THE HEATH. 109 



In summer the places where ferns abound are 

 favourite resorts of the deer. 



" The wild buck bells from ferny brake." 



In autumn and winter the bright yellow or red 

 tint which its leaves assume gives a grace to many 

 a landscape, which without it would look cold 

 and cheerless. It is not devoid of useful, as well 

 as ornamental properties ; for besides affording a 

 supply of fuel to the poor, and being used as litter 

 for cattle, it forms a tolerable thatch. In some 

 rural districts on the continent, its ashes serve 

 instead of soap for washing, and some preparation 

 of the plant is used in dressing kid and chamois 

 leather. 



Should you happen to reside in a chalk or lime- 

 stone district, you may fall in with some plants 

 belonging to the genus Ophrys. One of them, 

 called the Bee-ophrys,* or Bee-orchis, produces a 

 flower which when you see it for the first time, 

 you must take for an insect. The Bee-larkspur 

 looks very much like a flower into which some 

 sort of black fly has crept, but the Bee-ophrys is 

 itself the counterpart of an insect that we may see 

 every day throughout the summer flying from 

 flower to flower, the great, black and grey, drone. 

 Here he seems at length to have settled himself, 

 with the intention of giving up for the rest of his 

 days his musical hum, and exchanging his roving 

 habits for a fixed abode. 



Admire, as close the insect lies 



Its thin wrought plume and honeyed thighs ; 



Whilst on this flowret's velvet breast, 



It seems as though 'twere lulled to rest. 



* Ophrys apifera. 



