78 Lymm. 



sloped away from the stream, now slopes over it, so that 

 the bed of the latter is actually beneath the field that it 

 separates from the opposing one. The ceiling of the cave 

 is composed of moss, which the incessant percolation of 

 water from the field above causes to hang down in vege- 

 table ringlets, at the same time that it slowly charges 

 every portion with earthy particles, inducing thereby 

 an odd and unexpected semi-solidity. By degree, the 

 lumps of moss become so thoroughly incrusted in every 

 part with earthy matter, that their weight breaks them 

 off, and they fall to the ground. In hard winters, the 

 " cave" is changed into a grotto of icicles. 



The plants found in and about the "dam" are numer- 

 ous and very interesting. In July, the water-persicaria, 

 Polyg'onum amphib'ium, strews the surface with pretty 

 islands of green and pink; wild cherry-trees are abundant, 

 and in high summer we find the great lilac valerian. 

 Innumerable little blossoms, of a delicate rosy-peach 

 colour, are produced upon the summit of the principal 

 stem and at the extremities of the branches, and, as 

 usual with so bright and tender a corolla, we expect to 

 find a calyx below. But while the plant is in blossom, 

 the calyx remains rolled up inwards, resembling a coil 

 of wire, and not until the fruit is ripe does it expand. 

 Then it spreads into a circlet of ten or twelve feathery 

 rays, and we seem to have the fly-away seeds of a 

 composite plant, instead of a plant otherwise totally dif- 

 ferent. When the banks of the "dam" are exposed 



