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lower portions of Cumberland. Used by our forefathers as a 

 salad-herb, and said to be returning into favour for that purpose. 

 The species V. dentata, which flowers later in the season, seems to 

 have disappeared entirely, with the absence of cultivation. 



DiPSACE^. Scabiosa sticcisa : few plants are more generally 

 diffused than the species now under notice. Few meadows or 

 pastures' are without its almost spherical heads of bluish-purple 

 flowers. In some parts of the county the peasants call it "Hog-a- 

 back." The remaining two species, S. arvensis and ^. columbaria, 

 occur just outside the district. I have seen them both at Stainton. 



Composite. More than one hundred and fifty species are 

 enumerated as belongmg to this division, though hardly one-third 

 can be claimed as natives of the district. Cardims nutans: is more 

 plentiful towards Penrith than within the proper limits of the 

 UUswater district. About Redhills it appears by the roadside. 

 A remarkably well-developed specimen grew within the gateway of 

 a field there in 1880. It was fully seven feet high, and when in 

 full vigour of growth the grand-looking plant was disestablished by 

 the farmer, and thrown upon the highway, like a hawk nailed to 

 the wall of a keeper's outbuildings. By some writers it is called 

 C. acanthoides. The farmer's bitterest foe is not this species, 

 however, but C. arvensis. C. lanceolatus is the common Bur 

 Thistle. C. heterophyllus : a very handsome plant ; grows by the 

 Airey rivulet near Beck Bottom farm, in Matterdale. Carlina 

 vulgaris: on most of our drier hill-sides. Serratula tinctoria: 

 which the unskilled plant-collector often mistakes for a thistle, 

 grows abundantly on the shore at the foot of the lake. Tanacetum 

 vulgare: not very common, and where found seems to be a cast- 

 away from gardens. Filago germanica: a hoary, or cottony-looking 

 plant, having usually several side-shoots from the base of the 

 leading flower, which eventually overtop it, something after the 

 fashion of the Hen-and-chickens Daisy. From this peculiarity our 

 French neighbours call it " herbe mechant." It is found on the 

 conglomerate rocks between Waterfoot and Floshgate. Gnaph- 

 alium uliginosum : densely cottony, Uke the preceding, but more 



