60 ^fMBLES OF A VOMINIS 



lords and ladies of the village children have passed 

 their prime. The tall, green sheath has done its work 

 and is required no longer. The arum would bear no seed 

 were it not for the insects which carry pollen from one 

 flower to another. From its peculiar structure it is 

 necessary that some at least of the flies that enter it 

 probably attracted by its coloured central spike should 

 spend some time in the green tube. Thus there is pro- 

 vided a fringe of hairs round the inner stem which allow 

 the little visitors to pass into the interior, but effectually 

 bar their exit until the pollen, which it is intended they 

 shall carry away with them, is ready to be scattered 

 over their bodies. Then the hairs wither and the flies 

 escape. Two arum flowers recently examined contained 

 respectively no fewer than 253 and 310 small insects 

 thus held captive. The majority were dead, but some 

 were still vigorous, supported, perhaps, by the honey 

 secreted at the bottom of their prison. That a good 

 many flies do escape and carry pollen to other plants, we 

 learn in the autumn from the lustrous berries that shine 

 like clusters of red coral under every hedgerow. 



Beyond the narrow limits of the glen, the coarse grass 

 of undulating upland pastures stretches away to the out- 

 lying ranges of the Peak. In the solitude of those bare 

 brown hills, in the manor bestowed by Richard II. on a 

 Legh, who had borne the Royal Standard on the field of 

 Cressy, there lingered until recent years a few of the 

 famous wild white cattle. Tall and stately beasts they 

 were, larger than any others of their race. But these 

 children of the primeval forest, guarded so long with 



