568 



" Our meadows present us also with the rare snake-weed {Polygo- 

 num Bistorta), the elegant meadow Lychnis, the yellow rattle, and 

 the delicate cuckoo-flower; 'so called,' as worthy old Gerarde quaintly 

 expresses it, ' because it flowres when the cuckowe doth begin to sing 

 her pleasant notes without stammeringe.' The margins of our streams 

 exhibit beautiful specimens of the water-violet, the rare Cardamine 

 amara, the arrow-head, the flowering rush, the yellow Iris, and that 

 universal favourite, the exquisite little Forget-me-not. I well re- 

 member, in my earlier days of plant-collecting, the delight I felt in 

 obtaining, when from home, a specimen of the elegant flowering rush, 

 which I then thought a prize indeed; little imagining at the time, 

 that our streams offered an abundant supply. The yellow water-lily 

 abounds, and the white is not uncommon; and who has seen the 

 magnificent flowers and broad floating leaves of the white water-lily, 

 and not been struck with its almost oriental splendour ? Where, 

 amidst the most treasured beauties of the conservatory, shall we find 

 so superb a flower ? 



" We have on Cornard Mere a good locality for bog plants. Here 

 grow some of our greatest favourites ; the elegant grass of Parnassus, 

 the lovely fringed flowers of the Menyanthes or buckbean, the sweet 

 little bog pimpernel, and many other plants not otherwise common in 

 this district. Probably the sundew might also be found there, and I 

 should be much gratified to hear of the discovery, for it is a very curi- 

 ous and interesting plant. Its small, round, reddish leaves are covered 

 with glandular hairs, and with globules of a honey -like fluid ; and 

 in the hot sun they appear to possess an irritability resembling that 

 of the sensitive plant, and the Venus's fly-trap of the tropics ; for 

 when flies or other small insects, attracted by the sweets, alight upon 

 them, they gradually curl up and enclose them in their folds. What 

 purpose in the economy of nature is thus fulfilled, it is difficult for us 

 to determine ; but we may rest assured that some wise and useful end 

 is answered by this curious phenomenon. It is found on Bergholt 

 Heath, near Colchester. 



" We must not stay to enter much into a description of the ferns, 

 though scarcely yielding in elegance and interest to any division of 

 the vegetable world. The lady fern {Athyrium jhlix-fcemina) is per- 

 haps the most beautiful. The common brake [Pteris aquilina), a 

 section of whose stem, near the root, has been said to represent 'King 

 Charles in the oak,' is by no means devoid of elegance. The prickly 

 fern {Polystichum aculeatum), the male fern {Lastreajilix-mas), and 

 the polypody {Polypodium vnlgare) are abundant in our hedges; the 



