66 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 



form in the water. The white and yellow Water Lilies lend their 

 floating tables to the nymphs of the pool. Water Cress grows in the 

 smaller streams and ditches, in clear running water. Here Great 

 Yellow Cress rears its tall, erect heads of yellow bloom in the canal or 

 river. There Great Water Chickweed, late in the year, fills up the 

 ditches with its brittle stems. Down by the banks of the river-side the 

 Purple Loosestrife, with its trimorphic blooms, gives honey and pollen 

 to the bees. Where the Great Hairy Willow Herb fills the bed of 

 the stream with its tall stems with purple blooms comes the scent of 

 apple-pie or lemon curd, delicious on a sweltering summer's day. 

 Water Bedstraw makes a lovely show of white flowers by the pond- 

 margins. The Hemp Agrimony grows in the wet copses or by the 

 water-side, tall and fleecy -flowered. The Common Fleabane and 

 Three-lobed Butterbur up and down the country line many a river-side 

 close to the bank. Butterbur makes dense brakes with ample cover, 

 where the streams have meandered and formed hollows along their 

 course. Coltsfoot, too, grows on the clay banks, being equally proter- 

 androus. Water Ragwort, with its handsome and large-rayed flowers, 

 is scattered over most water meadows where the purple lances of the 

 Marsh Thistle tower, in close rank, on the lower ground. Great Yellow 

 Loosestrife and Moneywort, their golden -yellow blooms large and 

 brilliant, are both Hygrophytes. 



Scorpion Grass hangs its pretty blue -and -yellow spotted flowers 

 above the watery mirror of the pool, surveying its own rich beauty. 

 Water Figwort, less striking in colour, towers by its side. Here and 

 there the straggling clumps of Musk have their wide, yellow, trumpet- 

 mouthed blossoms adorned with rose-pink honey-guides. Brook Lime 

 with light-blue flowers, Water Mint with whorls of lavender-like bloom, 

 and the shy Gipsy Wort adorn the marshy strips by the water-side or 

 grow half-submerged, and close by is the dainty Skull-cap, blue-flowered 

 and neat. Amphibious Knotgrass in the water yields a bright- pink 

 flower, but on land is roughly hairy, long-rooted, and difficult to dis- 

 pose of. Alder and Crack Willow give grateful shade by the water- 

 side. 



Frogbit floats in the still pools and rarely blooms, its margin, rustics 

 tell one, nipped by frogs! Flanking the sides of the pool the mellow 

 Yellow Flag forms a fair girdle almost everywhere. In the water 

 meadows Snake's Head Fritillary is found in dainty clumps with 

 chequered flowers of a rare purple or white tint. Along the borders 

 of the river Reeclmace, Bur-reed, Sweet Flag (how sweet the leaves 

 smell crushed in the hand!), form a thick avenue. 



