COPSE-FLOWERS. Ill 



in real nature the eye never grudges the lavish pro- 

 fusion with which it covers the landscape. 



The scarcity of wood here makes doubly valuable 

 whatever approaches to grove or coppice we find, 

 especially in our searches for wild flowers. There is 

 a nice little coppice about a quarter of a mile behind 

 the church, on the road to Lee. You enter through a 

 gate, and the wood is over your head ; for it covers 

 the steep side of a sharp ridge, that runs upward, till 

 its extremity becomes one of those lofty peaks called 

 tors, that overlook the sea, down perpendicular pre- 

 cipices of rugged rock. The coppice is very little, but 

 it is a pleasant retreat to pass into its shadow out of 

 the dusty road ; for as the slope faces the north, no 

 sun falls on it, at least during walking hours. All 

 through May the lower parts have been covered with 

 primroses and hyacinths and dog-violets, which are 

 now yielding to other candidates for our admiration : 

 the red campion and the herb Eobert and the dog's 

 mercury are still abundant there. The mossy banks 

 produce two kinds of orchis, the early purple and the 

 spotted palmate, the latter the less common, The 

 sweet and modest flower of the wood-sorrel peeps 

 from under the shadow of the shrubs, and mingles 

 with the beautiful little yellow pimpernel, or loose- 

 strife a pretty name for a flower. Higher up among 

 the bushes, all tangled with formidable brambles, 

 grows the bilberry, with its delicate, rosy, urn-shaped 

 flowers, and that curious plant the woodrush; and 

 we have found one single specimen in blossom of 



