124 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



it would appear that he was well acquainted with the 

 district north of the Thames, from Ilford to Leigh ; he 

 was also familiar with Mersea Isle, and the salt- 

 marshes about Walton and Dovercourt ; while inland 

 we find him at Chelmsford and Colchester, in the 

 neighbourhood of Dunmow and Braintree, and further 

 north at Pebmarsh and Castle Hedingham. It is most 

 interesting to note the plants which attracted the atten- 

 tion of the old herbalist as he went on his "simpling- 

 voyages " about the county. Over seventy species he 

 mentions as occurring in Essex ; some, as the wild 

 clematis, the saw-wort, and the butcher's broom, as 

 found " in divers places " ; others, with exact reference 

 to the spots where they may be found. The curious 

 mousetail, so called because of the arrangement of its 

 carpels " resembling very notably the taile of a mouse," 

 he found " in Woodford Row, in Waltham Forrest, 

 and in the orchard belonging to Mr. Francis Whetstone 

 in Essex." The Burnet or Scotch rose he notes as 

 growing "very plentifully in a field as you go from a 

 village in Essex called Graies (upon the brinke of the 

 river Thames) unto Horndon on the hill, insomuch that 

 the field is full fraught therewith all over," " Upon 

 the church walls of Railey " the little wall-rue fern 

 {Asplenium Ruta-nmraria, L.) was abundant in 

 Gerarde's days ; and in " a wood hard by a gentle- 

 man's house called Mr. Leonard, dwelling upon Dawes 

 heath," the golden rod was in flower, and the tutsan 

 or parke-leaves, " out of which is pressed a juice, 

 not like blacke bloud, but Claret or Gascoigne wine." 

 " Neere to Lee in Essex," over against Canvey Island, 

 our herbalist found the lily of the valley, and in the 

 woods thereabouts the yellow dead-nettle ; while "in 

 the greene places by the sea side at Lee among the 



