212 ACTUMN WILD FLOWEES. 



liked, and is used specially in the flavouring of the Cork 

 luxury, drisheens, immortalized by Lady Morgan. 



Another hedgerow flower, which has a rural reputa- 

 tion for medicinal virtues, is the Yellow Agrimony 

 (Agrimonia eupatoria). It is a somewhat slender 

 plant, about two feet high. Its pale yellow flowers 

 grow round the stem. Each leaf is composed of 

 several cut leaflets growing round the leaf-stalk. The 

 plant is seldom found isolated, but grows in a clus- 

 tered clump. 



On banks by the wayside, where the sloe bushes 

 grow, we may find the Spreading Bellflower (Cam- 

 panula reptans). It is common in some parts of 

 "Warwickshire, and may be found in the South-eastern 

 counties. Its rough stem, spreading habit, and larger 

 and more open-mouthed bell, distinguish it from the 

 common harebell, which frequently grows in the same 

 neighbourhood. 



Overhead, spreading amongst the bushes, we notice 

 in places the long feathery seed-vessels of the "Wild 

 Clematis (Clemati* vitalba), the " traveller's joy" of old 

 Gerarde, who speaks in raptures of its " decking up 

 the waies." Throughout the spring it has been creep- 

 ing through the hedgerows and up the trees, showing 



