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here parts of the wood were gay with its flowers. The return to Bromyard was 

 made along the banks of the Frome, which proved somewhat disappointing to the 

 botanists, being a slow rather ditaii-like stream flowing under dense bushes. But 

 a small patch of a rare moss, Amhl/istegium radicale, was noticed in it at one spot, 

 while the artificial pool which is formed in the brook at Ruckenhill was gay with 

 the handsome red spikes of the Amphibious Persicaria (PoUigomon amphihium), 

 already in bloom. At the dinner-table the Birds-nest Orchis (Ne.ttia Nidus-avis) 

 was e.xhibited by Mr. Bainbridge, picked by him upon Dinedor hill, and when put 

 beside the other parasite (Orobanche major) which had been found, exhibited a 

 striking similarity between the two thieves of the plant world, though they are 

 not really close connections. These two plants have taken to bad ways, and live 

 upon the work of their neighbours ; and the duU dead browns of their leafless 

 flower-spikes showed in striking contrast to the fresh bright green and pink hues 

 of the honest Orchis pt/rarnidalis ; a warning to higher members of society than 

 themselves lest they also take to live by begging and stealing, and their faces 

 bewray them. 



