422 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



The water avens, as its name indicates, is most 

 frequent in water-meadows and marshy localities. 

 It is especially common in the counties of Hants 

 and Wilts, being found in almost every water- 

 meadow. It is a singularly beautiful and graceful 

 flower, and somewhat curious withal, the flower- 

 stalk of one flower frequently protruding through 

 the centre of another flower above it. The colour 

 of the petals is of a dull madder, with a yellow- 

 ish centre. The root was formerly used as an 

 astringent medicine. 



A friend of mine attempted to cultivate this 

 plant, but although when placed in rich garden 

 soil it attained dimensions four or five times 

 greater than those in its ordinary wild condition, 

 it never flowered. 



The red-berried bryony, whose trailing clusters 

 and silvery shoots add so greatly to the beauty 

 of our hedgerows, was formerly a well-known and 

 powerful drug. I am, I believe, correct in stating 

 that the nauseous medicine known as jalap, the 

 terror of children, is extracted from this plant or 

 a variety of it. A well-known botanist mentions 

 that the roots of this bryony were formerly sold 

 in Covent Garden Market as a specific for the 

 cure of black-eyes. At the present time we may 

 congratulate ourselves upon being less quarrelsome 

 than our forefathers, since there is, apparently, 

 no demand for the root for this purpose nowadays. 



The yellow broom, the badge of the Planta- 

 genets, waves its golden blossoms in the early 



