248 BOTANICAL SKIITCHES FROM CHESHIRE. [AuffUSt, 



existence here to cultivation. This^ however^ is not tlie case ; it 

 is rather a forbidding plant, interesting only to botanists. 



In the mill-pondj however, we observed the whole surface 

 covered with the queen of British flowers, the white Waterlily^ 

 with only here and there the yellow one intermixed. We con- 

 templated this lovely scene for some time, and made out the 

 difference in shape between the leaves of these two handsome 

 aquatics. Potamogetons and Water Milfoil^ and both the species 

 of Typha, the broad- and narrow-leaved sort, were there. These 

 last- mentioned formed a fine background to the picture in front. 

 The meadows through which the water that suppUed the mill-pond 

 glided was here and there blue with the flowers of the Meadow 

 Crane's-bill, Geranium pratense. I have seen this fine plant in 

 many parts of the island, viz. from the woods of Ury, in Kincar- 

 dineshire, through which the Cowie flows, to the banks of the 

 Thames, and especially about Reading, but I never saw it of finer 

 growth nor of a deeper and lovelier colour than here. It is far 

 more plentiful about Settle, in Yorkshire, but it is not finer than 

 in these mill-meads of Marston, in Cheshire. Bistort {Polygo^ 

 num Bistorta) also abounds here. 



Passing along the deep glen by the mill, we saw many more 

 plants of the same handsome species, and enormously large ex- 

 amples of Equisetum Telemateia, a Horsetail which we rarely 

 see without being disagreeably reminded that the place of growth 

 of this plant formed a subject of rather acrimonious discussion in 

 the ' Phytologist ' several years ago. The one learned observer 

 maintained that it grew in water, the other as stoutly maintained 

 that it grew on land. Much good ink and some good (? bad) 

 temper was spilled during the continuance of this unseemly 

 squabble. It reminds the general reader of one of Gay's fables, 

 that of the Chameleon and the two Arabian travellers ; also of 

 the two knights of old, one of whom asserted that a shield was 

 black, another said it was white ; so after they had agreed to de- 

 cide whether the shield was white or black by the usual mode of 

 deciding such disputes, a bystander told them that the shield was 

 painted black on one side and white on the other.* It was ulti- 

 mately discovered that Equisetum Telmateia grew both in water 

 and on land. 



At last we reached the banks of the Weever, where we saw 

 nothing uncommon ; but on retracing our steps to the mill on 



