked up first the Bog 
Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella), not a remarkably rare plant, but 
very uncommon in Cheshire, and therefore, to us, a good find. 
Then the Marsh 8. John’s Wort (Hypericum elodes), a better find 
still. Soon the Small Skullcap (Seutellaria minor), the rarest of 
all. But presently we came to a brilliant patch of green, fring- 
ing the margin of a little pool. It looked for all the world like 
grass—only grass as green as this, would have been a rare sight, 
indeed, in that season; but, to our delight and surprise too, it 
turned out to be a great mass of Pillwort (Pilularia globulifera) 
loaded with its curious fructification. There it grew, yards of it, 
on perfectly dry land, where no doubt there was usually shallow 
water. My companions carried away great bundles of it,— 
