1862.] RAMBLES BY THE RIBBLE. 153 



hand side of the road from that place. This is the only known 

 locality of the plant within many miles of our town. Its bright 

 yellow flowers make their appearance in June, and are very or--^ 

 namental. The Water Purslane {PepUs Porlula) has been found 

 in a ditch on the south side of the moor, and the Black Currant 

 {Ribes nigrum) grows iu the corner of a field in the same neigh- 

 bourhood. While noticing the plants which will soon in all pro- 

 bability be driven from the place where they have long flourished^,; , 

 we may notice some other specimens of the floral world, and so, . 

 perhaps please some of our non-botanical readers by ''getting 

 done" with that part of our subject. In a field in Fulwood, just^;; 

 over the railway from Sion Hill, grow large quantities of the,-.., 

 Butterfly Orchis [Orchis bifolia) and the Wood Sage [Teucrium 

 Scorodonia) , and on a bank by the footpath leading from Siop. , 

 Hill to the Barracks, the. Trailing St. John's- wort {Hypericum ' 

 humifusum) is plentiful. 'iiXJlje^j.^cjajifCeAlternate-leiavi^d Golden 

 Saxifrage [Chrysosphnium HilternifQlium) is to be found occasionally 

 b\^ the side of the brook in the same neighbourhood. Several ■ 

 kinds of Sedge [Car ex) and Willow [Salix)' grow, on. and abouftjjji 

 the moor. The Hairy Cardainine (C«/'fto^^/^e hirsuia) \s vexf\(, 

 abundant on ])anks by the side of Pope Lane. This plant isr >i 

 much cultivated and used as a salad (under the name of Stone-;,.; 

 cress) in many parts of England, but appears to be neglected inj- 

 Lancashire. A short distance down Pope Lane, in a pit in a., 

 field on the left, grows the Long-leaved Floating Pondweed [Po- 

 tamogeton rufescens), and in pits near the cemetery the Sweet 

 Flag [Acorus Calamus) is to be found. Some botanical works . 

 speak of the blossoms of this plant as being very unfrequently 

 met with; but in a pit by the footpath from Preston to the ceme- 

 tery, the plant is abundant and blossoms freely. Many other. ^ 

 plants might be mentioned as growing in and about the moor^., 

 but those I have named. a^e-jQiflst^, pAj.tbejScai'cqrj kinds ^that arp , 

 to be there met with."^ •■trr^ed odi vd b^irffio.moo-"-- /[iKn'Tf^f- ^"-> 

 We walked through the fields to Lower Brockholes, past Boil- 

 ton, a farm house snugly seated at the base of the hill midway in 

 the amphitheatre between Higher Brockholes and Lower Brock- 



* I must here make my; ackp.9>yleclginent^ to Mr. C,,J. Ashfield, the author of the 

 Flora of Preston,' for his assistance in the botanical portions of these sketches. 

 I am, however, not only indebted to him for this information, but also for his 

 pleasant companionship in the greater portion of the " Rambles by the Eibble." 

 N.S. VOL. VI. X 



