A Flower that Traps Insects 



WE do not find many notes about wild flowers in 

 White's " Selborne," though in a Naturalist's Calendar, 

 which he drew up with loving care, a great number of 

 flowers are mentioned, and the time of their flowering, 

 showing that the humblest wayside blossom would 

 be sure to catch his all-seeing eyes. On January 1st 

 he finds winter aconite in flower, and in the next day 

 or two bearsfoot, polyanthus, double daisy, mezereon, 

 pansy, red dead-nettle, groundsel, and the hazel bush, 

 with its tiny crimson blossoms, so often overlooked 

 by those who search the bushes most diligently, later 

 on, for the nuts succeeding the blooms. In December 

 he finds furze out in blossom, " the never-bloomless 

 furze," and daisy, and wallflower, and snowdrop. 



How exactly he observed the wild flowers, and 

 sought to probe the secrets of their being, is well shown 

 by the little note about the cuckoo-pint. 



Everybody bred in the country knows this plant well 

 by sight, this common arum of the hedges, which 

 pushes up from every hedge-bank its handsome, 

 glossy, arrow-shaped leaves in the first days of Feb- 

 ruary, and then in summer sends up the curious 

 club-shaped flowers, called by the children " lords- 

 and-ladies," in autumn displaying on its spike a mass 

 of lovely scarlet berries, when the rest of the plant has 

 withered. But how few can read the riddle of the 



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