4 ENGLISH WILD FLOWEES. 



As we pass along these pleasant paths we shall find 

 a vast store of knowledge to which the old wild flowers 

 of Britain are the key the hidden spring which dis- 

 closes much that would otherwise lie hidden. We 

 shall find each locality has its special favourites. As 

 we walk along the shady lane we shall find the cha- 

 racter and varieties of the flowers sometimes suddenly 

 change. Fresh species show themselves, old ones dis- 

 appear, as the soil becomes sandy, rocky, or clayey, 

 as it become dry or marshy. The mere cutting of a 

 trench, or the levelling of a ditch, will bring to light 

 an entirely different flora. I once saw thousands of 

 the most beautiful foxgloves (digitalis purpurea) grow- 

 ing by the side of a cutting in a marsh, where no fox- 

 gloves had grown in the memory of man. The common 

 coltsfoot starts up in railway cuttings, or on coal-pit 

 banks, side by side with two or three varieties of the 

 e%uisetum, or mare's-tail grass, known, but not wel- 

 comed, through the Midlands as "joint grass." It 

 would appear as if the germs of life had lain dormant 

 for ages, waiting the genial influence of sun and 

 shower to bring them into life. Every geological strata, 

 each change of landscape, has its special flowers ; and 

 some of the most beautiful and lovely linger round 



