MA Y 199 



them. Spotting the grass in this oak-shaded pasture I found 

 many splendid specimens of purple orchids (Orchis latifolia); 

 indeed, in half an hour I gathered as large a bunch as 1 could bind 

 round with my handkerchief. 



Among them I discovered one pure white bloom, which shows 

 that the tendency among orchids to produce an occasional 

 albino is not confined to the tropical varieties. These albino 

 sports in the case of laelias, cattleyas, &c., command great prices 

 among the wealthier members of the orchid-loving fraternity, but 

 I fear that they would not give me much for a pure white 

 latifolia. Notwithstanding the rain, which fell with unpleasant 

 persistence, I have not spent an hour so happily for many 

 weeks as that I passed this afternoon gathering those stately 

 purple blooms which stood up here and there in the green grass 

 under the canopy of oaks now bursting into leaf. Perhaps this 

 was because the scene and its surroundings afforded a pleasing 

 contrast to the political turmoil which overshadows us to-day. 

 Bedingham and politics are things incongruous and far apart ; 

 indeed, it is difficult to connect this old-world place, on which 

 the shadow of the past seems to brood visibly, with anything 

 violent and modern. 



Notwithstanding the industrious cleaning to which the fields 

 here have been subjected during the recent dry years, I find that 

 there are hundreds of little docks growing among the pease where 

 last season not one was to be seen. The labourer, Cooke, who is 

 employed in pulling them declares that seed which has lain 

 buried for long periods of time is brought to the surface with each 

 ploughing to germinate whenever the conditions are favourable. 

 I imagine that this theory is correct, as under certain conditions 

 the vitality of seed can be prolonged almost indefinitely ; witness 

 the instances of the appearance of charlock after deep ploughings 

 upon heavy land and of wheat found in mummy cases, which 

 has, I believe, been known to grow from seeds thousands of years 

 old. I have myself seen grain in Egypt taken from the wrappings of 

 mummies that had every appearance of being sound enough to 



