48 DBOSEBACEJ2 POLYGALACE^. 



Greater and Long-leaved Sundews were sent to me from 

 Leckby Carr, in Yorkshire. Their spikes of flowers differ 

 scarcely at all from the familiar Bound-leaved species, but the 

 leaves are a long oval shape ; and the Greater Sundew attains 

 a larger size. 



Another plant of this order is represented by our favourite, 

 the Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris, Plate V., fig. 10) ; 

 it is a widely-diffused plant, owing its name to its prevalence 

 on Mount Parnassus. Swiss, French, and English hills alike 

 offer it suitable homes among their swamps in the present day. 

 It has five sepals, five snow white petals, five nectaries fringed 

 with threads bearing globes, and tinged with cream colour. 

 The leaves are heart-shaped, one only growing on the stem, 

 the others springing from the root ; it grows about a foot high. 

 We frequently find it in damp places among our Yorkshire 

 hills ; and when on a tour in the Highlands I saw whole fields 

 white over with its blossoms. It flowers from July to 

 October. 



Of the next family, that of the MILKWORTS, we have only 

 one British representative ; but that one is so frequent as to be 

 familiar to us all, whether known by name or not. The great 

 peculiarity in this plant (Polygala vulgaris, Plate IV., fig. 4), 

 is that two of the sepals are wing-shaped and coloured, while 

 the small petals adhere to the tube formed by the stamens, 

 thus giving the flower a butterfly form, and inclining a young 

 botanist to place it among the Papilionaceous order. The 

 seed-vessel is pouch-like, heart-shaped, and pendulous. Near 

 Flimwell, in Kent, I gathered three varieties of this plant upon 

 one bank blue, pink, and white. On our own moors I have 

 found the same varieties, but not growing near together. The 

 plant is abundant upon limestone rocks and I know of a nur- 

 seryman who collected a quantity of it last year for sale as a 

 rockery plant. 



We will introduce here the TAMABISK order, represented by 

 Fanny's beautiful Tamarisk branches. In the bleak country of 



