126 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



at the spot indicated he found a plant which he con- 

 sidered worthy of notice and which he took to be an 

 unusual form of gentian. Many explanations of the 

 difficulty have been offered. It is the writer's belief 

 that the plant was Gentiana Amarella, L., the autumn 

 gentian. At any rate, when searching for simples at 

 " little Rayne," and bearing in mind the entry in the 

 old Herbal, he once came across, in a green lane or 

 " horse-way," not far from, if not actually identical 

 with, Gerarde' s locality, a small but flourishing colony 

 of this pretty plant. Now the autumn gentian is very 

 rarely met with in this part of Essex, but there, on 

 one spot in the grassy lane, beneath the tall and over- 

 hanging hedgerow for the lane is no longer used 

 even as a "horse-way" were clustered together 

 some twenty or thirty plants. It is not impossible 

 that these were the descendants of the gentian with 

 " flowres of a light blue colour/' which attracted the 

 notice of Gerarde in the sixteenth century. Con- 

 tinuing his journey along Rayne " Street," as the road 

 through the village is still termed, recalling the fact 

 that here the Roman-way once ran, our herbalist in 

 due course arrived at Much-Dunmow, then, as now, 

 famous for a curious custom, " that whoever did not 

 repent of his marriage, nor quarrell'd with his wife 

 within a year and a day, should go to Dunmow and 

 have a gamon of Bacon. But the Party was to swear 

 to the truth of it, kneeling upon two hard-pointed 

 stones set in the Priory Churchyard for that purpose, 

 before the Prior and Convent and the whole Town." 

 But this, as old Camden says, by the way. In the 

 woods thereabouts several interesting plants were to 

 be found. Gerarde noticed two species of orchids, 

 the common tway-blade, and what he calls the " wilde 



