Lyme Park. 5 



For lovers of minute nature, there is little either in 

 the Park or about the Hall. The little, however, is 

 good. On the bank upon the left hand, just before 

 coming to the gate, have often been observed plenty of 

 glow-beetles, popularly miscalled glow-worms; upon the 

 walls grow the rue-leaved spleenwort and the centipede- 

 spleenwort, (Aspic 'nium Ruta-tmira' ria and Trichom'- 

 anes,) the latter particularly upon the bridge in the 

 plantation, by the ravine ; and in the ravine itself is 

 plenty of that very curious plant, the yellow touch-me- 

 not, the seed-pods of which burst when ripe into narrow 

 shreds, that curl up quick as lightning, and jerk out the 

 large brown seeds on every side. Hence, wherever a 

 touch-me-not is allowed to grow for a season or two 

 unmolested, it diffuses itself in all directions, and is with 

 difficulty eradicated. No one desires to root it out when 

 growing in such a dingle as this, where it forms a pleas- 

 ing and exotic contrast to the unpretending aborigines 

 of the soil. 



In the lower portion of the Park are many venerable 

 trees, including a famous oak, now decrepit, its gaunt 

 upper boughs and branches bare and peeled, and looking 

 like gigantic antlers. This is called the " Derby oak, 1 ' 

 from an Earl of Derby having once run down a stag 

 close by. Near to it is the " Bees' oak," so named 

 on account of a colony of bees having, beyond the 

 memory of man, and until within these last few years, 

 constructed their waxen cities within the shelter of its 



