THE WARKEN. 35 



was out you could get nowhere near them. The 

 Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilts) held up its 

 tiny white blossoms, and the starry heads of Calli- 

 triche vcrna studded the surface of the waters, the 

 Lesser Spearwort (Ranunculus Flammula) grew 

 thickly round the banks, and close by were masses of 

 the sky-blue flowers of the Brooklhne (Veronica Becca- 

 bunga). I lay upon the bank enjoying it all while 

 the splashing of the tide only a few yards away filled 

 me with that intense longing 

 " Break, break, break 



On thy cold gray stones, O Sea ! 

 And I would that my tongue could utter, 



The thoughts that arise in me." 



Just over the ridge there on the seaward side 

 you will find another pond filling up a long narrow 

 deep ridge, and called the Long Pond. About this 

 spot the shrubs are very luxuriant, the Wild Kose 

 and the Sweetbriar, the Dogwood, the Elder and the 

 two Guelder Roses with Babiugtonian Brambles. 

 The blossoms of the Water Plantain (Alisma Plantayo) 

 crowd above the surface of the water, and over the 

 bushes along the edge creeps the Woody Nightshade 

 (Solanum Dulcamara) or Bitter-sweet, with its lurid 

 warning flowers. They are very dangerous these 

 Nightshade plants, just when most beautiful, that is, 

 in the Autumn. I remember some years ago a boy 

 eating some of the tempting berries, and getting 

 frightfully delirious all that night; the physician 

 quite believed he had eaten of the Deadly Nightshade, 

 (Atropa Belladonna) from the peculiar symptoms. He 

 got all right again in a few days. I do not know 

 that Belladonna occurs anywhere in the district ; wo 

 have the other three species of the family Solanacea, 



