GREAT SPEARWORT 7 



The shiny leaves and uncommon flowers of the Butterwort are a 

 peculiar feature in the same habitat as Sundew. In upland pools, 

 quite immersed save for the erect flower-stalks, grows the quaint 

 Bladderwort, which, like Sundew, is insectivorous. In favoured spots 

 the Bog Bean flowers, but not everywhere. Golden Dock invades 

 many an inland marsh with its tall golden panicles of yellow flowers. 

 Bog Myrtle grows in upland bogs with Asphodel, which makes the 

 moors bright golden-red in autumn here and there. White Willow 

 lines the sides of the marshes with its silvery foliage glistening in the 

 sun. Amongst wet sedges and herbage Marsh Orchis rises with its 

 pink blooms, encircling the green expanse with its choice colour. The 

 sedges and rushes, &c., include common Joint-rush, Galingale, Common 

 Spike Rush, Cotton Grass, Prickly Twig Rush, Hummock and Great 

 Prickly Sedge. 



There are about 250 paludal plants, and we have described twenty- 

 eight in this series. 



For further general notes on Marshes and Bogs, see Heaths and 

 Moors, and " Hints and Notes" on both sections; and also Section I, 

 Vol. I, where an alternative grouping is considered. 



Great Spearwort (Ranunculus Lingua, L.) 



This fine plant has been recognized by its achenes in deposits of 

 Interglacial, Neolithic, and Roman age. It is found in the W^arm 

 Temperate Zone, in Temperate Europe, N. and W. Asia, as far as the 

 Himalayas. It is absent in East Cornwall, South Wilts, Gloucester, 

 Worcester, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Montgomery, Denbigh, Mid Lanes, 

 Isle of Man, Peebles, Selkirk, Haddington, Stirling, Kincardine, 

 Banff, Westerness, Cantire, S. and Mid Ebudes, W. Ross, Sutherland, 

 Caithness, and the Northern Isles. It is local in Ireland, and is found 

 in the Channel Islands. 



The Great Spearwort is an aquatic Hydrophyte or water plant, or 

 Hygrophyte or moisture-loving species, living in the middle of pond 

 or lake, half-submerged, and being also a typical marsh plant, occurs 

 also in swamps and ditches. Usually it grows some distance from the 

 margin, and in this way is hard to reach, unlike its congener the Lesser 

 Spearwort, which is found on the ground surrounding a pond or in 

 marshes and wet ground. With the Greater Spearwort grow Frogbit, 

 Bur Reeds, the Sweet and Yellow Flags. 



Though aquatic it is erect, and grows out of the water in the same 

 way as the Flag or Reeds. It grows in a group of some extent, usually 



