1859.] EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 329 



Buckthorn, and Sloe, and you will have a true picture of these 

 hedgerows. 



As these are mostly on high banks, the latter are covered with 

 many plants now in flower. The largest and most beautiful in 

 shape and colour is, I think, the Digitalis purpurea, commonly 

 called Foxglove. The Verbascum [V. nigrum) grows very large 

 and branching, with thick clusters of yellow bloom ; near it is the 

 Viper's Bugloss, Echium vulgare, the Campanula rotundifolia, a 

 favourite of the poets, and so appropriately noticed by Sir Walter 

 Scott in his poem ' The Lady of the Lake.^ The Linaria repens 

 is in full flower, and grows in company with the Campanula. 

 The Glechoma hederacea, Ground Ivy, Alehoof, or Gill-go-by-the- 

 ground, is very common : the latter name is characteristic of this 

 plant, for I gathered a branch in length four feet. The wild Marjo- 

 ram, Origanum vulgare, is here large and abundant, including the 

 pink and white varieties. You know how fragrant this plant 

 is, and that Clare, our rural poet, speaks of" Marjoram so doubly 

 sweet.'' And Shakespeare, in describing the lover looking at 

 wild flowers, in the absence of his mistress, makes him say, 



"The lily I condemned for thy hand, 

 And buds of marjoram had stolen thy hair." 



Leaving the roads, the hedges, and the banks, we find the heath 

 showing many of our favourites. The Calluna vulgaris is con- 

 spicuously in bloom, growing among the Fern Pteris aquilina. 

 The Ulex europotus, though not in flower, is very ornamental, 

 through which peeps the Foxglove and the Galium verum ; beneath 

 it grows the Potentilla reptans, with a pale golden-yellow flower ; 

 and the Euphrasia officinalis ; in dense patches, and in the spaces 

 between clumps of Furze, the wild Thyme is so plentiful that its 

 fragrance scents the air. 



Many other flowers I might name, but you will cry, " Hold, 

 enough !" and look forward in hope that we may have the plea- 

 sure, in the joyous spring-time, of a ramble over this district to- 

 gether, and add to our collection some of the fresh flowers of 

 the season. S. B. 



\2,th September, 1859. 



N. S. VOL. II. 



