FIRST SIGHT OF THE DART. 385 



growing luxuriantly, said to be most elegant with its 

 tall blue blossoms, but now out of flower ; and the 

 tutsan, the finest and rarest of our truly native St 

 John's worts. The beautiful spotted bastard-balm,* 

 rarer still, was also here in full bloom, spangling the 

 hedge with its large white flowers, blotched with 

 purple on the lip. This is probably the identical spot 

 in which it was found by Sir James Smith, who gives 

 as its locality " a mile from Ashburton, on the road 

 towards Plymouth." (Engl Sot.) 



Now we are in the valley of the Dart ; and those 

 hills that slope upward on our left, so densely covered 

 with dark timber, making a noble appearance, are the 

 Hembury woods, on the other side of the river. A 

 little farther, and the whispering sound of running 

 water is heard, which momentarily increases in fulness. 

 We know it is the Dart ; but the bank of the road is 

 high, and curbs the prospect. Here is a gap in the 

 hedge ; we look over into a dark glen, shadowed by 

 taU trees, and crowded with foxglove ; yonder is a 

 bottom of deeper greenwood obscurity, whence the 

 denser beech woods rise on the opposite hill. There 

 is the seat of the sounding stream, but we see it not. 

 A few yards more, and we climb over into the solemn 

 grove: the whisper has become a roar, and there 

 sweeps the lovely river. Just where we have struck 

 it, a ridge of broken rock crosses its bed ; above this, 

 there is a glassy expanse, mirroring the trunks of the 

 bordering trees and the black shadow ; below, a broken 



* Melittis grandiflora. 



2B 



