'Hit' AV/r Forest: its History ami its 



bridges grows the common scale-fern, whilst in the meadows 

 of the Avon springs the adder' s-tongue's green spear. 



Nor must we forget the brake, common though it be, for this 

 it is which gives the Forest so much of its character, clothing it 

 with green in the spring ; and when the heather is withered, and 

 the furze, too, decayed, making every- holt and hollow golden.* 



And now for some other plants, without reference to their 

 species, but simply to their beauty. On Ashley Common and 

 the neighbouring grass-fields grows the moth-mullein ( Verbascum 

 Blattaria), dropping its yellow flowers, as they one by one 

 expand. In the neighbouring pools, as far as "NVootton, the 

 blossoms of the great spearwort (Ranunculus Lingua) gleam 

 among the reeds. There, also, the narrow-leaved lungwort 

 (Pulmonaria anf/iisti olia), with its leaves both plain and spotted, 

 opens its blue and crimson flowers so bright, that they are 

 known to all the children as the " snake flower," and gathered 

 by handful s mixed with the spotted orchis. And the ladies' 

 tresses, too (Spiranthea autumnalis), shows its delicate brown 

 braid on even- dry field on the southern border. 



Besides these, the feathered pink (Dianthji* ^/wa;i?/.s) 

 blooms on the cloister-walls at Beaulieu ; and the Deptford pink 

 (Dianthtts Armcria) in the valley of the Avon at Hucklebrook, 

 near Ibbesley. The bastard-balm (Melittix MeUssopkyttum) 

 flaunts its white and purple blossoms over the banks of Wootton 

 plantation, whilst at Oakley and Knyghtwood the rod gladiolus 

 crimsons the green beds of fern. 



* Uesides these we have all over the Forest Lnslrca Fi/i.c-Hiu.1, and ffilatnfu. 

 and Ax/ilfiiiiiin luliiintiim nigrum, and Polystichwn (ingnlurr, with its varieties, 

 angustafiim and acnleatum, found near Fordingbridge. My I'riend. Mr. Hake, 

 who discovered angustatum, found also, in February, ISoG, near Fording- 

 bridge, Laxtrea *piniil<ntn, but it lias never since l)een seen in the locality. 



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